Gery Scott (5 October 1923 – 14 December 2005) was a jazz and cabaret entertainer and teacher, whose performing career spanned 26 countries and over 60 years.
Born Diana Geraldine Whitburn in Bombay, British India, in 1923 – a child of the 'Raj' – she made her first recording in Calcutta for Indian Columbia in 1942 singing "Stormy Weather" accompanied by Teddy Weatherford and his band.
From 1950 to 1957, she toured Europe performing with such artists as Woody Herman, Bud Shank, Chet Baker and Gerry Mulligan.
She was twice the recipient of the coveted Canberra Critics Circle Award, firstly in 1992 for her production of the CD Together by The Vocal Group and for her outstanding performances in Gery Scott Sings Mostly Coward and Particularly Porter at Queanbeyan's School of Arts Café, and then again in 2005 for services to entertainment and to teaching.
Dr David Schwartz, writing for Cabaret Hotline Online said in his review, "It is hard to describe her to you without sounding as if I were a little bit insane.
Her performance provided me with one of those life-changing and totally defining cabaret experiences that was instantly committed to memory, along with my first exposure to Mabel Mercer, Julie Wilson, Sarah Vaughan, Sylvia Syms and a host of other greats.
Her last major expose was in the form of a biographical essay in The New Yorker magazine, 18 & 25 August 2003 entitled "The Jazz Singer", by Larissa MacFarquhar.