Carmen McRae

Carmen McRae was born in Harlem on April 8, 1920, the only child of immigrants from the West Indies. She grew up in the Bronx and on Sugar Hill in Harlem, and her early musical education included five years of classical piano lessons. She won an amateur talent contest at the Apollo Theater in Harlem and it was there that she was discovered in 1939 by Irene Kitchings, who was then married to the jazz pianist Teddy Wilson. Through Wilson, who worked with Billie Holiday, McRae met the singer who became her biggest influence and who recorded McRae's song “Dream of Life”.  She became enamored of jazz and began her lifelong commitment to playing and singing. Kitchings’ and Holiday’s influence becomes so strong that Carmen eventually would tell audiences that "If there had been no Billie and Irene, there would have been no me."

McRae began her career as a singer with Benny Carter’s orchestra in 1944.  She then performed with bands led by Count Basie and Mercer Ellington in 1946-1947.  She made her recording debut with the Ellington band in 1946.  After that band broke up, she embarked on a solo singing career.  After working in Chicago for three years as a singing pianist, she returned to New York.  It was there working as an intermission pianist and stand-up singer at Minton’s Playhouse and other clubs in New York that her career took off; there she was introduced to bebop, and came under the influence of Sarah Vaughan. 

In 1954 McRae was named “best new female Singer by Downbeat and in 1955 released her first solo album for Bethlehem.  Also in that year she signed a recording contract with Decca, where she remained until 1958 and made some of her finest recordings.  From 1958-1967 she recorded for several labels, including Kapp and Columbia, before moving to Atlantic in 1967, where she stayed for five years.  Her longest record company affiliation was with Concord Jazz from 1980 to 1988. Her last two albums were for RCA and were tributes to Thelonious Monk and Sarah Vaughan.   

Although McRae never achieved the notoriety of Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday or Sarah Vaughn, she was widely recognized as their equal.  Although influenced by Billie Holiday, with her behind-the-beat phrasing and insightful interpretations of song lyrics, she created her own distinctive voice.   She was known for refusing to do a song solely because it would be a commercial success.  The lyrics were important to her and she would only do songs that were meaningful to her.   "Every word is very important to me," she said. "Lyrics come first, then the melody. The lyric of a song I might decide to sing must have something that I can convince you with. It's like an actress who selects a role that contains something she wants to portray."

Jazz standards on which she placed her signature include “Alfie”, “Skyliner”, “Guess Who I Saw Today”, “Blame It on My Youth”, and many more.  Although nominated for a Grammy Award numerous times, she never won.  However, in recognition of her musical accomplishments, in 1994 she received a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Fellowship.

McRae toured extensively for five decades, performing in clubs, at concerts, and at festivals; she made several tours of Europe and Japan from the 1960s into the 1980s and regularly appeared at the Blue Note in New York City. In 1967 she settled in Los Angeles. She was married to drummer Kenny Clarke and to bassist Ike Isaacs.  Both marriages ended in divorce.   She died in 1994 at the age of 74 in Los Angeles.