People of a certain age remember Minnie Riperton for her five-octave range and the high notes on her 1975 #1 hit “Lovin’ You.” (Fun fact: When she sings “Maya, Maya, Maya,” she is cooing to her baby daughter Maya Rudolph, the future singer and “Saturday Night Live” comedian.) Listen to how she passionately matches those blue sky-high notes with guttural growls on her soulful, uplifting “Adventures in Paradise”? Born in Chicago on this day in 1947, her life was tragically cut short by breast cancer at age 31. A classically trained opera singer, she moved into R&B, jazz and soul; and early in her career sang backup for such artists as Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry and Etta James.
