[Dixielandjazz] FW: NYTimes.com Article: Roy Kral, Half of a Duo That Jazzed Up Pop, Dies at 80

[Charlie Hooks]

on 8/5/02 11:22 AM, Stan Brager at sbrager@socal.rr.com wrote:

> Hearing Jackie and Roy for the first time opened my ears up to the
> possibility that the voice could be a jazz instrument.


    Hearing Jackie and Roy for the first time opened my mouth--in fact, my
jaw dropped down and stayed that way!  I can still remember clearly just
where I was when I first heard that old 10 inch marvel: in a friend's
apartment in Ft. Worth, summer of 1955.  On the cover they face each other,
bumping foreheads and looking so young and indestructable!  Roy with a buzz
cut and Jackie with a short gamin do.  In my mind they will always look that
way--and sound that way.

    They've been cruising back through Chicago for years just to visit
relatives and friends: Steve Behr and Marilyn are close.  So I know they've
aged a hair.  But not in my mind.

    What they did had not been done before, and I'm sure no other two people
will ever again do it so well.  Alec Wilder wrote the album notes on that
first one, and he goes into raptures about "taste," implying that they don't
merely have taste: they embody it.   And Wilder should know: he had a lot of
taste himself; and he always spoke his mind about music.

    Rest in peace, Roy.  You done good.  You done real good.

Charlie