Biography
Born on 21 April 1925 in New York City, Carline Ray passed away there on 18 July 2013 at age 88 after suffering complications from a stroke. Her father, though musically talented, never secured consistent employment in the field despite having performed in James Reese Europe’s ensemble and receiving an offer to join the New York Philharmonic. Ray herself took up both piano and voice, and at sixteen she enrolled at the Juilliard School of Music—the same institution from which her father had received his diploma in 1925. During her studies there she concentrated on composition while also discovering jazz through classmate Edna Smith, a bassist, and soon developed solid command of that instrument as well.
Upon completing her Juilliard degree in 1946, Ray and Smith both entered the International Sweethearts of Rhythm, where Ray contributed guitar and vocals. Two years later, after the group dissolved, she signed on as vocalist with Erskine Hawkins and His Orchestra, yet continued playing guitar during instrumental passages rather than remaining inactive. Once that engagement ended, Ray, Smith, and another former Sweetheart, Pauline Braddy, formed a trio that worked New York nightclubs, among them a venue run by Luis Russell, whom Ray married in 1956.
Around the same period she acquired a Fender bass and occasionally traded instruments with Smith. In addition to the trio’s gigs, Ray appeared with assorted ensembles, notably pianist Frank Anderson’s Latin orchestra, and in 1956 she earned a master’s degree in voice. Over the following twenty years she maintained a steady schedule of performances, singing and switching among every instrument she had mastered across jazz, popular, classical, and choral contexts. In 1981 she obtained funding to study acoustic bass with the noted jazz musician Major Holley.
Equally at ease with the contrasting requirements of jazz, pop, classical, and choral music, Ray approached her craft as a consummate professional who regarded music as an enduring source of both challenge and satisfaction. She nevertheless encountered the bias routinely directed toward women in jazz, once observing to Sally Placksin, “... I would rather be taken seriously as a musician, and the fact that I’m female - I just happen to be female, that’s all.”
Upon completing her Juilliard degree in 1946, Ray and Smith both entered the International Sweethearts of Rhythm, where Ray contributed guitar and vocals. Two years later, after the group dissolved, she signed on as vocalist with Erskine Hawkins and His Orchestra, yet continued playing guitar during instrumental passages rather than remaining inactive. Once that engagement ended, Ray, Smith, and another former Sweetheart, Pauline Braddy, formed a trio that worked New York nightclubs, among them a venue run by Luis Russell, whom Ray married in 1956.
Around the same period she acquired a Fender bass and occasionally traded instruments with Smith. In addition to the trio’s gigs, Ray appeared with assorted ensembles, notably pianist Frank Anderson’s Latin orchestra, and in 1956 she earned a master’s degree in voice. Over the following twenty years she maintained a steady schedule of performances, singing and switching among every instrument she had mastered across jazz, popular, classical, and choral contexts. In 1981 she obtained funding to study acoustic bass with the noted jazz musician Major Holley.
Equally at ease with the contrasting requirements of jazz, pop, classical, and choral music, Ray approached her craft as a consummate professional who regarded music as an enduring source of both challenge and satisfaction. She nevertheless encountered the bias routinely directed toward women in jazz, once observing to Sally Placksin, “... I would rather be taken seriously as a musician, and the fact that I’m female - I just happen to be female, that’s all.”
Albums