June Richmond

June Richmond was an American jazz singer and actor born on July 9, 1915, in Chicago, Illinois. She died on August 14, 1962, in Gothenburg, Sweden, at the age of 47.

Richmond holds a notable place in jazz history as the first African-American jazz singer to perform regularly with a white band, a distinction she earned in 1938 through her work with Jimmy Dorsey's Orchestra. During that association, she recorded multiple sides for Decca Records. She also worked with Andy Kirk, whose discography credits her across recordings from 1939 to 1940 and 1943 to 1949. Following her departure from Kirk, she established herself as a solo performer.

Her Broadway career included a featured role in the 1945 musical Are You With It?, which ran into 1946. Around the same time, she signed with Mercury Records, releasing several singles under her own name, among them two songs drawn directly from the show.

Beyond Broadway and recordings, Richmond appeared in a number of films across the 1940s and 1950s, including Murder in Swingtime (1937), Carolina Blues (1944), Reet, Petite, and Gone (1947), The Dreamer (1948), Tour of the Grand Dukes (France, 1953), and Liebe, Jazz und Übermut (Germany, 1957). Her recording output extended to European labels as well, with releases on Odeon, Barclay, and Varga, and a 10-inch LP featuring eight songs from Porgy and Bess sung in French. She also appeared on a Jazz in Paris compilation released by Gitanes/Universal in 2000. In 2022, Jasmine Records issued a comprehensive two-disc collection of her work titled Hey, Lawdy Mama!