Steve March Tormé

Steve March Tormé, the son of Mel Tormé, has been gradually developing into a fine jazz singer, although he actually avoided singing jazz for a long time so he could escape the huge shadow of his father. He actually did not grow up with his father, since his parents were divorced when he was two. When he was 12, Tormé enjoyed hearing pop music on the radio and knew that he wanted to be a performer eventually. A year later he formed his own rock group. He attended Santa Monica College for one semester but dropped out when he signed a record deal and went out on the road. Tormé recorded pop music in the late '70s, sang on a Liza Minnelli album, guested on television, worked as an actor, and hosted television shows dealing with music. He also performed with the jazz-based vocal group Full Swing. It was not until the mid-'90s that he began to perform jazz. He recorded a duet with his father on "Straighten Up and Fly Right" around that era. Steve March Tormé has recorded jazz CDs for the Frozen Rope and Rhombus labels, sounding particularly individual on The Essence of Love. While not a household name at this writing, he shows a great deal of potential and deserves credit for not merely copying his famous father. ~ Scott Yanow