Swiss Jazz Award 2019 to Othella Dallas
The 93-year-old American singer Othella Dallas, who lives in Switzerland, will be honored with the Swiss Jazz Award 2019 for her exceptional artistic career. The award ceremony will take place on Sunday, June 23, 2019, during the JazzAscona festival.
Othella Dallas was born in Memphis in 1925. Before she began her career as a singer, she was a student of dancer Catherine Dunham. Dallas made her debut as a singer in the early 1950s in the jazz clubs of Paris, where she shared the stage with Duke Ellington, Sammy Davis Jr, Nat King Cole, Quincy Jones, Sonny Stitt, King Kurtis and many more. Othella Dallas has lived in Switzerland since the 1960s. In 1975, she founded the Othella Dallas Dance School in Basel. In 2008, she brought her album "I Live The Life I Love" back to the stage.
The Swiss Jazz Award was launched in 2007 by Radio Swiss Jazz and JazzAscona with the aim of bringing Swiss jazz to a wider audience. Initially it was an audience award, but in 2017 and 2018 it was awarded directly. Previous winners include Franco Ambrosetti (2018), Bruno Spoerri (2017), Patrick Bianco's Cannonsoul (2016), Raphael Jost and lots of horns (2015), Nicole Herzog & Stewy von Wattenwyl (2014), Chris Conz Trio (2013), Christina Jaccard & Dave Ruosch (2012), Alexia Gardner (2011) and Dani Felber Big Band (2010). A "Lifetime Achievement Award" has so far been presented to Hazy Osterwald (2009) and Pepe Lienhard (2006).
