Carmen McRae

Carmen McRae was born Carmen Mercedes McRae on April 8, 1920 in Harlem to Jamaican immigrant parents. She began playing piano at eight and when she was seventeen she met Teddy Wilson's wife, Irene Kitchings Wilson, who introduced her to all the jazz stars including Billie Holiday. Billie was to become Carmen's main influence.

In her late teens and early twenties Carmen played piano at Minton's Playhouse in Harlem where she met the drummer Kenny Clarke who would become her husband. She sang with Benny Carter's Big Band and then with Count Basie in 1944. She played piano with Mercer Ellington's Band and made her first recording.

In the late 1940's and early 1950's Carmen is in Chicago playing piano and singing. She moves back to New York in 1952 and records for the Bethlehem, Venus, and Stardust labels. In 1954 Downbeat magazine votes her Best New Female Vocalist and in 1955 she signs with Decca and records the first of 12 albums for that label. In the late 1950's her and Kenny Clarke are divorced and she marries her bassist Ike Isaacs. However, by 1961 they divorce.

In 1967 Carmen moves to Los Angeles and she enjoyed bookings in clubs, festivals and concert halls. She was a performer at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1961, 62, 63, 66, 71, 73, and 82. Her last public performance was in May 1991 at the Blue Note in New York. She was awarded a Master's of Jazz award  for lifetime achievement from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1994 and on November 10th of that year she passed away at her home.

My favorite recording of Carmen's is "The Great American Songbook" recorded live at Donte's in Los Angeles. She is backed by Jimmy Rowles on piano, Joe Pass on guitar, Chuck Domanico on bass and drummer Chuck Flores.

The songs include "Satin Doll," "At Long Last Love," "Day by Day," "I Only Have Eyes For You," "Sunday," "I Cried For You," "Three Little Words," and "I Thought About You" among others.





Here's a video of Carmen singing "Body and Soul"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=zOEMym54XQY