June Christy

Shirley Luster was born in Springfield, Illinois, United States. She moved with her parents Steve and Marie (née Crain) Luster to Decatur, Illinois, when she was three years old. She began to sing with the Decatur-based Bill Oetzel Orchestra at thirteen. While attending Decatur High School she appeared with Oetzel and his society band, the Ben Bradley Band, and Bill Madden's Band. Her first work outside of Decatur was with the Dick Cisne Orchestra of nearby Champaign, IL, performing as far away as Texas and Louisiana. After high school she moved to Chicago, changed her name to Sharon Leslie, and sang with a group led by Boyd Raeburn. Later she joined Benny Strong's band. In 1944, Strong's band moved to New York City at the same time Christy was quarantined in Chicago with scarlet fever.{{cite news |title=Shirley Luster, Decatur Singer, Gets Movie Role

|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/5416522/the_decatur_herald/ |access-date=2023-05-10

|publisher=The Decatur Herald |website=newspapers.com |date=December 10, 1945 |page=3}}

In 1945, after hearing that Anita O'Day had left Stan Kenton's Orchestra, she auditioned and was chosen for the role as a vocalist. During this time, she changed her name once again, becoming June Christy.

Her voice produced hits such as "Shoo Fly Pie and Apple Pan Dowdy", the million-selling "Tampico" in 1945, and "How High the Moon". "Tampico" was Kenton's biggest-selling record. When the Kenton orchestra temporarily disbanded in 1948, she sang in nightclubs for a short time, and reunited with the band two years later.Sparke, Michael. Stan Kenton: This Is an Orchestra!{{cite web |url=http://www.belten.freeserve.co.uk/misty/memys.htm |title=June Christy |publisher=Belten.freeserve.co.uk |access-date=2013-08-09 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130718075752/http://www.belten.freeserve.co.uk/misty/memys.htm |archive-date=2013-07-18 }} Christy appeared as guest vocalist on the Kenton albums: Artistry in Rhythm (Capitol BD-39, 1946 [1947]), A Presentation of Progressive Jazz (Capitol CD-79, 1947 [1948]), Encores (Capitol CC-113, 1945–47 [1949]), Innovations in Modern Music (Capitol P-189, 1950), Stan Kenton Presents (Capitol L/P-248, 1950), Stan Kenton Classics (Capitol H/T-358, 1944–47 [1952]), and The Kenton Era (Capitol WDX-569, 1940–54, [1955]).

Beginning on September 28, 1959, Christy began a five-week road tour of 38 performances called Road Show.

The all-star billing: Stan Kenton and his Orchestra, June Christy, and The Four Freshmen. Capitol recorded highlights on October 10 at Purdue University in Lafayette, Indiana, for a two-disc LP, reissued on CD in 1988.

From 1947, she started to work on her own records, primarily with arranger and bandleader Pete Rugolo. In 1954, she released a 10" LP entitled Something Cool, recorded with Rugolo and his orchestra, a gathering of notable Los Angeles jazz musicians that included alto saxophonist Bud Shank and Christy's husband, multi-instrumentalist Bob Cooper. Something Cool was re-released as a 12" LP in 1955 with additional selections, and then entirely rerecorded in stereo in 1960 with somewhat different personnel. Christy would later say the album was "the only thing I've recorded that I'm not unhappy with".{{cite news| url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE5D8103FF937A15755C0A966958260 | work=The New York Times | title=June Christy, Singer, 64, Is Dead; Gained Fame With Kenton's Band | first=Stephen | last=Holden | date=June 24, 1990 | access-date=May 7, 2010}} Something Cool was also important in launching the vocal cool movement of the 1950s, and it hit the Top 20 Charts, as did her third album, The Misty Miss Christy.

File:Bob Cooper and June Christy (Gottlieb 13091).jpg and Christy {{circa|1947}}]]

In the 1950s and 1960s, Christy appeared on a number of television programs, including the short-lived CBS show Adventures in Jazz (1949), Eddie Condon's Floor Show (1949), The Jackie Gleason Show (1953), The Tonight Show (1955), The Nat King Cole Show (1957), Stars of Jazz (1958), The Steve Allen Show (1959), The Lively Ones (1963), Not Only But Also (UK 1965), and The Joey Bishop Show (1967). She also appeared on the first sponsored jazz concert on television, The Timex All-Star Jazz Show I (December 30, 1957),Terrace, Vincent. Encyclopedia of Television: Series, Pilots and Specials, 1937-1973, p. 438. which also featured Louis Armstrong, Carmen McRae, Duke Ellington, and Gene Krupa.

Christy played in Europe, South Africa, Australia, and Japan, but the extensive touring eventually began taking a toll on her marriage, and she pulled back from touring by the 1960s.McClellan, Lawrence. The Later Swing Era, 1942 to 1955, [https://books.google.com/books?id=Oit7y0bS4MUC&pg=PA92&dq=june+christy pp. 92–93.]

Richard Cook and Brian Morton, writers of The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings, appreciated the singer's body of work: "Christy's wholesome but particularly sensuous voice is less an improviser's vehicle than an instrument for long, controlled lines and the shading of a fine vibrato. Her greatest moments{{snd}}the heartbreaking 'Something Cool' itself, 'Midnight Sun', 'I Should Care'{{snd}}are as close to creating definitive interpretations as any singer can come."

File:June Christy (Gottlieb 10451).jpg

Christy was married to Bob Cooper in 1947. In 1954, she gave birth to a daughter, Shay Christy Cooper (September 1, 1954{{snd}}February 21, 2014).{{cite web|url=https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VL5N-LZM|title=California Birth Index, 1905-1995|publisher=FamilySearch|access-date=2015-05-23}} She also had an older brother, Jack A. Luster (1920{{snd}}2013).{{cite web |last1=Weber & Rodney Funeral Home |title=Obituary for Jack Luster |url=https://www.weberfuneralhome.com/obituaries/Jack-Luster/#!/Obituary |website=Weberfuneralhome.com |access-date=4 May 2024}}

Christy semi-retired from the music business in 1969, in part because of her battle with alcoholism.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fkTGhR_vyJ8C&q=june+christy+alcohol&pg=PA697|title=A Biographical Guide to the Great Jazz and Pop Singers|access-date=25 December 2014|isbn=9780375421495|year=2010|last1=Friedwald|first1=Will|publisher=Pantheon Books }}{{cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-bob-cooper-1459636.html|title=Obituary: Bob Cooper|work=The Independent|date=6 August 1993 |access-date=25 December 2014}}

In 1972, she sang at the Newport Jazz Festival in New York City, where she was reunited with the Kenton Orchestra. She also performed at a handful of jazz festivals during the late 1970s and 1980s, playing with a band of all-star West Coast jazz musicians led by Shorty Rogers, as well as taking part in a number of world tours.

Christy returned to the recording studio in 1977 to record her final solo LP, Impromptu. She recorded an interview in 1987 for a Paul Cacia produced album called "The Alumni Tribute to Stan Kenton" on the Happy Hour label. A number of other Kenton alumni (Shorty Rogers, Lee Konitz, Jack Sheldon, among them) interspersed their tunes with reminiscences of the man and the years on the road.

Christy toured one final time in 1988, again with Shorty Rogers. Her final performance was sharing the stage with Chet Baker.{{cite web |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-03-26-ca-147-story.html |title=Let's Hear It for High C-manship |website=Los Angeles Times |first=Charles |last=Champlin |date=1988-03-26 |access-date=2023-09-12 }}

Christy died at her home in Sherman Oaks, California, of kidney failure on June 21, 1990, at the age of 64.{{cite web|url=http://www.parabrisas.com/d_christyj.php |title=Solid! – June Christy |publisher=Parabrisas.com |access-date=2013-08-09 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120222023555/http://www.parabrisas.com/d_christyj.php |archive-date=2012-02-22 }}

{{Reflist}}

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{{commons category|June Christy|June Christy}}

• {{AllMusic|class=artist|id=june-christy-mn0000837592}}
• {{IMDb name|id=0160700|name=June Christy}}
• [http://www.last.fm/music/June+Christy June Christy] at last.fm

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Category:1925 births

Category:1990 deaths

Category:Musicians from Decatur, Illinois

Category:American torch singers

Category:American agnostics

Category:Cool jazz singers

Category:Cool jazz musicians

Category:Deaths from kidney failure in California

Category:American women jazz singers

Category:Capitol Records artists

Category:American jazz singers

Category:Traditional pop music singers

Category:20th-century American singers

Category:20th-century American women singers

Category:Jazz musicians from Illinois