Today 23 years ago, Susannah McCorkle passed. It was a suicide, after years of struggling with depression, like so many (most?) suicides are. You can read about her life a lot of places, but I liked this profile best.
I only saw McCorkle perform once: that was almost a decade before she passed, back when the Saskatchewan Jazz Festival was a bigger event, and more big-name acts from around the world stopped by while crossing Canada. McCorkle was charismatic and luminous, her performance fascinating. Her “vocalise” performances of several famous jazz solos set to lyrics of her own devising mesmerized me even then, in my very early 20s, and her rendition of the Artie Butler and Phyllis Molinary tune “Here’s to Life” (here’s the inaugural Shirley Horn version, since McCorkle seems not to have recorded it) caught my attention so much that when fall came, I asked my saxophone teacher whether he had a copy of the lead sheet. He gave me one, and I practiced it, though the chance to play it never came for me.
I was also impressed with her ability to sing in multiple languages. I’m pretty sure she sang a third of the show in Portuguese, probably including “Waters of March”:
Reportedly this Jobim piece became her theme song in the 90s. McCorkle’s struggled to find the joy she infused into that song, and in the end her depression and a series of career setbacks (after a career where she never reached the ostensible “top tier” of the field) proved too much for her to accept. But I prefer to see her having survived it all as long as she did, and having made such striking music, a triumph in the face of crushing odds. With most singers, I don’t pay much attention to the lyrics of songs, I have to admit: I’m not wired for it, or that’s what I thought till I heard McCorkle, whose treatment of lyrics has a kind of crystal clarity that demands one’s attention. Though she was a complicated woman, reportedly unlikeable to anyone who reads the biography of her life (Linda Dahl’s Haunted Heart)—and what’s more a part of the jazz tradition than being unlikeable in real life?—it saddens me to know she passed alone, leaping from a window. Did she know people would still be listening to her decades later? Could she care? I don’t know. But I’m one of those who is still occasionally listening to her.
L’histoire se déroule en 1997. J’étais chirurgien Français en stage à Washington et je voulais absolument voir les chutes du Niagara entre autres lors de mon séjour aux USA. Avec mon Amie Pascale qui m’avait hébergé, nous avions roulés toute la journée et fatigués nous nous étions arrêtés à Buffalo après les tracas de la route, de la neige et d’une contravention par la police. Nous sommes entrés dans une sorte de brasserie pour diner et il y avait de la musique. Il faisait bon, les gens présents étaient agréables et semblaient heureux. C’était Suzannah (SMC) avec un trio de musiciens qui jouaient avec elle. Mais alors quelle voix!. Je ne la connaissais pas et tous les morceaux joués me plaisaient. Nous sommes restés longtemps à l’écouter. Je ne sais comment dire mais nous nous sentions bien comme si la fatigue et les tracas avaient disparus par magie. Ce côté irréel nous a fortement séduit. J’ai des souvenirs de découverte fortuite de lieux, de rencontre et d’ambiance qui vous marquent et cette soirée avec SMC en est un. Revenu en France, j’ai acheté ces CD et l’ai fait connaitre à mes amis. J’ai senti qu’ils appréciaient mais sans plus, la encore, la magie qui s’était opérée ce soir là y est pour beaucoup, je pense. Par la suite j’ai appris sa disparition; cela m’a ému bien sur et de fait, j’ai pris de la distance l’écoutant plus rarement. Récemment j’ai découvert d’autres chanteuses avec un répertoire similaire et je me suis remis à l’écouter car cela me ramène toujours à cette soirée extraordinaire et à cette voix si particulière et plaisante. Voila je voulais faire partager ce témoignage.
The story takes place in 1997. I was a French surgeon in formation in Washington Cancer institute and I absolutely wanted to see Niagara Falls among other things during my stay in the USA. With my friend Pascale who had hosted me, we had driven all day and tired we stopped in Buffalo after the hassle of the road, the snow and a contravention by the police. We entered in a kind of brasserie for dinner and there was music. The atmosphere was good, the people present were pleasant and seemed happy. It was Suzannah (SMC) with a trio of musicians who played with her. But what a voice!. I didn’t know her and I liked all the songs played. We stayed a long time listening to her. I don’t know how to say but we felt good as if the fatigue and worries had disappeared by magic. This unreal side really seduced me. I have memories of chance discoveries of places, encounter and atmospheres that leave a mark on you and this evening with SMC is one of them. Back in France, I bought these CDs and introduced her to my friends. I felt that they appreciated it but nothing more, again, the magic that had taken place that evening had a lot to do with it, I think. Later I learned of her death; it moved me of course and in fact I distanced myself from her, listening to her less often. Recently I discovered other singers with a similar repertoire and I started listening to it again because it always brings me back to that extraordinary evening and at her very particular and pleasant voice. Here I wanted to share this testimony.
Thank you for sharing that story, Bruno!
I, too, found McCorkle’s live performance was rather magical, in a way her recordings don’t quite manage to convey. But her voice was extraordinary and the recordings always remind me of the night I saw her live in my little prairie city.
Thank you for remembering the wonderful singer Susannah McCorkle this way. I have only discovered her four to five years ago via spotify. I was and I still am touched by her way of speaking to me when she sings. Not all people I have shared her music are seized by it the same way.
Her tragic life story only adds to the shivers. Comme vous, Bruno, je me pose la question: si elle savait comment l’audimat apprécie toujours sa musique après tant d’années…
20 millions de clicks pour Waters of March, 5.5 pour Beautiful friendship, en 2025. Et 30,000 pour une version extraordinaire de It never entered my mind (I only got to know the full lyrics through her lyrics).
Once again, thank you.
A devoted listener
Thanks for the lovely comment. Not everyone who hears McCorkle “gets” it, but those who do seem to really get into her work.
PS: I had no idea McCorkle’s work was so popular on Spotify! (I assume that’s where the click counts you mention are from?) She has far less of a following on Youtube, so it’s heartening that at least on some medium there are more people engaged with her work.