Simons, Barbara

Session violist who backed up some of the biggies back in the day: Rosemary Clooney, Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee, Dean Martin, and Frank Sinatra, to name a few.

Equally at home in the jazz and classical realms, Barbara did a couple of albums with Lennie Niehaus, including The Complete Fifties Recordings, Vol. 2: Octet & Quintet and Lennie Niehaus, Vol. 4—The Quintets and Strings.

She similarly split her time between jazz and classical in the ‘70s, recording with Letta Mbulu on her eponymous 1970 effort, Letta, and performing in concert with the American Chamber Players under the umbrella of the South Bay Chamber Music Society, Inc. Their 6^th April 1972 program consisted of works composed by Beethoven, Brahms, Halvorsen, and Handel.

In 1977, she offered string support on Ronnie Laws’ Friends and Strangers. She also really, really likes Jerome Kern: You can hear her on All the Things You Are: The Jerome Kern Songbook, The Complete Jerome Kern Songbooks, and A Fine Romance: The Jerome Kern Songbook.

She also appears on Jazz Round Midnight, a collection of Gershwin standards.

Sources:

Simons, Barbara

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