[Dixielandjazz] Carline Ray (NPR)

Robert Ringwald rsr at ringwald.com
Tue Jul 23 18:28:59 PDT 2013


Carline Ray: A Pioneer for Women in Jazz Dies at 88
NPR's "Fresh Air," July 23, 2013
Pioneering musician Carline Ray died July 18 at age 88. In the 1940s, when it was
difficult for women to be accepted as jazz musicians, Ray found a home in the all-female
band the International Sweethearts of Rhythm as the guitarist and a featured vocalist.
She was also a bass player who performed with Sy Oliver, Mercer Ellington and Mary
Lou Williams.
Ray was born in Harlem in 1925 during the Harlem Renaissance. She graduated from
Juilliard and the Manhattan School of Music. Her husband, Luis Russell, led his own
band and worked as Louis Armstrong's music director.
Ray's daughter, Catherine Russell, is an acclaimed jazz singer. When Fresh Air recorded
a concert and interview with Russell last year, she talked about her mother.
"She wanted to play, and she was inspired by all the jazz on 52nd Street and hearing
Billie Holiday live," Russell told host Terry Gross.
Catherine Russell produced a new album of her mother singing -- between 2008 and
2011, when the collection was recorded, she still had a rich contralto voice -- which
was released just before Ray died.
Eight-minute segment:
http://www.npr.org/2013/07/23/204814753
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-Bob Ringwald
www.ringwald.com
Amateur (ham) Radio Operator K6YBV
916/ 806-9551

"If a woman has to choose between catching a fly ball and saving an infant's life, she will choose to save the infant's life without even considering if there is a man on base." --Dave Barry



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