Her first album, the eponymous 1954 recording Helen Merrill (with Clifford Brown on EmArcy), was an immediate success and associated her with the first generation of bebop jazz musicians.
[3] After an active 1950s and 1960s, Merrill spent time recording and touring in Europe and Japan,[4] falling into obscurity in the United States.
In 1954, Merrill recorded an eponymous LP, which featured trumpeter Clifford Brown[10] and bassist Oscar Pettiford.
[13] After recording sporadically through the late 1950s and 1960s, Merrill spent much of her time touring Europe, where she enjoyed more commercial success than she had in the United States.
Parole e Musica: Words and Music was recorded in Italy with Umiliani's orchestra in the early 1960s while Merrill was living there.
Merrill sings in English, but each song is preceded by an Italian translation of its lyrics, spoken by Fernando Caiati.
[17] She returned to the U.S. in the 1960s but moved to Japan in 1966, staying after touring there and marrying Donald J. Brydon, Tokyo-based Asia Bureau Chief of United Press International, in April 1967.
"[26] Merrill has been married three times, first to musician Aaron Sachs (1948–1956),[27] then to UPI vice president Donald J. Brydon (1967–1992),[18] and finally to arranger-conductor Torrie Zito, a marriage that lasted until his death in 2009.