Judith Durham was best known internationally for the four years she spent in the 1960s as the lead singer for the Seekers, the Australian-spawned folk quartet that briefly rivalled the Beatles and the Rolling Stones in chart success. Her own taste in music, before and after her involvement with the Seekers, however, ran more toward old-time jazz and big-band blues -- left to her own devices, Durham showed herself more attuned to the work of Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, or Helen Morgan than Mary Travers or Joan Baez. She also knew how to write a good song, and what made the best tunes of the 1920s and '30s tick. In an ideal world, she would've been in (and on the soundtracks of) the TV version of Pennies from Heaven or The Singing Detective. She continued to record new material well into the '90s. Judith Durham died on August 5, 2022 after suffering with bronchiectasis, a lung disease. She was 79 years old. ~ Bruce Eder