 Judith Durham is an Australian jazz singer who was previously the lead singer for the Australian folk music group, The Seekers. She embarked on a solo career in 1968 and left the group. Her first inspiration was to be a pianist, and she gained the qualifications for that field at the Melbourne University Conservatorium. Her singing career started when she was 18 and asked the leader of the Melbourne University Jazz Band if she could sing with them at the Memphis Jazz club in Malvern. She also recorded an EP with Frank Traynor's jazz Preachers in 1963. While she was working as a secretary at an advertising agency she met Athol Guy, who was performing with The Seekers at a local coffee house.
Judith sailed with The Seekers to the United Kingdom in 1964 where they provided the musical entertainment. What started out as a ten week stay turned into much longer because of a steady stream of requests for them to perform. Starting with "I'll Never Find Another You" they had several hits over the next three years. In spite of the group's success, Judith longed to settle down and pursue a solo career. She left the group in July 1968 after giving them six month's notice of her intentions. She performed and recorded with the group in 1993 including some fund raising events.
She returned to Australia in August 1968 where she began her solo career. In the 1970s she returned to singing traditional jazz. After recording two jazz albums, she retired to Queensland although she did do some songwriting occasionally. Durham began recording again in 1994.
In spite of her busy schedule, she married her musical direction, Ron Edgeworth in 1969. After a fatal accident in 1990 that killed the driver of the other car, she considered getting back with the other Seekers because of the response from her fans following the accident. She joined them for the Silver Jubilee Show, but the reunion was of short duration because her husband was diagnosed with motor neurone disease. Durham was by his side when the disease claimed his life on December 10, 1994.
In addition to her recordings with The Seekers, Durham has recorded over a dozen solo albums. Some of the later ones include the following:
• 1980 – The Hot Jazz Duo
• 1992 – Australia Land of Today
• 1994 – Let Me Find Love
• 1996 – Mona Lisas
• 1998 – Always There
• 2002 – JD and the Melbourne Welsh Male Choir
• 2000 – Hold On to Your Dreams
• 2003 – Diamond Night
All of Durham's recordings have been re-released on CD except for the jazz EP, the 1960s singles, Gift of Love and Climb Every Mountain.
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