Year: 2007
Time: 43:34
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Size: 100,7 MB
Art: Front
(3:25) 1. I Love A Ukulele
(3:09) 2. Charade
(3:19) 3. Aren't You Glad You're You
(3:10) 4. That Old Gang of Mine
(4:42) 5. Give Me The Simple Life
(4:18) 6. I Ain't Got Nothin' but The Blues
(2:47) 7. I Cried for You
(3:50) 8. Sway
(2:02) 9. Runnin' Wild
(3:40) 10. I Wish You Love
(3:09) 11. Surrey with The Fringe on Top
(3:02) 12. Reaching for The Moon
(3:00) 13. Then I'll Be Happy
Rebecca Kilgore, Vocalist, Curator, Sophisticated Lady, Dies at 76
Rebecca Kilgore, the effortlessly elegant vocalist, whose primary goal was to bring swing and the classics and rarities of the Great American Songbook into the 21st century, passed away on January 7 in her longtime homebase of Portland, Oregon. She was 76 years old. The cause of death of Lewy body dementia.
Recording primarily on small independent labels since her start around the age of 30 — first as part of a local Portland area swing ensemble the Wholly Cats, then on her own as the leader of the Rebecca Kilgore Quintet — the velvet-dipped-in-honey singer’s mission was that of purity, a clear-as-a-bell, clarion vocal tone familiar to fans of, say, Shirley Horn or Chris Connor, but by way of the music of the 1920s, ’30s and ’40s.
Along with being a canny vocalist, Kilgore was keen on finding rare gems within the Songbook’s deep catalog and revving them with verve and invention. And though she stayed under the radar with early band releases such as the Wholly Cats’ 1982 album Doggin’ Around and her cassette-only release I Hear Music, it was through the auspices of coyly clever composer and pianist Dave Frishberg that Kilgore got her first taste of fame beyond the Pacific Northwest jazz scene.
With Frishberg’s witty accompaniment and her stirring vocal qualities as a breath of fresh air to the traditions of popular jazz song, the pair recorded highly acclaimed albums such as Looking at You, I Saw Stars, Not a Care in the World and The Starlit Hour (the latter three for Arbors Records). Frishberg even told JazzTimes in 2011 that Kilgore was his “favorite singer to play for” and a “flawless,” original vocal talent. Other name-above-the-title band leaders that Kilgore teamed with on more than a few recordings were saxophonist Harry Allen, trombonist Dan Barrett, guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli and pianist John Sheridan.
Still, it is Kilgore’s long catalog of solo/leader recordings throughout the 2000s such as A Remembrance of Maxine Sullivan: Harlem Butterfly (Audiophile, 2001), Why Fight the Feeling? (Arbors, 2008), Yes, Indeed! (Blue Swing, 2010), I Like Men (Arbors, 2014), The Rebecca Kilgore Trio Vol. 1 (Heavywood, 2021) and A Little Taste: A Tribute to Dave Frishberg (Cherry Pie, 2024) that are most entrancing, rewarding and worth the crate-digging. Kilgore was always possessed of a stately, graceful voice and a curiously inventive sense of curation and orchestration, whether you heard her at age 30 or 70.
https://www.jazztimes.com/blog/rebecca-kilgore-vocalist-curator-sophisticated-lady-dies-at-76/
Birth: sept. 24th, 1949
Waltham, Massachusetts, EUA
Death: jan. 7th, 2026
Portland, Oregon, EUA
I Wish You Love
One afternoon, some long ago, I happened to encounter Rebecca Kilgore in the parking lot on my way to swim (We have an indoor swimming pool). Shocked to see her at the place where I live, I asked her what the occasion was. She informed me that she was going to have a rehearsal with Lyle and that was how I learned that Lyle Ritz also lived at the condominium, but I never had an opportunity of meeting him in person.
ReplyDeleteHow wonderful that you met her while she was alive! I'm happy for you!
ReplyDeleteI did not realize that she passed away; Died January 7, 2026 (aged 76). Living in the same city I often saw her performances and chatted with her in person. One time she responded back to my email while she was performing in Germany. I joked not to get drunk with beer and she replied that she does not drink at all. In fact, when we both attended at somebody else' gigs in town, she ordered a black coffee, not decaffeinated. I was amused and asked if she could sleep or not and she responded that she has no problem with caffeine at all, meaning that she can still sleep after having coffee at night.
ReplyDeletehttps://jazzlives.wordpress.com/2026/01/09/rebecca-becky-roo-missing-miss-kilgore/
DeleteDear Kiken,
DeleteThank you for sharing your life experiences with us. Certain details of our idols' lives make all the difference, much better than any review of the artist's work.
Thank you, Nobody'sTunes! Shamelessly I tend to open my big mouth to any one I encounter and in return I end up getting an interesting responses or connections, thought I would never consider them as my friends. That was why sadly I was not aware of Rebecca Kilgore' passing.....
ReplyDeleteWe didn't know either, Kiken, until the date of this post, and it's thanks to this habit of yours that today you can enjoy those good memories.
DeleteHave a wonderful Sunday afternoon, my friend!
P.s. and take care of yourself as we heard of the ongoing major winter storm with frigid temperatures that are affecting the US.
Another sad news;
DeleteSinger-pianist Audrey Morris dies at 89, was an icon of Chicago cabaret and jazz
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2018/04/01/singer-pianist-audrey-morris-dies-at-89-was-an-icon-of-chicago-cabaret-and-jazz/
My discovery of Audrey Morris was that I happened to find one of her old CDs at the used CD store in Osaka, Japan while visiting my family a long time ago. Once I got back to my home in Portland, I googled for her and found that she was selling her 'new' CD online. I ordered it immediately with a note about how I discovered her. She never cashed my check. And then some years later we were supposed to meet in person, when she was scheduled to perform in New York City. Unfortunately she got sick and could not make it.
Sad news, Kiken! We are losing our musical references, it's the law of life... đ
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