CORLISS RANDALL

Diva Corliss Randall, the London-based singer with the larger than life personality was born in and lives and breathes New Orleans. God-daughter to Louis Prima, she is Conservatory trained and has a wide-ranging mezzo soprano which can incorporate the singing styles of Ella Fitzgerald, Judy Garland, Peggy Lee, Mae West and the standards of Gershwin and Jerome Kern.

Her father, Jimmy King, owned the Famous Door Jazz Club in New Orleans as well as more than a dozen other clubs all along Bourbon Street. As early as the age of eight she was to be found on stage with the likes of Louis Armstrong, the Dukes of Dixieland and Al Hirt.

Choral performances are enshrined in the culture of the southern United States and Corliss emodies all the musical strains of the locale. At fourteen she began classical training and secured a place at Berkeley University Exchange to study opera, followed by scholarships in Italy.

Until her mid-twenties she pursued a classical career in opera and with the Roman Catholic Church, performing extensively throughout Europe and the United States.

She remains resident in London. "For an artist there are great opportunities because they love live cabaret and music here. The theatre is very active and in every other pizza place there's a live musician. I've started my whole life over again — it's gone from my childhood, completely around the circle. Back in the groove."