Biography
Lorraine Geller stood out early as a gifted and exceptionally promising bop pianist whose trajectory ended abruptly from a sudden heart ailment unrelated to drugs. She first gained notice performing with the all-female big band the Sweethearts of Rhythm from 1949 to 1951. After wedding alto saxophonist Herb Geller in 1951, she relocated to Los Angeles, where over the next seven years she worked alongside many leading West Coast jazz and bop musicians, among them Shorty Rogers, Zoot Sims, Stan Getz, Red Mitchell, Charlie Parker, and Dizzy Gillespie. Geller also served as Kay Starr’s accompanist in 1957 and took part in the first Monterey Jazz Festival in 1958, only a month before her sudden death. Though she possessed substantial unfulfilled potential, she appeared on three EmArcy albums with her husband, several additional tracks they cut together for Imperial, one Red Mitchell session, and a 1954 trio album of her own for Dot.