Jacqueline Ruth "Jackie" Cain (May 22, 1928 – September 15, 2014) was an American

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

singer known for her partnership with her husband in the duo

Jackie and Roy Jackie and Roy was an American jazz vocal team consisting of husband and wife singer Jackie Cain (1928-2014) and singer/pianist Roy Kral (1921-2002). They sang together for 56 years and made almost 40 albums. Kral's 2002 obituary in ''The New Y ...

. She was the sister-in-law of singer

Irene Kral Irene Kral (January 18, 1932 – August 15, 1978) was an American jazz singer who was born to Czechoslovakian parents in Chicago, Illinois and settled in Los Angeles in the early 1960s. She died from breast cancer in Encino, California. Kral's ol ...

Life and career

Born in

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee is ...

, Wisconsin, Cain was the daughter of an office furniture salesman who also managed a community theater. After her parents' divorce, she and her mother, who took a job with a photo-imaging company, moved to a rooming house. Cain first became interested in music through listening to the radio and performing in the chorus at her elementary school. While in high school she performed in an a cappella chorus during the school day and began performing on a children's radio show and with a band organized by a local music store in Milwaukee. At the age of 17, Cain accepted her first full-time job in music as a singer with Jay Burkhart's band. In 1947, at the age of 19, she was introduced to

Roy Kral Roy is a masculine given name and a family surname with varied origin. In Anglo-Norman England, the name derived from the Norman ''roy'', meaning "king", while its Old French cognate, ''rey'' or ''roy'' (modern ''roi''), likewise gave rise t ...

by Bob Anderson, a fellow member of the Burkhart band. The couple soon began performing together in clubs in Chicago, and in 1949 they married. They recorded nearly forty albums for record labels such as Columbia and

Verve Verve may refer to: Music * The Verve, an English rock band * ''The Verve E.P.'', a 1992 EP by The Verve * ''Verve'' (R. Stevie Moore album) * Verve Records, an American jazz record label Businesses * Verve Coffee Roasters, an American coffee ho ...

. Cain died at her home in Montclair, New Jersey, in September 2014 of complications from a stroke she had in 2010.

Critical reception

Douglas Martin of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' called Jackie and Roy "the most famous vocal duo in jazz history".

Discography

Solo * ''So Many Stars'' (

Audiophile An audiophile is a person who is enthusiastic about high-fidelity sound reproduction. An audiophile seeks to reproduce the sound of a piece of recorded music or a live musical performance, typically inside closed headphones, In-ear monitors, open ...

, 2000) With others * George Davis Quartet, "Jubilee"/"I Only Have Eyes for You" (

Aristocrat The aristocracy is historically associated with "hereditary" or "ruling" social class. In many states, the aristocracy included the upper class of people (aristocrats) with hereditary rank and titles. In some, such as ancient Greece, ancient Ro ...

, 1947) * ''Everything I Love'', Bill Kirchner (Evening Star, 2004) * ''85 Candles: Live in New York'',

Marian McPartland Margaret Marian McPartland OBE ( Turner;Hasson, Claire"Marian McPartland: Jazz Pianist: An Overview of a Career" PhD Thesis. Retrieved 12 August 2008. 20 March 1918 – 20 August 2013), was an English–American jazz pianist, composer, and wri ...

(

Concord Jazz Concord Jazz is a record company and label founded in 1973 by Carl Jefferson, the former owner of Jefferson Motors Lincoln Mercury dealership in Concord, California. The label was named after the city in the East San Francisco Bay area, and the j ...

, 2005)

Sources

* Richard Cook & Brian Morton: ''The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD'', sixth edition, London, Penguin, 2002

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cain, Jackie 1928 births 2014 deaths American women jazz singers American jazz singers Musicians from Milwaukee People from Montclair, New Jersey Singers from Wisconsin 21st-century American women singers