Jazz singer Irene Kral was born January 18, 1932 in Chicago, Illinois. Her
brother, a professional musician, helped her score her initial gigs while Kral
was still a teenager and she would learn her craft in bands fronted by such
figures as Woody Herman, Maynard Ferguson, and Stan Kenton. She let her voice to
a smattering of recordings throughout the sixties, and her reputation as a
performer was well-established in the jazz community, but it was her 70s solo
work that cemented her status as one of her generation’s finest female ballad
singers alongside her friend, Carmen McRae. ...