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Carmen McRae
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Carmen 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
Top Albums
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Sings Great American Songwriters
Carmen McRae
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Velvet Soul
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Jazz Club Vocal
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Carmen McRae's Finest Hour
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How Long Has This Been Going On
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Nice Work If You Can Get It
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You Took Advantage Of Me
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Exactly Like You
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Dream Of Life
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All The Things You Are
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When I Fall In Love
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My Funny Valentine
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New York State of Mind
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Love Is Here To Stay
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Straighten Up and Fly Right
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My Foolish Heart
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Midnight Sun
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Shoutbox
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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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tommasolabranca wrote:
Tutti gli appassionati di Mina dovrebbero arrivare a Carmen McRae. Si deve sempre risalire alle radici.
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zapatosgrandes wrote:
"how long has it been" sounds fantastic in this genre... now someone needs to make an electronic remix of her singing "tropical heatwave" LOVE her!!!
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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
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Menervna wrote:
She is a discovery, and definitely unappreciated. Amazing artist and first of all, although most of the singers like her have profound and unique voice, she has that sound that is just soothingly perfect (for me at least). I’m so glad that I discovered her. And the interesting thing is that I first heard of her, here on Last FM. And I worship Nina Simone, and never heard of Carmen McRae. Can’t figure out why she doesn’t have highly appreciated reputation.
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dantiger wrote:
I was very fortunate to be front and center and see Miss McRae at a little club in Redondo Beach CA. She was incredable and we sang Happy Birthday to her. I was her last.
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JudeFawley wrote:
She's been a great singer, strangely underrated by many critics and jazz listeners. One of her last cds (Carmen Sings Monk) is a vocal jazz masterpiece made in 1989, a few years before her passing at 74.
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MusicNurse wrote:
very good music
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chymera311 wrote:
I Can't Escape From You from her ablum Afterglow was one of the key songs that made me fall truly and madly in love with jazz. Carmen and Ella will always be my two favorites...
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MrStyle wrote:
Body and Soul! Wow! Amazing
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Similans wrote:
She's amazing with surprisingly very low total listeners. -*-
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Recent Activity
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soeldentiger, xanaduconsortiu, Jiki4 and 4 other people added Carmen McRae to their libraries. yesterday evening
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camel05 tagged Carmen McRae with ‘bj’. Thursday afternoon
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camel05, Lacemeupwigs, LordTammer and 4 other people added Carmen McRae to their libraries. Thursday afternoon
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cano24 tagged Carmen McRae with 70s, 60s, 50s and 2 other tags. Monday morning
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domenecfs, jbullx2, johnnymcjohn and 4 other people added Carmen McRae to their libraries. last week
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domenecfs tagged Carmen McRae with carmen mcrae, angles, favorit and 5 other tags. last week
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musicamania09 tagged Carmen McRae with jazz vocal and jazz. last week
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