Carmen McRae
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Carmen McRae was born in Harlem in 1920, and studied piano as a child. As a teenager she came to the attention of Teddy Wilson and his wife, the composer Irene Kitchings Wilson. Through their influence, one of McRae’s early songs, “Dream of Life”, was recorded by Wilson’s longtime collaborator Billie Holiday.
By the late 1940s she was well known among the modern jazz musicians who gathered at Minton’s Playhouse, Harlem’s most famous jazz club, where she was the intermission pianist. But it was while working in Brooklyn that she came to the attention of Decca’s Milt Gabler. Her five year association with Decca yielded 12 LPs, many considered jazz vocal classics.
Her live 1987 duets with Betty Carter are highly regarded (see Duets: Live at the Great American Music Hall).
The musicians she sang with include Benny Carter, Mercer Ellington, Count Basie, Sammy Davis Jr., Dave Brubeck, and Louis Armstrong. As a result of her early friendship with Billie Holiday, she never performed without singing at least one song associated with Lady Day.
She was married once (and briefly), to drummer Kenny Clarke.
(from Wikipedia)
Added version 2 to version 1on May 23, 2009
Born: Apr 8, 1920 in New York, NY
Died: Nov 10, 1994 in Beverly Hills, CA
Genre: Jazz
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Sings Great American Songwriters
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Velvet Soul
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I'm Coming Home Again
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plastic_flowers, lizzylizlizzay, ghost-opera123 and 3 other people added Carmen McRae to their libraries. 6 hours ago
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Another_CHINA tagged Carmen McRae with smooth jazz and vocal jazz. Wednesday morning
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and 2 other people added Carmen McRae to their libraries. Wednesday morning
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esbartolo wrote about Carmen McRae in ESB Jazz Radio - New and upcoming releases - January 2012. Sunday evening
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kevinaom tagged Carmen McRae with female jazz vocalists, carmen mcrae, female vocalists and one other tag. last week
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esbartolo wrote about Carmen McRae in ESB Jazz Radio - New and upcoming releases - December 2011. last month
Related Journals
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ESB Jazz Radio - New and upcoming releases - January 2012
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5 Feb 2012
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ESB Jazz Radio - New and upcoming releases - December 2011
by esbartolo |
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ESB Jazz Radio - New and upcoming releases - November 2011
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