Pioneering Swiss jazz singer Miriam Klein dies aged 89

Miriam Klein, the Basel singer who carved out a place in European jazz, has died aged 89. Her family said she died on October 2. Her career crossed continents and generations, from a start in postwar Paris to performances with leading American jazz musicians and a late return to recording. Klein worked in a field dominated by men, building her own career as a performer and entrepreneur. Her son, saxophonist David Klein, described her as an independent musician who worked without professional representation. She also raised four children, at times taking sole responsibility for them. The arc of her life joined a distinctly Swiss story to the wider history of jazz: a Basel-born artist who studied in Vienna, recorded in New York and performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival.

Klein began singing in Paris in the 1950s, then studied music in Vienna, where she worked with pianist Joe Zawinul, later a key figure in international jazz. She returned to Switzerland and, from the 1960s, performed with her then husband, guitarist and trumpeter Oscar Klein. He died in 2006. Her collaborations reached well beyond the Swiss scene. Among the American jazz musicians she worked with were saxophonist Dexter Gordon, drummer Billy Cobham, trumpeter Roy Eldridge, pianist Mal Waldron and pianist Roland Hanna. These partnerships placed Klein alongside prominent figures across different generations and styles. The record of her career also includes performances at Montreux and album recordings in New York. She worked with the orchestra of Swiss Radio DRS, linking her international activity with a national broadcasting institution.

The 1973 album Lady Like – Miriam Klein sings Billie Holiday brought Klein her international breakthrough. The record was a tribute to Holiday, whom Klein regarded as her role model and whose nickname was “Lady Day”. In the years that followed, Klein appeared at the Montreux Jazz Festival, made albums in New York and collaborated with the Swiss Radio DRS orchestra. Her work did not end with that breakthrough period. In 2001, she returned to recording with My Marilyn, an album made with her son David Klein, a saxophonist. The pair performed songs from films starring Marilyn Monroe. Klein’s career moved between tribute, collaboration and her own presence as a bandleader and singer. Her discography and festival appearances connect her story to both American jazz traditions and Switzerland’s performance and broadcasting scenes.

Klein was born in Basel on March 27, 1937, into a Jewish family and grew up in modest circumstances. During the Second World War, her parents took in refugees who had crossed the Swiss border hidden beneath railway carriages, according to a short family biography. Music remained part of Klein’s life into later years. Most recently, she performed on stage with her partner and musical collaborator, jazz pianist and composer Christian Gutfleisch. Her son David’s account of her career also highlighted the work of raising four children while pursuing music, sometimes as their sole caregiver. Klein’s path from Basel to Paris, Vienna, Montreux and New York is reflected in the range of her performances and collaborations. Her family, fellow musicians and listeners now remember a singer whose work reached well beyond Switzerland.