Carmen McRae
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Carmen Mercedes McRae (April 8, 1920 - November 10, 1994) was an American jazz singer, considered one of the most important of the 20th century
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
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
Shouts:
33 shouts
Top Albums
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Sings Great American Songwriters
Carmen McRae
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Velvet Soul
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Carmen McRae's Finest Hour
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I'm Coming Home Again
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Shoutbox
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Amiiida wrote:
Her voice is not transparently and stable sense of rhythm.
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MusicProducer70 wrote:
Hi Friends! See now the video of Tina Still: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7y5RSh3qj0 Tks! Thiago
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bvnni wrote:
This first time I ever heard her sing was on the Vocal version of Take Five by Dave Brubeck. One of my favourite songs and quite by accident, discovered he and his wife had written lyrics to it and Carmen recorded them.
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AllahKrishna wrote:
I want that My woman sings Me this song.
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Septacle wrote:
hits the spot
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bernarducs wrote:
my kind of woman
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nedersong wrote:
I sleep better now
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floydalbert wrote:
I just love it all and all who love this.
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kaplan06 wrote:
Hello my friend, Your page very nice page and songs. :) I wish add you. :) http://www.kristalfm.biz/istek.php My name is Hüseyin
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LordTammer wrote:
Where've you been 'ol_smitty', this woman has been a jewel, a huge smack down since FOREVER. "Make people AWARE of her- Sarah, Ella, Nancy, Dinah, Nina just to name a few, are whispered in the SAME breath. She's been there all along, you just gotta know where to look . . . welcome aboard anyway, maybe you can show us country 'bumpkins' a thing or 2, )x-(
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Joebee58 wrote:
#1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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ol_smitty wrote:
I truly thank all of you who comment on carmen mcrae and now lets make everyone else aware of her, Play it and spread it cause she is 1 of the greatest i am on jango and pandora so it will take me some time to get my page up and going so bare with me I will be back to bring some more great stuff like this.ty again ol_smitty
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1969SL wrote:
Glad that last.fm helped some of you to learn about one of the best jazz singers ever.For some reason she was not universaly known as Billie,Ella or Sarah althought musicians loved and respected her - there is a famous anecdote about Miles Davis who was upset about Ella Fitzgerald being called "Queen of Jazz" on some promotional poster - "hell,what is Carmen than?" said Davis. I dont think McRae was ever concerned with any of this "rating" business as she had her own faithful cult following and she never compromised her artistic sensibility - all of her recordings are very serious,high-quality releases and there is hardly ever a single wrong note on them.She didn't compromise,did not sell millions of records but kept her dignity and stayed true to herself (by the way,she was also a great piano player and composer - Billie Holiday recorded her song "Dream of life").
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ol_smitty wrote:
Hi radio heads i am new but love the music the same this song is thr greatest it can be played now even though its from back in the day. smooth jazzy sound with a house flavor.love it .ol-smitty
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VULCANAVELUDO wrote:
i love her voice!
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PandaGetSad wrote:
likey it, likey it
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mappuuu wrote:
wow
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mistral84 wrote:
ü
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robertwenk wrote:
Last FM is so great. I'm a music lover and I discovered so many excellent artists including Carmen McRae. Beautiful singer whose voice remind me to Amy Winehouse ;-)
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sambagoeschacha wrote:
shut up-just listen
Videos
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Cal Tjader and Carmen McRae…
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Cal Tjader and Carmen McRae…
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Recent Activity
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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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cyriu, jaylovesjazz, laboots and 2 other people added Carmen McRae to their libraries. Sunday afternoon
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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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CamiloBalaguera, olinharris, donner7 and 12 other people added Carmen McRae to their libraries. last month
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Mladen1988 tagged Carmen McRae with jazz vocal and jazz. last month
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KPNakamura, pat_garcia, Adsingenieria and 32 other people added Carmen McRae to their libraries. last month
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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
by esbartolo |
5 Feb 2012
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ESB Jazz Radio - New and upcoming releases - December 2011
by esbartolo |
3 Jan 2012
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ESB Jazz Radio - New and upcoming releases - November 2011
by esbartolo |
3 Dec 2011
Groups (26)
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Women in the Jazz
270 members
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Jazz
6,662 members
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Jazz Singers
893 members
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Erotic Lounge
604 members
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Jazz Vocals
561 members
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