US soul and jazz singer, ANGELA BOFILL died on Thursday 13th June, aged 70. Ms Bofill had been in ill health for some time. She suffered strokes in 2006 and 2007 – leaving her with both speech and mobility problems,. Her cause of death, though, has not been revealed.
Angela Bofill was born in Brooklyn in 1954 – her mother was from Puerto Rica, her father from Cuba. Thus Latin music was a big influence during her formative years. After graduating from Manhattan school of music, she decided to pursue a career in the entertainment business working first with the Dance Theatre of Harlem. She was soon signed as a solo artist to Dave Grusin’s GRP label, releasing her first album, the jazzy ‘Angie’ in 1978. The LP included the charting single ‘This Time I’ll be Sweeter’. One more GRP album followed, yielding the hit singles ‘What I Wouldn’t Do (For the Love of You)’ and ‘I Try’ (later famously covered by Will Downing).
A switch to Arista saw the release of the Narada Michale Walden album produced, ‘Something About You ‘ (1981) which was followed one year later by ‘Too Tough’. Three more Arista LPs followed before the singer switched to Capitol where she recorded four albums including the Norman Connors produced ‘Intuition; (1988) – her last significant success.
Angela eventually took to acting appearing in a number of stage plays over the years, including ‘God Don’t Like Ugly’ and ‘What A Man Wants, What A Man Needs’. She also regularly toured the US and Europe in multi-artist jazz artist shows. Then the health issues outlined above started to take a toll, though in 2011 she did manage a mini US tour, ‘The Angela Bofill Experience’.
For the last ten years or so, health issues played a more significant role in what she could and could not do. She lived her last years with her daughter and son-in-law in California and was a grandmother of four.
