Irene Kral (January 18, 1932 – August 15, 1978) was an American

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

singer.

Life

She was born to Czechoslovak parents in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

and settled in

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, California, in the early 1960s. She died from breast cancer in Encino, Los Angeles. Kral's older brother, Roy Kral, was developing his own career as a musician when she began to sing professionally as a teenager. She sang with bands on tours led by Woody Herman and Chubby Jackson, Herman's bass player. She joined Maynard Ferguson's band in the late 1950s and sang with groups led by

Stan Kenton Stanley Newcomb Kenton (December 15, 1911 – August 25, 1979) was an American popular music and jazz artist. As a pianist, composer, arranger and band leader, he led an innovative and influential jazz orchestra for almost four decades. Though ...

, Terry Gibbs, and Shelly Manne. She had a solo career until her death at 46 years of age. She was a ballad singer who said Carmen McRae was one of her inspirations. She became better known posthumously when

Clint Eastwood Clinton Eastwood Jr. (born May 31, 1930) is an American actor and film director. After achieving success in the Western (genre), Western TV series ''Rawhide (TV series), Rawhide'', Eastwood rose to international fame with his role as the "Ma ...

used her recordings in his 1995 movie '' The Bridges of Madison County''.Victor L. Schermer
"Irene Kral: Just For Now"
''All About Jazz'', July 4, 2004. Her style has been compared to that of Carmen McRae (the two singers were friends). Dana Countryman quotes from Linda Dahl's 1984 book on women in jazz, ''Stormy Weather'': "Irene Kral had a lovely, resonant voice with a discreet vibrato, flawless diction and intonation, and a slight, attractive nasality and shaping of phrases that resembled Carmen McRae's. But where McRae's readings tend to the astringent, Kral's melt like butter. She was a master of quiet understatement and good taste."

Discography

* '' The Band and I'' with Herb Pomeroy ( United Artists, 1958) * '' SteveIreneO!'' (United Artists, 1959) * '' Better Than Anything'' with Junior Mance ( Ava, 1963) * '' Wonderful Life'' ( Mainstream, 1965) * '' Where Is Love?'' (Choice, 1974) * ''Sessions, Live'' (Calliope, 1976) * '' Kral Space'' ( Catalyst, 1977) * '' Gentle Rain'' with Alan Broadbent (Choice, 1978) * ''Angel Eyes'' (Trio, 1978) * ''Live'' (Just Jazz, 2000) * ''Just for Now'' (Jazzed Media, 2004) * ''Second Chance'' (Jazzed Media, 2010)

As guest

* Laurindo Almeida, ''Guitar from Ipanema'' (Capitol, 1964) * Buddy Collette, ''The Buddy Collette Quintet'' (Studio West, 2001) * Maynard Ferguson, '' Boy with Lots of Brass'' ( EmArcy, 1957) * Terry Gibbs, ''Dream Band, Vol. 6: One More Time'' (Contemporary, 2002) * Shelly Manne, ''My Fair Lady'' (Capitol, 1964)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kral, Irene 1932 births 1978 deaths 20th-century American singers 20th-century American women singers American jazz singers American people of Czechoslovak descent Deaths from breast cancer in California Jazz musicians from California Jazz musicians from Illinois Singers from California Singers from Chicago United Artists Records artists