Jazz singer Gloria Lynne dies at 83

If ever a song captured the allure of chanteuse Gloria Lynne at her peak, it was the improbable jazz-pop war horse "Birth of the Blues." Backed by a romping trio on her 1961 album "I'm Glad There Is You," she transformed the tune into an electrifying tour de force.

The full-throated interpretation was all the more impressive because of her ability, on other albums, to channel great tenderness on torchy ballads such as "I Wish You Love," which became a signature number, and "I'm Glad There Is You."

Lynne, the jazz singer whose expressive style made her a staple of nightclubs from New York to Las Vegas in the 1950s and 1960s and who enjoyed a resurgence of critical recognition in the 1990s, died Oct. 15 at a hospital in Newark. She was 83.

Lynne grew up in Harlem, where at 15 she won an amateur-night show at the Apollo Theater.

She was befriended by Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan, both of whom helped guide her career at pivotal moments.