Carolyn Gray

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Carolyn Gray (* 1922 ) was an American jazz singer who was successful as a band vocalist with Woody Herman and His Orchestra and Gene Krupa and His Orchestra in the 1940s .

Live and act

Carolyn Gray began her career as a singer on the west coast of the USA , where she established herself as a successful radio vocalist in the early 1940s. In 1941 she brought Woody Herman into his orchestra, with whom she went on tour and recorded a number of titles from November 1941, such as the first recording of the song "Tis Autumn" by Henry Nemo , with Herman in a vocal duet (Decca 4095), a song that Ella Fitzgerald would later popularize. She sang “You Can't Hold a Memory in You Arms” with Herman as a duo, and she also recorded numbers like “If I Only Knew” or the Christmas carol “ Jingle Bells ”. In the summer of 1943 she suddenly got out of Woody Herman and interrupted her career to work for Sonny Dunham in October 1944 (seen in the music film Jive Busters ) and to go on tours again.

In 1945 Gray was given the opportunity to record under his own name for the first time; In early 1946 she replaced the sick previous singer Anita O'Day at Gene Krupa . She can be heard on records by the Krupa Big Band as in the singing duo with Buddy Stewart "Aren't You Kind of Glad We Did", also with "Ain't Nowhere", "Bolero at the Savoy", "Boogie Blues", " Chiquita Banana ”,“ Gene's Boogie ”,“ He's Funny That Way ”,“ It's a Good Day ”,“ Just the Other Day ”,“ (Otto Make That) Riff Staccato ”,“ Same Old Blues ”,“ Tea for Two "," There Is No Breeze (to Cool the Flame of Love) "," They Didn't Believe Me "or" Yes, Yes, Honey (You've Got Me Eatin 'Right Out of Your Hand) ". With Gene Krupa's Orchestra, she has also appeared in music films such as Swingtime Video (1945), Cocktails and Oo-La-La (1946), The Drummer Man (1947), I Surrender Dear (1948) and Glamor Girl (1948), the latter both directed by Arthur Dreifuss . The Broadway song “ Old Devil Moon ” became popular (in addition to the Margaret Whitings version ) with the Gray / Krupa cover version and became a jazz standard from the 50s .

After their marriage and the birth of their first child, Gray briefly interrupted her career, but took up again in early 1947 records with Gene Krupa's orchestra. After another absence from the music scene, she attempted a comeback in 1953, but without much success. In the field of jazz she lists Tom Lord between 1941 and 1947 in a total of 31 recording sessions.

Discographic notes

  • Gene Krupa and His Orchestra: What's This 1946, Vol. 1 (Hep, ed. 1993)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ J. Wilfred Johnson: Ella Fitzgerald: An Annotated Discography; Including a Complete Discography . Jefferson (NC): McFarland 2001
  2. ^ Robert C. Kriebel: Blue Flame: Woody Herman's Life in Music West Ladayette (Indiana): Purdue University Press 1995, p. 45
  3. ^ Billboard, June 5, 1943
  4. ↑ Bruce Crowther: by Bruce Crowther . London: Omnibus Press, 2012
  5. ↑ a b Billboard Nov. 23, 1946
  6. ^ Billboard July 13, 1946
  7. ^ Billboard March 15, 1947
  8. ^ Gene Krupa And His Orchestra - What's This 1946, Vol. 1 at Discogs
  9. ↑ Columbia 37354
  10. ^ Rebecca D. Clear: Jazz on Film and Video in the Library of Congress . Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division, 1993, p. 131
  11. ^ Don Tyler: Music of the Postwar Era . Westport (Conn.), London: Greenwood Publ. 2007, p. 132.
  12. ↑ Tom Lord : The Jazz Discography (online, accessed October 14, 2017)
personal data
SURNAME Gray, Carolyn
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz singer
DATE OF BIRTH 1922