Studio Sessions
Non-Studio Dates
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Acknowledgments
I am grateful to Steve Albin, Dave Berk, Ran Blake, Wayne Brasler, Mark Cantor, Ed Chaplin, Noal Cohen, Bill Damm, Mike Fitzgerald, Warren Harris, Jenny Hayes, Jan Kagenaar, Rick Kaye, Donald Martin, Scott Merrell, Lori Muscarelle, Jason Perry, Ross Schneider, Andy Smith, Frederick Stack, Peter Stoller, Eddie Styles, and Keizo Takada for providing needed information about various sessions. Also supplying answers to a few queries were the Library of Congress, the website Both Sides Now, and the list-serv Songbirds.
These pages were generated using a software application especially designed for discographies. This software was created by Steve Albin, who named it Brian, after famous discographer Brian Rust. Find out more about this discographical program (free and readily available to anyone wanting to do a discography) at the Brian page at JazzDiscography.com. Thanks to Steve for the creation of this wonderful program, and for his invariably helpful support to all of us, whether seasoned or brand new discographers.
A Brief Note About Chris Connor's Musical Influences
Meriting clarification right at the outset of this discography is a topic that has elicited a number of queries from fans of Chris Connor: the artist's vocal and instrumental influences.
Chris Connor's chief instrumental influence is well-known, and has never been in contention. Long before she became a member of The Stan Kenton Orchestra, that ensemble had already earned Connor's admiration. In an extensive interview with Marc Myers at jazzwax.com , Connor comments that, by the time she was working with her first band (1946), "I already had my sights set on singing with Kenton." She also shared with Myers her initial experience as part of the band: "The first time I heard Kenton's band from the singer's position, right in the middle of it all, I was blown away… Look, all I knew was that I was singing with the greatest band in the whole world." (Naturally, Connor also admires many other orchestras, arrangers and instrumentalists. Among them, and in no particular order: Ralph Burns, Mike Abene, Don Sebesky, Richard Rodney Bennett, Ray Ellis, Zoot Sims, Al Cohn, and Oscar Pettiford.)
Less fully understood are Connor's vocal influences.
As her main vocal influence, Chris Connor herself has identified Peggy Lee. Over the decades, Connor has referred to Peggy Lee as "my idol," and has frequently sampled from Lee's catalogue of self-penned tunes.
During an interview conducted in 2008, Connor further told Marc Myers that, as a teenager, "I spent all of my spare time listening to Peggy Lee, Sinatra, Ella and Sarah -- I still listen to them today, and they're still the greatest." She also reminisced about a visit that Peggy Lee once paid her, at Connor's Basin Street East dressing room, sometime in the 1960's: "I was so excited. There was Peggy Lee, my childhood idol, sitting right in front of me… That was the thrill of my life, just being with Peggy Lee. When I got back on stage for the second show, I knocked them out. I blew them away." In the 1950's, the shimmering quality of Doris Day's tone also made an impression on Connor. In more recent times, Connor has also given enthusiastic kudos to both Sarah Vaughan and Judy Garland.
Because Anita O'Day and June Christy preceded Chris Connor as singers with The Stan Kenton Orchestra, fans and critics have cursorily deemed Connor a disciple of the other two singers. They have also categorized Connor as a member of the so-called "cool school," a vocal style whose founding mother is O'Day. This categorization is valid to a certain extent. During the short period in which she sang with The Stan Kenton Orchestra, Connor was probably expected to follow the stylistic model set by the previous two, who were the most successful female singers with the band. She certainly met those expectations, for a good portion of Connor's singing could be and can still be described as cool --or, perhaps, as "semi-cool." Once Connor became a solo artist, however, she did not actively cultivate the stylistic connection to O'Day and Christy.
In short, Chris Connor's main sources of inspiration are The Stan Kenton Orchestra and Peggy Lee. Being both a fan and member of Kenton's orchestra, Connor was naturally influenced by the cool singing style that was practiced by her more famous predecessors. However, such a "cool" influence should not be over-stressed, at the expense of the sources of inspiration that Connor herself has consistently singled out throughout her career.
Discographical Notes
I. This discography concentrates on domestic (US) issues, and on original issues worldwide. In other words, foreign albums are included only when the artist (i. e. , Chris Connor) actually recorded them abroad. If the foreign album is instead a reissue of an US album, I have not listed it, with a few exceptions:
When there is no domestic CD of an original US album, I have included a foreign CD issue. When the title of a foreign CD or LP differs from its US counterpart, I have included it, for the benefit of fans and collectors who may need clarification. Also included are all Connor releases on the Spain-based label Fresh Sound Records, because such releases have proven a source of fan confusion over the years. I have made partial inclusion of foreign CD reissues with bonus tracks. By "partial inclusion," I mean that such foreign CD reissues are listed only under the bonus-track songs. As an example, let's consider Atlantic AMCY 1050, the Japanese CD version of the original US album Chris Connor. The Japanese disc includes not only the same 12 tracks as the American album, but also two bonus tracks ("Circus," "Flying Home"). In this discography, you will find this foreign CD (AMCY 1050) listed under "Circus" and under "Flying Home," but not under the 12 songs that first appeared on the American album Chris Connor.
II. I have visually differentiated Chris Connor's own CDs and LPs from non-Connor releases, such as compilations featuring various artists, and albums primarily by another artist: every non-Connor title starts with brackets that identify it as such. For instance, neither of the following is to be considered an all-Connor issue: [Various Artists] When Malindy Sings and [Stan Kenton] Some Women I've Known. On the other hand, non-bracketed titles such as Warm Cool and Free Spirits certainly refer to all- Connor issues. In the case of issues that give prominent billing to more than one artist, Connor included, I have denoted the fact by including the co-billed names within braces, at the end of the title: e. g. , Three Pearls {Ernestine Anderson, Chris Connor, Carol Sloane}.