Jazz and cabaret singer Blossom (Margrete) Dearie, whose sweet, baby-doll, girlish voice you either loved or hated (there seemed to be no middle ground - she was a 'cult chanteuse' according to the NYT), died in New York on Feb 9 2009, aged 84. Her 'harmonically innovative' (LA Times) piano stylings were a distinctive part of her sophisticated performances. She left a legacy of wonderful albums: the first 6 on the Verve Records label (Blossom Dearie (1956), Give Him the Ooh-La-La (1957), Once Upon a Summertime (1958), Sings Comden and Green (1959), My Gentleman Friend (1959) and Soubrette Sings Broadway Hit Songs (1960) are cult classics and her last, Blossom's Planet, was released in 2000.
