Jazz singer Su Cruickshank has lost her long battle with illness at the age of 63.
A regular on television variety shows like The Midday Show with Ray Martin and The Bert Newtown Show, people of my vintage may best remember her as the mother in Young Einstein. But for many music fans she was known as The Queen of Jazz after hosting Sydney’s Midsummer Festival of Jazz for many years.
“She was fantastic with audiences, both as a singer and as a compere, and a promoter of jazz,” her sister Jane told The Newcastle Herald.
“The thing with Su is she was incredibly generous. She did lots of freebies for charities and other musos. She was very generous with her time. Money and possessions were never important to her.”
She will be remembered next week with a musical celebration of her life to be held in her hometown of Newcastle.