Paloma Efron

Paloma Efron (1912-1977) was Argentina’s first professional jazz singer, but is better remembered as a leading broadcast journalist. She grew up in Buenos Aires, studying music from an early age. She became enamoured with jazz while a teenager, and encouraged by tango maestro, Carlos Gardel, she entered a talent contest in 1934, winning with her rendition of ‘Stormy Weather. Her convincing jazz sound earned her the unfortunate nickname ‘Blackie’, which stuck with her throughout what would become a pioneering career as a radio and TV writer and presenter.

Her jazz career is hard to piece together, but she recorded and released a number of 78s in Buenos Aires – all of English language songs – ‘What About Me?’, ‘I Ain’t Got Nobody’ and ‘Diga Diga Do’ among them. She appeared at the Tropicana in 1952, which is around when her radio career took off. One of her first programmes was a ‘history of jazz’. She died in 1977. 20 years later, a small square in Buenos Aires was named after her.