With her Rapunzel-like red hair and stunning face and figure, Sandra King could have been an actress or a model -- but her voice was so much stronger than any of those other attributes that music always beckoned as a career. Born Sandra Fairbrass in London in 1950, By 1963, at age 13, Sandra King was cutting songwriters' demos, and she made her professional performing debut at age 17 in a musical play broadcast by the BBC over British television. A little bit later, she was heard at a jazz club by visiting American singer Mark Murphy, who brought her together with Scottish-born lawyer turned jazz pianist Pat Smythe, a veteran of Joe Harriott's band who was also established as an arranger and accompanist. Smythe took her under his wing, the start of what turned into a 15-year partnership. He encouraged her to audition for saxophonist/club owner Ronnie Scott, who booked the 17-year-old for a three-week engagement at his club, on a bill with Horace Silver. She later appeared with Stan Getz and Kenny Burrell. King made her recording debut in 1969 with an album of songs by Henry Mancini -- clearly, she was bucking the trends and tastes of the majority of her generation, which ran more toward rock & roll and rock sounds, but she never broke stride, and with help from admirers who included Mancini and singer Tony Bennett, she built a serious musical career on several continents.
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