June Christy

Though she was the epitome of the vocal cool movement of the 1950s, June Christy was a warm, chipper vocalist able to stretch out her impressive voice on bouncy swing tunes and set herself apart from other vocalists with her deceptively simple enunciation. From her time in <a href="spotify:artist:27hSR8e34ZM5vj5fUFixyb">Stan Kenton</a>'s Orchestra, she inherited a focus on brassy swing from arranger friends like <a href="spotify:artist:6NLW1QaFwxrhGeuBehGXUj">Pete Rugolo</a>. <a href="spotify:artist:6NLW1QaFwxrhGeuBehGXUj">Rugolo</a> would become a consistent companion far into her solo days, too, arranging most of her LPs and balancing her gymnastic vocal abilities with a series of attentive charts.

Born Shirley Luster in Springfield, IL, she began singing early on and appeared with a local society band during high school. She moved to Chicago in the early '40s, changed her name to Sharon Leslie, and sang with a group led by <a href="spotify:artist:5E84HDW1BoYkMZ7pQ9JU9a">Boyd Raeburn</a>. In 1945, after hearing that <a href="spotify:artist:5QGnprJtpZmk3OiDqspPlB">Anita O'Day</a> had just left <a href="spotify:artist:27hSR8e34ZM5vj5fUFixyb">Stan Kenton</a>'s Orchestra, she auditioned for the role and got it early that year. Despite an early resemblance (physically and vocally) to <a href="spotify:artist:5QGnprJtpZmk3OiDqspPlB">O'Day</a>, the singer -- renamed June Christy -- soon found her own style: a warm, chipper voice that stretched out beautifully and enlivened <a href="spotify:artist:27hSR8e34ZM5vj5fUFixyb">Kenton</a>'s crossover novelties ("Shoo Fly Pie and Apple Pan Dowdy," the million-selling "Tampico") as well as the leader's intricately arranged standards ("How High the Moon"). As she became more and more popular within the <a href="spotify:artist:27hSR8e34ZM5vj5fUFixyb">Kenton</a> band, arranger <a href="spotify:artist:6NLW1QaFwxrhGeuBehGXUj">Pete Rugolo</a> began writing charts with her style especially in mind. After the <a href="spotify:artist:27hSR8e34ZM5vj5fUFixyb">Kenton</a> orchestra broke up in 1948, Christy worked the nightclub circuit for awhile before reuniting with <a href="spotify:artist:27hSR8e34ZM5vj5fUFixyb">Kenton</a> for his 1950 <a href="spotify:artist:27hSR8e34ZM5vj5fUFixyb">Innovations in Modern Music Orchestra</a>, a very modern 40-piece group that toured America. She had already debuted as a solo act the year before, recording for Capitol with a group led by her husband, <a href="spotify:artist:27hSR8e34ZM5vj5fUFixyb">Kenton</a> tenor saxophonist <a href="spotify:artist:4DnrmZA1htqVJxqycYIswK">Bob Cooper</a>.

Christy's debut LP for Capitol, 1954's Something Cool, was recorded with <a href="spotify:artist:6NLW1QaFwxrhGeuBehGXUj">Rugolo</a> at the head of the orchestra. The album launched the vocal cool movement and hit the Top 20 album charts in America, as did a follow-up, The Misty Miss Christy. Her 1955 Duet LP paired her voice with <a href="spotify:artist:27hSR8e34ZM5vj5fUFixyb">Kenton</a>'s piano, while most of her Capitol LPs featured her with various <a href="spotify:artist:27hSR8e34ZM5vj5fUFixyb">Kenton</a> personnel and <a href="spotify:artist:6NLW1QaFwxrhGeuBehGXUj">Rugolo</a> (or <a href="spotify:artist:4DnrmZA1htqVJxqycYIswK">Bob Cooper</a>) at the head of the orchestra. She reprised her earlier big-band days with 1959's June Christy Recalls Those Kenton Days, and recorded a raft of concept LPs before retiring in 1965. Christy returned to the studio only once, for 1977's Impromptu on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Musicraft%22">Musicraft</a>. ~ John Bush, Rovi