Jazz Articles about June Christy

About June Christy

Anatomy of a Standard

"Willow Weep for Me" by Ann Ronell

by Tish Oney
January 28, 2026

"Willow Weep for Me" was copyrighted in 1932 by Irving Berlin, with both words and music composed by Ann Ronell (1905-1993). Ronell dedicated the song to her mentor, George Gershwin, with whom she shared a “sister-like" relationship, according to biographer Michael G. Garber (Songs She Wrote: Forty Hits by Pioneering Women of Popular Music, Rowman & Littlefield, 2025). Scores of singers and instrumentalists have performed and recorded this standard. Some of my favorite recordings include those featuring June Christy, Billie ...

Radio & Podcasts

Centennial Shoutouts For June Christy and Johnny Mandel Plus New Releases James Suggs, Kurt Elling, Charlie Hunter, Vancouver Jazz Orchestra, Cecile McLorin Salvant,

by Mary Foster Conklin
December 8, 2025

This broadcast includes new releases from James Suggs, Kurt Elling, Charlie Hunter & Superblue, Vancouver Jazz Orchestra, Cecile McLorin Salvant, with birthday shoutouts to June Christy (100!), Johnny Mandel (100!), Etta Jones, Billy Strayhorn, Ethel Ennis, Rebecca Coupe Franks, Aline Homzy, among others with just a hint of holiday fare (more to come in December). Happy listening and please support the artists you hear--see them live, buy their music so they can continue to comfort, distract, provoke and remind the ...

Album Review

Stan Kenton and His Orchestra: Concert Kenton

Read "Concert Kenton" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
November 15, 2020

There's no question that Stan Kenton led one of the more successful and popular orchestras of the storied Big Band Era, winning various yearly polls while drawing large crowds to his jazz concerts and dance performances from coast to coast. But Kenton always wanted something more: to enlighten as well as entertain. Music, he felt, should be cerebral as well as visceral. And so he formed the Neophonic Orchestra to play the sort of forward-looking jazz he felt many listeners ...

Radio & Podcasts

That Special Time of Year

by Mary Foster Conklin
December 15, 2018

This broadcast gets into the swing of the season, which includes holiday releases by Duchess and Laura Dickinson plus a new recording by pianist Kelly Green, with birthday shout outs to Gloria Lynne, Etta Jones, Arthur Schwartz, Johnny Mandel, June Christy and Hoagy Carmichael, among others. Playlist Geri Allen “In Appreciation" from Geri Allen & Timeline Live (Motema) 00:00 Gloria Lynne “All Day Long" from Miss Gloria Lynne (Essential Media Group) 06:46 Phyllis Blanford “Blue Woman" from Edgewalker ...

Late Night Thoughts on Jazz

Too Cool For Words

by Marshall Bowden
August 18, 2002

This article first appeared on All About Jazz in August 2002. “Something cool...I'd like to order something cool" says the dame in the smoky, slightly seedy bar that is something out of a Raymond Chandler story. The kind of place where maybe there could be trouble at any moment; where maybe a couple of guys in raincoats with noses as crooked as a gerrymandered voting district come in and start asking questions. And that can't be anything but ...

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Album Review

June Christy: June Christy-Big Band Specials

by Ron Meyers
February 1, 2001

I've had this on LP ever since 1962 when it first came out. Unfortunately my copy is now full of clicks, pops and surface noise. Particuarly annoying on a vocal album. Imagine my surprise when I spotted this new release on CD. Aside from the fact that Christy is in fine voice, the big attraction for me is the arrangments and big band backing her. Arrangements are by Bill Holman, Shorty Rogers and Bob Cooper and the band, which fits ...

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Album Review

Peggy Lee: The Complete Peggy Lee & June Christy Capitol Transcription Sessions

Read "The Complete Peggy Lee & June Christy Capitol Transcription Sessions" reviewed by Dave Nathan

by Dave Nathan
July 1, 2000

Mosaic Records, for more than 15 years the purveyors of fine limited edition albums, has issued a 5-CD set of transcriptions made by June Christy and Peggy Lee for Capitol. From the 30's to the early 50's, radio stations needed additional music to put together programs featuring specific artists, mostly big bands and vocalists. Record companies were reluctant to provide copies of their commercial releases feeling that if the public could hear them on the radio, they wouldn't go out ...