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Artist
Ethel Azama
12+ albums
easy listeningpopSmooth JazzUSAexotica
about
Ethel Azama (August 28, 1934 – March 1984) was an American jazz and popular singer and recording artist. She sang regularly in nightclubs and other concert venues between the mid-1950s and 1984. She was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii and was of Okinawan ancestry. She was a Nisei or second-generation Japanese American. Career She started her professional career in 1955 as an emcee at the Oasis nightclub in Honolulu. The club served as a venue for musical revues from Japan. In 1956, she began working as a standards singer in U.S. military clubs on Oahu such as The Cannon Club on Diamond Head. Pianist Paul Conrad usually served as her accompanist for her gigs. Conrad also wrote many of her arrangements. By 1957 she was singing at Waikiki Beach nightclubs as the opening act for headliners such as popular singer Herb Jeffries and blues singer and guitarist Josh White. With the help of bandleader Martin Denny, Azama obtained a one-album deal with Liberty Records in either 1957 or 1958. She released the album, Exotic Dreams, in 1958. On the album, which Paul Conrad arranged, she sang standards which included "Speak Low" and "Autumn Leaves". She also sang a few hapa-haole numbers and a Japanese folk song on the album. She made had her singing debut on the American mainland in January 1959 when she appeared at Ye Little Club in Beverly Hills, California. Pop singer Jimmie Rodgers attended one of her shows and persuaded Liberty Records executives to allow her to record anot
