Chris Connor - LA Times, NYT obtuaries

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-chris-connor1-2009sep01,0,6929714.story

Chris Connor dies at 81; big-band and solo jazz singer
She was known for 'All About Ronnie,' which she did as part of the Stan Kenton Orchestra. She became a soloist in the 1950s and had hits with 'Trust in Me' and 'About the Blues.'
By Dennis McLellan
Los Angeles Times - September 1, 2009

Chris Connor, a smoky-voiced jazz vocalist who gained renown for her recording of "All About Ronnie" and other singles with the Stan Kenton Orchestra before going solo in 1953 and having success with songs such as "Trust in Me" and "About the Blues," has died. She was 81.

Connor died of cancer Saturday at Community Medical Center in Toms River, N.J., said her longtime companion and manager, Lori Muscarelle.

In a more than 50-year singing career that began in the late 1940s with the Claude Thornhill Orchestra, Connor recorded with bandleader Herbie Fields and sang with Jerry Wald's big band before joining Kenton in early 1953.

Known for what has been described as her "warm, cello-like tones" and using little or no vibrato, she achieved her greatest acclaim beginning in the mid-1950s singing with small groups made up of established jazz musicians.

"She, along with Carmen McRae, really pioneered jazz trio singing where they'd stand in front of a mike and, supported by piano, bass and drums, created enormous intimacy," said jazz historian and journalist Marc Myers.

Connor's first album, recorded in 1954, was "Chris Connor Sings Lullabys of Birdland," with the Ellis Larkins Trio.

"What you begin to hear with Chris are breathy vocals and a slick-chick delivery that was both sexy and savvy," he said. "You never got the feeling with Chris that she was a helpless female, but you never got the feeling that she was bossy, either. And, as a result, almost everyone who heard her fell in love with her."

The interesting thing about Connor, said jazz critic Don Heckman, was that "she came along at a time when there was a concept of coolness coming into jazz -- the Miles Davis 'Birth of the Cool' recordings and the general sense of coolness that was associated with West Coast jazz, which was becoming very popular.

"The clear sound of her vibrato-less vocals and her cool onstage manner always reminded me of the detachment of the [Alfred] Hitchcock heroines of the time."

Connor was born Mary Loutsenhizer in Kansas City, Mo., on Nov. 8, 1927. Although she studied clarinet for eight years, she later said that she always wanted to be a singer.

"I never took lessons," she told the Buffalo News in 1996. "I like a natural singer better."

While working as a secretary after graduating from high school, she spent weekends singing with a Kenton-influenced college jazz band at the University of Missouri.

In 1949, after moving to New York City, she joined the Claude Thornhill Orchestra as a member of the four Snowflakes, Thornhill's singing group.

Connor was singing with Jerry Wald's band when former Kenton vocalist June Christy heard her on a radio broadcast from a New Orleans hotel and recommended her to Kenton.

As a singer, Connor was often compared to Christy and Anita O'Day, who preceded them in the Kenton band. But, Myers said, "she didn't set out to be like them. It so happened her voice had similar characteristics."

In a 1986 interview with the San Diego Union-Tribune, Connor acknowledged that she "went to school" on O'Day but also studied the style of Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Christy.

"I may have spent more time studying Anita and June because I made up my mind early on I wanted to sing with the Kenton band," she said.

Connor's recording of the ballad "All About Ronnie" and other recordings with Kenton brought her national acclaim. But tired of the grind of performing on the road, she left Kenton in mid-1953 and soon launched her solo career.

After a year and a half with Bethlehem Records, Connor signed with Atlantic Records, where she recorded from 1956 to 1962.

Although her career took a downturn after leaving Atlantic, she continued recording for other labels until 2003. Her last appearance was at the Iridium Jazz Club in New York City in 2004.

In addition to Muscarelle, Connor is survived by a nephew. Services will be private.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/01/arts/music/01connor.html?_r=1&ref=obituaries

Chris Connor, Jazz Singer Whose Voice Embodied a Wistful Cool, Dies at 81
The New York Times - Stephen Holden
Published: September 1, 2009

Chris Connor, the great jazz singer whose lush, foggy voice and compressed emotional intensity distilled a 1950s jazz reverie of faraway longing in a sad cafe, died on Saturday in Toms River, N.J. She was 81 and lived in Toms River.

A singer who used little vibrato and was admired for her inventive rhythmic alterations of ballads, Ms. Connor belonged to the cool school of jazz singers that included Anita O’Day, June Christy, Chet Baker and Julie London.

In her finest records, she conveyed the sound of a singer rapt in a romantic spell. Both O’Day and Christy, whom she emulated, preceded her as vocalists with the Stan Kenton band, which she joined briefly in 1952, replacing Christy. Ms. Connor had earlier sung with the Claude Thornhill band.

During her solo recording career, which began in 1953, Ms. Connor had only two charted hits: “I Miss You So” (1956) and “Trust In Me” (1957), both for Atlantic Records. But for jazz vocal aficionados, her signature song, “All About Ronnie,” Joe Greene’s smoldering ballad of romantic obsession, is a pop-jazz milestone of dreamy cool. Originally recorded with Kenton, she re-recorded it on Bethlehem Records after she went solo.

Today, many of Ms. Connor’s 1950s and ’60s albums are regarded as pop-jazz classics. Among the strongest are three from 1956, “Chris Connor,” “I Miss You So” and “He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not,” as well as “Chris Connor Sings the George Gershwin Almanac of Song” (1957) and “A Portrait of Chris” (1960).

She recorded two highly regarded albums, one for the Atlantic, the other for ABC Paramount, with the Maynard Ferguson big band.

Especially during the Atlantic years, Ms. Connor worked with the best arrangers, including Ralph Burns and Jimmy Jones, and jazz players like John Lewis, Oscar Pettiford, Phil Woods, Kenny Burrell, Milt Hinton, Clark Terry and Oliver Nelson. Other songs with which she is associated include “Lush Life,” “Good Morning Heartache,” “Something to Live For,” “High on a Windy Hill,” “Round About,” Lullaby of Birdland,” “Witchcraft,” “Glad to Be Unhappy” and “Get Out of Town.”

Born Mary Loutsenhizer in Kansas City, Mo., on Nov. 8, 1927, Ms. Connor studied clarinet for eight years as a child before becoming a singer in her late teens. She decided to pursue a fulltime career after her public singing debut in 1945 at the Jefferson City (Mo.) Junior College graduation was warmly received.

Ms. Connor worked as a stenographer by day and sang on weekends in the Kansas City area. Then, determined to hit the big time, she moved to New York City. There she met Thornhill, who was seeking a singer to fill out his vocal group, the Snowflakes. She toured with the band on and off until late 1952.

Her dream of singing with Kenton was realized when Christy, who had been planning to leave Kenton, heard her on a live broadcast in early 1953 and recommended her as a replacement. Within days, Ms. Connor auditioned and began touring with the band.

The rigors of the road, however, took their toll, and she left after 10 months to go solo. She signed with Bethlehem Records, which simultaneously released two 10-inch LPs, “Chris Connor Sings Lullabys of Birdland and “Chris Connor Sings Lullabys for Lovers.” They were hugely successful.

In 1956, she became one of the first white female jazz singers signed to Atlantic Records and recorded more than a dozen albums for the label. In 1963, however, when it came time to renew her contract, she decided instead to sign with her manager Monte Kay’s small label, FM. The label declared bankruptcy the following year.

That unfortunate decision coincided with the rock ’n’ roll insurgence, which swept aside singers like Ms. Connor, and her career never fully recovered. She endured what she later described as a bad period that lasted until the early ’70s.

Her setbacks were compounded by a worsening drinking problem, which she eventually overcame. Her 1980s comeback revealed a voice that was physically stronger than ever, but its emotional elixir was diluted. She continued to perform and to record for small labels. Her last three records, “Haunted Heart,” “I Walk With Music,” and “Everything I Love,” were released on Highnote Records, the final album in 2003.

Ms. Connor is survived by her longtime partner and manager, Lori Muscarelle.