CARMEN McRAE

The World of Jazz has quite largely been a man's world for much of its history.  But women have dominated in the arena of vocals.  If we go all the way back we hear of Mamie Smith, Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith, all of whom brought  blues stylings to the forefront,  as ragtime music and blues began to merge to form the music that became Jass or Jazz.  Empress of the Blues, Bessie Smith was hugely successful in her day.  By the 1930's just before Billie Holiday came on scene, sales of Bessie's recordings had reached several millions.  Mervyn Cooke tells us that these recordings “were the first coherent attempt to import the spontaneous, often powerfully expressive style of raw blues singing into mainstream Jazz.” 

In my CD collection there are recordings of some forty-two women vocalists, as opposed to about eighteen by male singers.  And today there are a great many women vocalists of every Jazz style imaginable.  It really is fun to be able to pick, choose and refuse.  In A World of Jazz we have had a peek at Billie, Sarah, Ella, Dinah and Betty.  So at this juncture I am quite pleased to feature a lady who fittingly inherited from them the “diva” designation and who was a Caribbean woman from the diaspora.

Carmen Mercedes McRae was born in Harlem, New York City to Jamaicans Evadne and Osmond McRae in April 1920.  Carmen was a keen piano student by age eight, and the music of various Jazz greats filled her home.  She particularly loved Billie Holiday, whom she met at age seventeen.  Billie became her life-long idol.  Carmen wrote a song called “Dream of Life,” which Billie recorded when Carmen was only eighteen.

In her early twenties Carmen played piano and sang as a chorus girl at Minton's Playhouse, Harlem's most famous Jazz club.  Her first important job was playing piano with the big band of Benny Carter in 1944.  She later made her first recording as pianist with Mercer Ellington's band, as well as continuing to sing and play piano in other New York clubs.  In 1948 she moved to Chicago, where she steadily played the piano for about four years before returning to New York.  No doubt her solid grounding in piano helped tremendously with her grasp of vocal expression.

In 1954 she began to record as a leader with a recording contract with Decca Records.  Her style was full fledged by that time, and although she was influenced by Billie Holiday, her sound was all her own.  The public were certainly listening, because in that same year she was voted best new female vocalist by Down Beat Magazine. From the late 1950's she was accompanied by her own trio, and she went on to have steady club, concert and recording work.  She also made various international tours, and she did some acting in several movies, including “Hotel” in 1967 and “Roots” in 1976.

Some of her interesting recording projects were with Sammy Davis Jr., Louis Armstrong, Betty Carter, Dave Brubeck and George Shearing.  But in her own concerts, due to her great admiration for Billie Holiday, she always performed at least one song associated with “Lady Day.” 

Carmen's career lasted nearly fifty years.  She was well-known and popular at the Monterey Jazz Festival, and she also performed at the North Sea Jazz Fest and the Montreux Jazz Fest.  With Carmen it wasn't drink or drugs – it was smoking.  She always refused to quit, and by 1992 she had to retire due to emphysema. She passed away in 1994 in Beverly Hills, California.

On Carmen's website Will Friedwald, author of “Jazz Singing,” asserts that “Carmen is indisputably one of the greatest vocalists the idiom has ever produced.”  The site also tells us that Ella had perfect pitch and unerring sense of time. Sarah had a multi-octave range and an ultra-flexible voice. Carmen, however, could bring a tear to the eye or lump to the throat with her reading of a lyric. 

I love Carmen's low, almost gruff voice, her behind-the-beat delivery and her innate swing and scat powers coupled with the skill to infuse deep feeling into her lyrics.   It is no wonder that she has been called “The Singer's Singer.”  I know that Nelita, Jenny and Jackie would immensely enjoy listening to her!

We first look at the selections on a compilation from LRC Limited called “Velvet Soul.”  These songs give us a solid overview of Carmen's art.  “Nice Work If You Can Get It,” composed by George and Ira Gershwin, is a fine introduction and a nod to the Great American Songbook.  Carmen's interpretation is quite different from that of Billie, who did this tune in 1956 with backing from Jazzmen Harry “Sweets” Edison, Jimmy Rowles, Benny Carter and Barney Kessel. Carmen's backing group features Ray Brown on bass, Joe Pass on guitar and Zoot Sims on tenor saxophone, and she brings good Jazz sensibility to her rendition.  I also enjoy Nat Cole's “Straighten Up and Fly Right,” Oscar Hammerstein's “All The Things You Are” and Stevie Wonder's “Sunshine of My Life” from this set.  Finally from this compilation I choose “Inside A Silent Tear.”  This is an exquisite ballad that features the accompaniment of guitar master Joe Pass.  This is the one that can bring the tear to your eye.

 “The Golden Collection” released by Fine Tune LLC of Albany, New York is another stellar compilation of twelve tunes by Carmen.  I have to first pick “Underneath The Apple Tree.” I don't  remember who the composer of this well known song is, but the lyrics sound quite 'sixties,'  with phrases like “we shoot up with summertime.”  This selection is quintessential Carmen, and it showcases her unique style.  I will always associate this selection with her, since it is also featured on a German compilation entitled “Sound of Jazz.”  Essential listening.

On “Golden Collection” Carmen also does nice versions of “Body and Soul” and “Black Magic.”  But my other pick from the CD is “Secret Love,” composed by Webster and Fain. Carmen first sings the verses right through “straight” with just the regular melody coming through.  She then cuts in as the music changes tempo, telling her live audience “that was the way by Doris Day; now here is the way by Carmen McRae!”  As the upbeat swing accompanies her, she changes up the melody, does her blue notes and generally jazzes up “Secret Love” in her own way.  The audience loved it.

My next featured CD is a real hit recording.  Done in January 1982 along with vibes player Cal Tjader, it is “Heatwave.”  “Heatwave” turned out to be Latin Jazz master Cal Tjader's last recording. This one is a superb recording.  He is just very fortunate to have done it with Carmen.  Every single selection is good, and the trombones, congas, timbales and other percussion instruments provide the structure and feeling for this Latin Jazz album extraordinaire.

The title track “Heatwave” kicks off the record in fine form.  Cal's vibes are a perfect match for Carmen's vocal stylings, and we know we are in for a treat.  It's interesting also that two Stevie Wonder compositions are featured: first, the ballad “All In Love Is Fair” and next “Don't You Worry 'Bout A Thing,” which is done here in a cha-cha style.  Consuelo Velasquez'  “Besame Mucho” gets good treatment, as do “Evil Ways” and “Do Nothing Till You Hear From Me.”  But I think it's the slow, gentle ones, the ballads that shine.  These are “Upside Down” and “Speak Low.”  Jazz maven Leonard Feather, whose pronouncements I believe are always spot on, gives this recording two thumbs up.  Over the years I have always come back again and again to “Heatwave” as one of the best Latin Jazz recordings out there.  Carmen's mastery of her idiom and her flexibility of style made this last production of Cal a fine culmination for him.  Very highly recommended is my advice regarding “Heatwave.”

Probably Carmen's best recording, to me, is the 1988 project “Carmen Sings Monk.”  We  know of Thelonious Monk as the innovative and idiosyncratic pianist and as one of the great explorers of the new harmonies that marked the advent of be-bop after the swing era.  Of her album showcasing the music of Monk, Carmen said “The idea of recording tunes written by Monk came to me about four years ago.  I have to admit that it was not one of the easiest projects.  But you can believe it was very challenging.  Thelonious was a dear friend and without doubt a genius, and I wanted to be connected to him in any way possible.  I am very proud of this album and the musicians involved.  Without them, I would have been LOST.  Thanks fellas.”

An intriguing detail about this recording is that all of Monk's songs such as “Straight, No Chaser,” “Ruby, My Dear” and “Blue Monk” had to be renamed because of the insistence of the music publishers that the instrumental versions have become part of a separate Monk literature.  In addition, lyrics had to be composed for all the music, and this was ably done by Jon Hendricks, Abbey Lincoln, Mike Ferro, Sally Swisher and Bernie Hanighen.  According to the author of the liner notes, Stuart Troup, the lyricists fleshed out the themes implicit in Monk's titles.  Sometimes the addition of words to Jazz selections is called vocalese, but I don't see Carmen's stylings here referred to in this manner.

Never mind, this is a truly first class Jazz album, definitely on the top of my list along with other seminal works and personal favorites. I think that singing with a small Jazz combo accompanying her brings out the very best in Carmen.  She interprets the pieces, scats and just swings throughout this set, and you can hear that a wonderful time was being had by all.   Troup feels that “Carmen has the sense of adventure to invigorate [Monk's] music and the savvy to deliver it unimpaired.”  Her bandmates offer impressive support, making for great music, with the marriage of voice and other instruments doing full justice to the overall intent.

Carmen's bandmates for this session all deserve a mention: Clifford Jordan on soprano and tenor sax, Eric Gunnison on piano, George Mraz on acoustic bass, Al Foster on drums, Charlie Rouse on tenor sax for the live tracks and Larry Willis on piano for the live tracks.  (There are two live tracks that were done at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco and included as alternate takes.) My favorite pieces are “It's Over Now,” known instrumentally as “Well You Needn't” and “Man That Was A Dream,” known instrumentally as “Monk's Dream.”  Carmen's scatting on these two    is second to none, and her ballad musings on other selections are simpatico and heartfelt.  Describing the music is difficult for me, as I am no Jazz critic, however as I have said before, nothing can beat actually listening to a full set from an artist like Carmen.  She was right at the top of her game on “Carmen Sings Monk.”  You've got to get a hold of this one!

Here is a challenge to Nelita, Jenny and Jackie – pick a couple of Carmen numbers.   And let's do a Belizean Women's Jazz Night.  We won't bother with the machismo of a “cutting” contest.  But we will hear your stylings and your emulation of Carmen and the other great Jazz women.  And it will show that in Belize we know about Jazz.  I sense that the public here is starved for good, solid musical entertainment.  We can rise to the occasion, and we do have the talent, the sensibility and the ability to pull it off.  I've experienced it myself, as have a fortunate few at a couple of Jazz Dinner Dances.  Want to set the date, girls??  Call me!!  (Carmen would be proud.)