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. Those defining LPs include a pair of collaborations with pianist Alan Broadbent (1974’s Where Is Love? and 1978’s Gentle Rain), and 1977’s Kral Space which showcased her exquisite taste and gentle, sensitive approach on such compositions as “Some Time Ago”, “Small Day Tomorrow” and “It Wasn’t So Good It Couldn’t Get Better”. Sadly, soon after this flurry of notable work, Kral passed away on August 15, 1978 from cancer.
