Real name Jeanne Daflon, French music-hall singer Nitta-Jo was born in Paris on October 10, 1881, or even 1887, depending on the source. Although her biography remains a mystery, the daughter of the manager of the Parisian department store Le Bon Marché was attracted to the stage from an early age. From 1907, she performed at the Variétés-Casino in Marseille, then in Paris, where she sang at the Ba-Ta-Clan and the Alhambra from around 1910 until 1930. Nicknamed "la Gigolette parisienne", from 1914 onwards she recorded nine discs (eighteen songs) for the Pathé label, in a wide variety of styles. Nitta-Jo toured all over Europe and appeared in films such as Cendrillon de Paris (1930, with Alibert and Pauline Carton) and La Fortune (1931) by Jean Hémard and Toine by René Gaveau (1932, with Andrex, Karl Ditan and Fortuné). Married to an American horse trainer in 1912, she traveled between Bucharest, Russia and the United States, where she performed at the Orpheum Theater in New York in 1919 and in theaters of the same name in San Francisco and Los Angeles in 1920. She recorded some fifty songs for the Columbia label, including her best-known, transcribed on compilations, "Ta voix" (1930), "Tango des roses" (1931) and "Cocaïne " (1932), among others. She disappeared after the death of her husband Charles E. Durnell, in California, on February 16, 1949.
