Biography

Diva Corliss Randall, the London-based singer with the larger than life personality was born in and lives and breathes New Orleans. God-daughter to Louis Prima, she is Conservatory trained and has a wide-ranging mezzo soprano which can incorporate the singing styles of Ella Fitzgerald, Judy Garland, Peggy Lee, Mae West and the standards of Gershwin and Jerome Kern.

Her father, Jimmy King, owned the Famous Door Jazz Club in New Orleans as well as more than a dozen other clubs all along Bourbon Street. As early as the age of eight she was to be found on stage with the likes of Louis Armstrong, the Dukes of Dixieland and Al Hirt.

Choral performances are enshrined in the culture of the southern United States and Corliss emodies all the musical strains of the locale. At fourteen she began classical training and secured a place at Berkeley University Exchange to study opera, followed by scholarships in Italy under the great Tito Gobbi and then Luigi Malatesta atthe Santa Cecilia Roma.

Until her mid-twenties she pursued a classical career in opera and with the Roman Catholic Church, performing extensively throughout Europe and the United States. While in Italy she married film producer Dick Randall. They settled in the West End of London and Corliss embarked on a career in the film industry. Dick, among many various writing projects wrote gags for Milton Berle and even did the translations for his films such as Frankenstein's Caslte of Freaks, Emanuelle Goes to Cannes, My Bare Lady, Around the World with Nothing On and the Erotic Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, to name but a few. Corliss starred in some of his horror work under the name of Chick Norris!

Dick's death in 1997 prompted her return to her roots and her passion for jazz and blues. As a little girl growing up in the Big Easy, Corliss used to sit on teh porch and sing to God. "I would sit alone on that big porch, just me and God and sing. I guess I knew I had a voice then. I was so lonely. I had to sing to God for anyone to listen to me."

She remains resident in London. "For an artist there are great opportunities because they love live cabaret and music here. The theatre is very active and in every other pizza place there's a live musician. I've started my whole life over again — it's gone from my childhood, completely around the circle. Back in the groove."