Irene Kral

• Name — Irene Kral • Birthplace — Chicago, Illinois • Born — 18 February 1932 • Place of death — Encino, Los Angeles • Died — 15 August 1978 • Genre — Jazz • Occupation — Vocalist

She was born to Czechoslovak parents in Chicago and settled in Los Angeles, California, in the early 1960s. She died from breast cancer in Encino, Los Angeles. Kral's older brother, Roy Kral, was developing his own career as a musician, when she began to sing professionally as a teenager. She sang with bands on tours led by Woody Herman and Chubby Jackson, Herman's bass player. She joined Maynard Ferguson's band in the late 1950s and sang with groups led by Stan Kenton, Terry Gibbs, and Shelly Manne. She had a solo career until her death at 46 years of age. She was a ballad singer who said Carmen McRae was one of her inspirations. She became better known posthumously, when Clint Eastwood used her recordings in his 1995 movie The Bridges of Madison County. Her style has been compared to that of Carmen McRae (the two singers were friends). Dana Countryman quotes from Linda Dahl's 1984 book on women in jazz, Stormy Weather: "Irene Kral had a lovely, resonant voice with a discreet vibrato, flawless diction and intonation, and a slight, attractive nasality and shaping of phrases that resembled Carmen McRae's. But where McRae's readings tend to the astringent, Kral's melt like butter. She was a master of quiet understatement and good taste."

• The Band and I with Herb Pomeroy (United Artists, 1958) • SteveIreneO! (United Artists, 1959) • Better Than Anything with Junior Mance (Ava, 1963) • Wonderful Life (Mainstream, 1965) • Where Is Love? (Choice, 1974) • Sessions, Live (Calliope, 1976) • Kral Space (Catalyst, 1977) • Gentle Rain (Choice, 1978) – with Alan Broadbent • Angel Eyes (Trio, 1978) • Live (Just Jazz, 2000) • Just for Now (Jazzed Media, 2004) • Second Chance (Jazzed Media, 2010)

• Laurindo Almeida, Guitar from Ipanema (Capitol, 1964) • Buddy Collette, The Buddy Collette Quintet (Studio West, 2001) • Maynard Ferguson, Boy with Lots of Brass (EmArcy, 1957) • Terry Gibbs, Dream Band, Vol. 6: One More Time (Contemporary, 2002) • Shelly Manne, My Fair Lady (Capitol, 1964)

The canonical record carries the following identifying particulars.

The following works and productions are recorded by name or by count. It is also recorded that irene Kral is recorded with the occupation singer. The register further records that irene Kral is recorded with the occupation jazz musician. Classed in the genre jazz. Recorded with the occupation musician. Institutional cataloguing adds that irene Kral is recorded with the occupation jazz singer. Institutional cataloguing adds that irene Kral is recorded as a citizen of United States. Recorded with the gender female. The record continues: irene Kral was born on 18 January 1932. It is also recorded that irene Kral died on 15 August 1978.