Jazz Blog

~Continued from Part 1~

There was also another story behind Della Griffin’s longevity at the Blue Book club. For some reason her integrity was tested when a sizeable sum of cash was left in the women’s bathroom that she used before and/or after performances. She did not take it. Afterwards, having earned the highest level of trust, she was welcome to stay as long as she wanted, which turned out to be more than a decade. Ultimately with mutual feelings of respect and love, the Blue Book became one of Della’s all-time favorite venues.

Following the dissolution of her second marriage, Della Griffin, married unsuccessfully one last time (Jimmy Walker whose name she refused to take feeling that it was not worth the time) and resumed her career, which lasted into the 21st century.

After opening at Harlem’s Blue Book club in 1973, Della Griffin performed there for the next 14 years, until 1987 when she was seriously injured after being hit by a car in Mt. Vernon, NY. In addition, starting in the 1980s, Della resumed working with Etta Jones and joined with Irene Reid. Their efforts led to two albums – “I’ll Get By” and “Travlin’ Light,” both produced by Houston Person (b.1934) and Muse Records. When Muse Records folded, Della Griffin “followed many of” its performers “to [the] newly-formed HighNote-Savant” label where Person produced “The Very Thought of You” which came out in 1998. Shortly afterwards, due to her high level of achievement, Della “Griffin was invited to Finland to appear at one of that country’s major jazz festivals.”[1]

Following her recovery, Della Griffin along with Frances Kelly and Shirley “Bunny” Foy appeared on “Dan Romanello’s Rhythm & Blues Group Harmony Review” on Fordham University’s WFUV-FM show in New York in 1994 after being “rediscovered by group harmony enthusiast Louie Silvani.”[2] After taking inquiries about the Enchanters and Dell-Tones, Della Griffin put another “Dell-Tones” group together, consisting of Frances Kelly, Annette St. John and Gwen Michael, the latter two new members. They then made numerous appearances including at “The Heroines of R&B” concert in October 1995, which also included the famed Chantels, The Jewels and Vikki Burgess, who just missed being selected to replace Sherry Gary of the Dell-Tones forty years earlier, among others.

In addition to her performances for the new Dell-Tones and recording acts for Muse Records and HighNote-Savant, Della Griffin took part in many solo acts in clubs across the tri-state region during the 1990s. Some of these performances include:

Della Griffin and “her All-Stars” in Croton Falls and Yonkers, NY in May and June 1992, respectively; a solo performance at Blue Note Jazz Club and Restaurant at 131 West 3rd Street in New York City in April 1991, solo New Year’s Eve performances at DeFemio’s Restaurant in Yonkers, NY in December 1992, 1993, 1994, and 1997, a December 1994 performance “A Very Merry Holiday Jazz Party” with Etta Jones and Houston Person at the Schoolhouse in Croton Falls, a show titled “Standards & Blues by Della Griffin” in Scarsdale, NY in June 1998, and a performance at the White Plains Public Library in White Plains, NY in March 1999, among others. She was also a frequent performer at Scottie’s club in Yonkers, NY, a member of the Jimmy Hill Quartet (with jazz musicians Jimmy Hill (1928-2004), Joe Puma (1927-2000), and Etta Jones) that “frequented jazz haunts through the [New York metro] region,”[3] a member of Fred Smith’s “Harlem Renaissance Swing Band (performing at Hartford, CT’s Bushnell Park in July 1999), and a drummer for The Melba Joyce Group in a 1998 Nicki Mathis “The Many Colors of a Woman”[4] concert also in Hartford, CT, as well as a participant in benefit concerts for musicians in need. She also performed in Hartford CT’s Bushnell Park in July 1995 and 1996 as “one of the most valuable showstoppers…” singing “‘Tain’t Nobody’s Business” and “All of Me,”[5] and at Rich Forum in Stamford, CT in February 1998. During the July 1995 concert, it was written, “Singer Della Griffin, decked out in shades, a hot pink sweat suit and matching hat, almost stole the show when she scurried to the front of the stage and began singing ‘All of Me’ in a wonderfully grainy, lived-in kind of voice…”[6]

Della Griffin continued her music career into the 21st century making appearances in New York City, Westchester County, and Newark, NJ, one of which included a 3 hour-long performance at the Renaissance Jazz Caf