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Jazz Musician of the Day: June Christy
All About Jazz is celebrating June Christy's birthday today! June was born as Shirley Luster on November 20, 1925 at the Memorial Hospital in Springfield, Illinois and was raised from the age of three in Decatur, Illinois; and from the beginning always wanted to sing. She was singing with local bands when she was just 13, ...
Stan Kenton and His Orchestra: Concert Kenton
by Jack Bowers
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 ...
Naama Gheber: Dearly Beloved
by Jim Trageser
Cabaret singer? Jazz singer? Pop singer? The splendid debut from Israeli singer Naama Gheber recalls a time when such distinctions were utterly without meaning. “Dearly Beloved" finds her inhabiting the same territory as such classic crossover singers as June Christy, Peggy Lee and Lena Horne. Of course, for that generation, jazz WAS ...
Michelle Lordi: Career Evolution
by R.J. DeLuke
Some artists are blessed to be born into situations where opportunities are at the ready. Education and training are easily obtainable. Maybe they have connections to the professional world, via their lineage or other friends. Even so, it's still up to them to produce and deal with the inevitable vagaries of their choice to pursue music ...
Results for pages tagged "June Christy"...
June Christy
Born:
June was born as Shirley Luster on November 20, 1925 at the Memorial Hospital in Springfield, Illinois and was raised from the age of three in Decatur, Illinois; and from the beginning always wanted to sing.
She was singing with local bands when she was just 13, and later with society bands around Chicago, the big city 150 miles from Springfield, using the name Sharon Leslie. None of her family knew anything about music, so she had to persuade them to let her sing with the local home town band. The band was led by Bill Oetzel, and as Shirley Luster she sang with it for four years. Next she joined Boyd Raeburn's first great band at Chicago's new Band Box Theatre. A bout of scarlet fever meant leaving after just four months. On recovering she found work hard to come by due to the effect of a 20% amusement tax on the music business. Nevertheless a short stint followed with Benny Strong's band, and there was some club work. By 1945, demoralised by the continuing panic in the business she was ready to call it quits and return home. Then she heard that Anita O'day was leaving the Stan Kenton band. The actual details of how she met and was auditioned vary according to the source but the fact remains that she was hired on March 22nd 1945 by Kenton. June was to say later "I don't think Stan ever cared for singers really, but at that time he felt he needed one fast"
Never Forget to Say Thank You
by Mary Foster Conklin
This week we feature Grammy nominees and finalists from the Hot House/Jazzmobile NYC Readers Jazz Awards, a new release from Alice Ricciardi and Pietro Lussu, plus birthday shout outs to June Christy, Hoagy Carmichael, Johnny Mandel, Etta Jones, pianist Geoffrey Keezer and Michelle Ann May of Musique Noire, among others. Playlist Musique Noire “Pretty ...
George Shearing: Quintet Xmas
At JazzWax, 12 is the number of years I've posted annually on my selection for the JazzWax Vintage Holiday Album Hall of Fame. The point of this is to offer up perfect holiday music that conjures up feelings of a time long past or is just superbly executed seasonal music. Combined on your iTunes or Spotify ...
Jazz Musician of the Day: June Christy
All About Jazz is celebrating June Christy's birthday today! June was born as Shirley Luster on November 20, 1925 at the Memorial Hospital in Springfield, Illinois and was raised from the age of three in Decatur, Illinois; and from the beginning always wanted to sing. She was singing with local bands when she was just 13, ...
Chris Connor with Stan Kenton And His Orchestra: Connor Sings — Kenton Swings
by Jack Bowers
However listeners may receive this “new" album from Sounds of Yesteryear, there's no gainsaying its title, Connor Sings—Kenton Swings, as that secures its contents in a neat little box with no loose ends in sight. There's also no denying that these seventeen songs by vocalist Chris Connor and the dynamic Stan Kenton Orchestra were recorded more ...
Stan Kenton and West Coast Jazz (1950 - 1958)
by Russell Perry
In the last hour, we heard evidence of Woody Herman's capacity for talent development in the form of further work by reed players Stan Getz, Serge Chaloff, Al Cohn, Zoot Sims and Jimmy Giuffre. In this hour we turn the spotlight on alumni of the Stan Kenton Orchestra which produced several significant players in the West ...
