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Carol Sloane

Carol Sloane was born to Claudia and Frank Morvan on March 5, 1937, in Providence, Rhode Island, the older of two daughters, but she never lived in that city. Instead, she spent her happy childhood in the small town of Smithfield, just a few short miles north of the city. Her parents worked steadily through the years of World War II in the textile mill near their home.

Carol was the lucky member of a large family of cousins, aunts and uncles who all possessed natural singing voices. Only one uncle ever received formal musical education, and he played the tenor sax. In 1951, her Uncle Joe arranged an audition for her with a society dance band led by Ed Drew, and she began singing the stock arrangements of popular hits of the day each Wednesday and Saturday night at Rhodes-on-the-Pawtuxet Ballroom, located in Cranston, Rhode Island.

In 1955, Carol married a Providence disc jockey named Charlie Jefferds, and almost immediately, the couple found themselves at Fort Carson, Colorado where Charlie endured the rigors of basic training followed by a one-year obligatory tour of duty in Germany. They returned to the US in January 1958, and were amicably divorced in that year.

Carol continued to sing in small bars and clubs until she met the road manager of the Les and Larry Elgart Orchestra, which was touring the amusement park ballrooms in the southern New England area. She auditioned for Larry Elgart, who then asked her to come to New York with his band. The brothers had recently split the organization, Les taking the territory west of Chicago, Larry to handle everything east of Chicago. Larry Elgart suggested she change her name to Carol Sloane.

The “road years” with the Larry Elgart band continued until 1960, when the road simply became too boring and too difficult for her. After two years on the road, she was still unknown, and there were no singing engagements to be had. She took various secretarial jobs booked through Manhattan temp agencies. She continued her working relationship with the former road manager of the Elgart band, who had become an agent in the office of the legendary Willard Alexander. This man, Bob Bonis, arranged for Carol to sing at a jazz festival in Pittsburgh in 1960, at which time she met Lambert, Hendricks and Ross.

Jon Hendricks asked Carol if she could learn the LH&R book in order to be prepared to take Annie Ross’ place if that ever became necessary. Carol agreed to study the group’s exacting material, and continued her secretarial gigs. Then, one night in early 1961, when attending a performance of LH&R at the Village Vanguard, Jon asked Carol to sing a couple of tunes on her own, after which the legendary proprietor Max Gordon asked her if she’d like to sing at the club the following August as opening act for Oscar Peterson. In her own words, “I stammered an acceptance, and walked five feet off the ground on the way home”.

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Interview

Carol Sloane on Singers and Songs: A Blindfold Test

Read "Carol Sloane on Singers and Songs: A Blindfold Test" reviewed by Mathew Bahl


Tell Carol Sloane you like one of her records and you will probably get the same reaction every time. She will smile graciously, thank you sincerely and then proceed politely to explain how she could have done the song better. Given her own exacting standards, not to mention her experience as a disc jockey and as a reviewer for Downbeat, it seemed natural to put Carol in the hot seat for a blindfold test. I Could Have Told ...

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Profile

Carol Sloane: Setting New Standards

Read "Carol Sloane: Setting New Standards" reviewed by Mathew Bahl


In her concert appearances, Carol Sloane often sings a lovely ballad called “An Older Man is Like an Elegant Wine." Listening to Ms. Sloane extol the virtues of age and experience in a voice as soft and warm as angora wool, it is hard not to conclude that the sentiments of the lyric have an even more specific application to the art of jazz. The truth is that no matter how hot a young musician might be at a given ...

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Radio & Podcasts

Celebrate Women's History Month With New Releases By Ally Fiola, Emily Braden, Danielle Wertz, Jane Bunnett & Maqueque, Jackie Ryan & More

Read "Celebrate Women's History Month With New Releases By Ally Fiola, Emily Braden, Danielle Wertz, Jane Bunnett & Maqueque, Jackie Ryan & More" reviewed by Mary Foster Conklin


This broadcast celebrates the beginning of Women's History Month with new releases from Bill Mays, Ally Fiola, Emily Braden, Danielle Wertz, Jane Bunnett & Maqueque, Jackie Ryan and Markus Rutz, plus birthday shoutouts to Carol Sloane, Miriam Makeba, Sara Serpa, Tomoko Ohno, Roseanna Vitro and Kirk Nurock, among others. Thanks for listening and please support the artists you hear by seeing them live and online. Purchase their music so they can continue to distract, comfort, provoke and inspire.Playlist ...

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Album Review

Carol Sloane: Carol Sloane Live At Birdland

Read "Carol Sloane Live At Birdland" reviewed by Richard J Salvucci


Was there ever a more storied exponent of the Great American Songbook than Carol Sloane? She started singing professionally at the age of fourteen, made her first recording in 1959, was the “gal singer" for Arthur Godfrey for a spell, and went on to record virtually any tune you can think of (and, more than likely, a few you cannot). Her voice, shimmering and luminous, worked especially well on ballads, but her up-tempo material was equally compelling. She sang with ...

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Radio & Podcasts

Something Cool - Celebrating Carol Sloane

Read "Something Cool - Celebrating Carol Sloane" reviewed by Mary Foster Conklin


Women's History Month continues with new releases from saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin, vocalist Jay Clayton, pianist Nuphar Fey and guitarist Pat Metheny, with birthday shout outs to vocalist Carol Sloane in the first hour (pictured), along with Nicki Parrott, Rachelle Garniez, Billy Childs, Carole Bayer Sager, Tomoko Ohno, Anat Fort and Eric Comstock, among others. Playlist Leslie Pintchik “Tumbleweed" from Same Day Delivery (Pintch Hard Records) 00:00 Carol Sloane “Can't We Be Friends?" from Something Cool (Candid Records) 06:56 ...

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Album Review

Carole Sloane: Dearest Duke

Read "Dearest Duke" reviewed by Suzanne Lorge


One of the most fascinating things about Carol Sloane's Dearest Duke is that you can hear every discrete note of every performance on the disc, so spare is the accompaniment and so prominent are the vocals in the mix. Another interesting thing about Sloane's debut effort for Arbors: each number is a ballad. So again, you can hear everything. When Duke Ellington is the composer, Ken Peplowski the horn player, Brad Hatfield the pianist and Sloane the singer, such unabashed ...

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Album Review

Carol Sloane: Something Cool

Read "Something Cool" reviewed by J. Robert Bragonier


Carol Sloane has spent more than fifty years as a jazz singer, and she sings with as much sensitivity and feeling as anyone in the business. This album was recorded in 1978 and released the following year; she had made two prior Columbia records in the early ‘60s, and in 1977, two additional albums were released in Japan. Ms. Sloane’s acclaim as a mature artist makes this re- release required listening, while the quality of her sidemen virtually ensures that ...

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Video / DVD

Carol Sloane: My 10 Favorite Tracks

Carol Sloane: My 10 Favorite Tracks

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

Yesterday, I posted my full 2009 interview with the late Carol Sloane, which Matt Schudel quote for in Washington Post obit. Today, I thought I'd provide 10 of my favorite recordings by Carol: Here's Angel Eyes from After Hours, a demo tape recorded in 1959... Here's Prelude to a Kiss from Out of the Blue, with arrangements by Bill Finegan, in 1961... Here's Taking a Chance on Love from Carol Sloane Live at 30th Street in 1962... Here's When Your ...

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Obituary

Carol Sloane (1937-2023)

Carol Sloane (1937-2023)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

Carol Sloane, a superb singer with remarkable pitch who was widely considered to be the last great female big-band and club jazz vocalist to emerge at the dawn of the 1960s, just before the British Invasion swept over the record industry, died on January 23, 2023. She was 85. “Sloaney," as she was known to friends, had Sarah Vaughan's phrasing in the 1960s but also shared the round richness and twinkle of Ella Fitzgerald. With a husky, rich and caressing ...

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Interview

Interview: Carol Sloane (Part 2)

Interview: Carol Sloane (Part 2)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

No matter how hard singer Carol Sloane worked in the late 1950s, the odds of becoming a nationally known big band singer were against her. Younger audiences no longer found romance in the songs of Tin Pan Alley, and fewer adults were going out to hear music let alone dance. Touring with a big band, even a headliner like Larry Elgart, had its creative benefits but the grueling pace offered little long-term reward. [Photo of Carol Sloane in 1961, The ...

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Interview

Interview: Carol Sloane (Part 4)

Interview: Carol Sloane (Part 4)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

In the summer of 1964, the world turned upside down for singer Carol Sloane. That year her mentor Bob Bonis became the U.S. road manager for two English rock bands: the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Her close friendship with Bonis made her a part of the Rolling Stones' entourage during their first tour in June and an eyewitness to an event that all but buried jazz's popularity: the Beatles' appearance in 1965 at Shea Stadium. As Carol notes below, ...

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Interview

Interview: Carol Sloane (Part 5)

Interview: Carol Sloane (Part 5)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

Few jazz singers had as tough a time coming up through the ranks as Carol Sloane. Most singers who are top of mind emerged when jazz was America's pop music and plenty of opportunities existed for vocalists to record and connect with the public. But just as Carol's career began to flower in the early 1960s, jazz singing as a genre suffered several devastating blows. By 1965, jazz was rapidly being replaced by new forms of popular music, and female ...

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Interview

Interview: Carol Sloane (Part 1)

Interview: Carol Sloane (Part 1)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

Carol Sloane is easily the finest jazz singer of the post-jazz era. After getting her start in 1958 with the Larry Elgart Orchestra, Carol experienced a series of Cinderella breaks just as rock was beginning to yank the commercial rug out from under jazz. Had Carol been born five years earlier, she surely would be as well known today as Carmen McRae, Chris Connor and other headline singers who emerged during the rock-free early 1950s.

When you listen to Carol's ...

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Interview

Interview: Carol Sloane (Part 3)

Interview: Carol Sloane (Part 3)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

The early 1960s was a bleak period for new jazz singers like Carol Sloane. Between 1960 and the arrival of the Beatles in 1964, pop music surged in popularity. Weary of Tin Pan Alley standards, young adult record-buyers favored music that was simple and upbeat. And new. To fill 12-inch LPs, record company A&R executives reached for the latest Broadway musicals and songs written by a new generation of show composers. [Photo of Carol and Coleman Hawkins at the Newport ...

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Recording

Recent Listening: Lou Levy, Carol Sloane

Recent Listening: Lou Levy, Carol Sloane

Source: Rifftides by Doug Ramsey

Trying to keep up with new releases, I often get sidetracked by old favorites. It happens that my recent listening coincides with the birthday of two of the listenees.

Lou Levy, Lunarcy (Verve). Levy would have been 81 today. He died in January of 2001. From his post-World War Two beginnings with Georgie Auld through work with Sarah Vaughan, Boyd Raeburn, Woody Herman, Peggy Lee, Ella Fitzgerald, Stan Getz and Frank Sinatra--among many others--Levy was in demand as a band ...

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Music Industry

CAROL SLOANE SIZZLES AT THE ALGONQUIN. AUGUST 14-SEPTEMBER 1

CAROL SLOANE SIZZLES AT THE ALGONQUIN.  AUGUST 14-SEPTEMBER 1

Source: All About Jazz

(New York, NY) Legendary jazz singer Carol Sloane begins a three-week engagement at the famed Oak Room in the Algonquin Hotel on August 14th. The sultry Ms. Sloane will feature songs from her forthcoming HighNote CD “I Never Went Away", performing with her Musical Director, great jazz pianist Norman Simmons.

“She is one of our very best singer/actresses, bridging the cabaret/jazz spectrum with a seeming ease born of absolute authority and a crisp intelligence." - Cadence Magazine

Oak Room, Algonquin ...

Carol Sloane, "Dearest Duke" (Arbors): The other outstanding vocal album of the year is Ms. Sloane's latest and most heartfelt collection of Ellingtonia. The nod almost went to Andy Bey's new Birdland set, but the presence of the brilliant clarinetist Ken Peplowski on every track puts Ms. Sloane over the top. -Will Friedwald, The New York Sun, Dec. 28, 2007 The Washington Post, December 25, 2007 "DEAREST DUKE" Carol Sloane Jazz singer Carol Sloane has been perennially underappreciated during her long, uncompromising career. She sings with a rare maturity and grace and has dozens of excellent recordings, yet she is little known outside a small circle of admirers

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Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Hush-A-Bye

Justin Time
2010

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Dearest Duke

Arbors Records
2007

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Something Cool

ChoiCe/Candid
2003

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I Never Went Away

Justin Time
2001

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Carol Sloane

Concord Jazz
2001

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