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Kit McClure Band

Kit McClure, Yale University 1975, is a bandleader and saxophonist in New York City. Her credits include tours in the USA, Japan, and Europe with R&B legends Sam and Dave, Broadway show "Dancin'," and featured soloist with the Barry White Orchestra. In 1982 her vision of a band of women musicians became a reality as the Kit McClure Band made its debut at the Ritz in New York City. The Band quickly became a popular fixture in the New York nightclub scene, and also had the privilege of touring with the great Cab Calloway. Soon the Band was noticed by the recording industry and was put on the payroll of Island Records to prepare a show with the late rock star Robert Palmer. This show toured two years later, playing sold out houses at Radio City Music Hall, Garden State Arts Center and similar venues across the Northeast. Eight tours of Japan quickly ensued, with time out to produce the CD "Some Like It Hot" on Redhot Records. The Band's second CD release, "Burning," also on Redhot Records, was produced in 1996 by jazz legend Teo Macero. The Band has recently completed five tours of Europe in support of these recordings.

The Kit McClure Band is as dedicated to keeping a dance floor full as it is to providing a show in concert halls and music festivals. The Band's music ranges from transcriptions of Duke Ellington's and Count Basie's popular works all the way to the soulful grooves of Aretha Franklin, James Brown and original arrangements by Kit McClure and the Band. As a dance orchestra the band has enlivened ballrooms across the Northeast, such as the Waldorf Astoria and the Plaza in the Band's hometown New York City.

The Kit McClure Band has continued to further the recognition of the achievements of women in music by completing "The Sweethearts Project," a tribute to the International Sweethearts of Rhythm, the popular all women band of World War II. The resulting recording is The Sweethearts Project, Redhot Records, released in March 2004.

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189
Album Review

Kit McClure Band: Just the Thing

Read "Just the Thing" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Just the Thing is Part Two of the Kit McClure Band's warmhearted salute to the International Sweethearts of Rhythm, a groundbreaking all-woman ensemble that came out of a school for poor black children in Piney Woods, Mississippi, to become one of the most widely successful and admired big bands of the World War II era. Whereas Part One was devoted for the most part to faithful transcriptions of original charts played by the Sweethearts, this second component consists of updated ...

151
Album Review

Kit McClure Band: The Sweethearts Project

Read "The Sweethearts Project" reviewed by Elliott Simon


An historically accurate portrayal, The Sweethearts Project is a tribute to the all-woman big band known as the International Sweethearts of Rhythm, which kept the home front swinging during WWII. Using seventeen of her peers and former Sweethearts vocalist Carline Ray, bandleader and tenor saxophonist Kit McClure has produced a modern showcase for the finest contemporary female jazz musicians to strut their prodigious chops while highlighting an important but neglected part of jazz history. “Vi Vigor" kicks things ...

272
Extended Analysis

Kit McClure Band: The Sweethearts Project

Read "Kit McClure Band: The Sweethearts Project" reviewed by Jack Bowers


The Kit McClure Band The Sweethearts Project Redhot Records 2004

The subtitle of this new album by the New York-based Kit McClure Band is “A Tribute to the International Sweethearts of Rhythm." For those of you who weren't around in the '40s, that may require a few words of explanation. At a time when women in jazz were confined largely to singing, playing piano or simply looking good on the arm of ...

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131

Award / Grant

Kit McClure Band wins Small Business Award from Mayor Bloomberg

Kit McClure Band wins Small Business Award from Mayor Bloomberg

Source: All About Jazz

Kit McClure states “...my band and I won the NYC Mayor's Small Business Award." (Awarded 03/03/05) May I respectfully point out that the educational outreach that Kit McClure and her band have done not only is worthy of the recognition of this award, but additionally, Kit has already committed to become a “FUNdraising" partner with A Better Community For All (ABC4All). Here you will find info about the award including and the press release As such, her work will be ...

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Just the Thing

Redhot Records
2006

buy

Kit McClure Band: The...

Redhot Records
2004

buy

The Sweethearts...

Redhot Records
2004

buy

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