Irene Kral

Renowned for infusing her interpretations with both deep feeling and refined nuance, Irene Kral earned recognition as one of the foremost ballad specialists of her era despite a career cut short by illness. As the younger sibling of vocalist and pianist Roy Kral, who performed as part of the duo Jackie & Roy, she launched her professional path by joining the Jay Burkhardt Big Band. While based in Chicago she took on freelance engagements, among them appearances with the vocal ensemble known as the Tattle-Tales, before committing nine months in 1957 to Maynard Ferguson’s orchestra. She later collaborated with Herb Pomeroy’s Orchestra. Following her marriage she relocated to Los Angeles and stepped away from performing for an extended period. Between 1974 and 1977, however, she produced three finely crafted albums for the Choice and Catalyst labels; two of these were intimate duet projects with pianist Alan Broadbent titled Where Is Love and Gentle Rain, works now regarded as benchmarks in the genre. Her account of “Spring Can Really Hang You up the Most” remains the definitive version. Cancer ended her life at age 46 while she stood at the peak of her abilities. The full body of her studio recordings—those issued by United Artists in 1959, the 1963 Ava session, the 1965 Mainstream date, and the later Choice and Catalyst releases—has fallen out of print, although a September 1977 concert recording originally issued by Just Jazz in the mid-1990s remains accessible on compact disc.