Jerri Winters, born in 1930, was a singer from Terre Haute, Indiana. In 1948, she won top honours on Horace Heidt’s radio program and toured as a singer with the show. Later, she moved to Chicago, where she worked as a model and a dance instructor at Arthur Murray’s dance studio. In early 1952, she was selected from 500 contestants to join the Stan Kenton band, replacing June Christy. The search was sponsored by disc jockey Gene Norman in Hollywood. She recorded several songs with Stan Kenton, including “Adios”, “All Because of You”, and “She’s a Comely Wench”.
On her performances with Kenton, the reviews were favourable:
Down Beat 7 May 52: “Gal has a good sound, phrases well, should eventually click on records soon.”
Barry Ulanov from Metronome June 52: “Stan’s latest husky-voiced girl singer, Jerri Winters, is firmly entrenched in the Anita O’Day-June Christie tradition, a pleasant Kenton addition.”
Jerri stayed with Kenton for only five months, which served as both a testing ground and a crucial phase in her growth as a singer. She later established herself as a soloist in New York’s East Side club scene, earning a reputation for her silky and dusky vocal style, which led to her being dubbed “the girl with the mink-lined voice.” In 1955, she recorded her first album, “Winter’s Here,” for the Fraternity label. She went on to release two more albums in 1957 and 1962, “Somebody Loves Me” on Bethlehem Records, and “Winters Again” released on Charlie Parker Records.
Famous album designer Burt Goldblatt said this of the Winters Here album:
I got a phone call from a company based in Cincinnati. They said that they heard I did great covers and wanted to come up to my studio and see my work. They wanted a cover for a singer Jerri Winters. They played me the record and told me they wanted to call it “Winters Here.” I thought about it, took a 12 1/4 white illustration board and put 3 or 4 little lines in the corner and 6 point type and that was it. They loved it, it got a lot of attention and sold 60,000 copies. Much later the Beatles gained a lot of attention with their “White Album” cover, but I had beat them to it by years.
Jerri continued to perform live until she retired in 1969. In 1981, she made a comeback, performing in Los Angeles clubs until 1984, when she left the stage for good.
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