Ranee Lee
{{Short description|Canadian jazz musician (born 1942}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2019}}
{{Infobox musical artist
| name = Ranee Lee
| image = Ranee Lee portrait.JPG
| background = solo_singer
| birth_name =
| alias =
| birth_date =
| birth_place = Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
| death_date =
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| origin =
| instrument = Vocals
| genre = Vocal jazz, jazz blues, torch songs
| occupation = Singer, songwriter, jazz drummer, tenor saxophonist
| years_active =
| label = Justin Time
| website = [http://www.justin-time.com/artists.php?lang=en&aid=308 Ranee Lee, Justin Time Records]
}}
Ranee Lee, CM is an American jazz singer and musician who resides in Montreal, Quebec. She is also an actor, author, educator and television host. Referred as “Montreal's Queen of Jazz,”{{Cite web |title=Ranee Lee – Montreal's Queen of Jazz continues to reign - The Montrealer |url=https://themontrealeronline.com/2022/03/ranee-lee-montreals-queen-of-jazz-continues-to-reign/ |access-date=2022-07-01 |website=themontrealeronline.com|date=March 16, 2022 }} Lee is a Juno Award winner, two-time Top Canadian Female Jazz Vocalist by Jazz Report Magazine{{Cite web |title=Ranee Lee |url=https://justin-time.com/collections/ranee-lee |access-date=2022-07-01 |website=Justin Time Records |language=en}} and was honored with the International Association of Jazz Educators Awards for her outstanding contribution to jazz music.{{Cite web |last=Cristi |first=A. A. |title=Canada's Juno Award Winning Legendary Jazz Vocalist Ranee Lee Reimagines Songs Of Celine Dion In New Album |url=https://www.broadwayworld.com/bwwmusic/article/Canandas-Juno-Award-Winning-Legendary-Jazz-Vocalist-Ranee-Lee-Reimagines-Songs-Of-Celine-Dion-In-New-Album-20220506 |access-date=2022-07-01 |website=BroadwayWorld.com |language=en}}
Biography
Born in Brooklyn, Lee moved to Montreal at the age of 28 in 1970.{{cite web|url=http://fivebucksonbytor.blogspot.co.uk/2009/04/ranee-lee.html|title=Ranee Lee|website=Five Bucks On By-Tor |date=April 19, 2009|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140502075346/http://fivebucksonbytor.blogspot.co.uk/2009/04/ranee-lee.html |archivedate=May 2, 2014 }} She toured North America in the 1970s as a jazz drummer and tenor saxophonist. She subsequently landed a starring role playing Billie Holiday in Lady Day, and won a Dora Mavor Moore Award for her performance. She subsequently began recording as a vocalist, releasing her first album Live at the Bijou in 1984.
She wrote and starred in Dark Divas, The Musical, a tribute to the lives and careers of seven of the most popular female jazz singers of the 20th century: Josephine Baker, Billie Holiday, Pearl Bailey, Lena Horne, Dinah Washington, Ella Fitzgerald, and Sarah Vaughan.{{cite web|url=http://www.whoswhoinblackcanada.com/2011/03/15/ranee-lee|first=Ricardo|last=McRae|title=Ranee Lee|website=Who's Who in Black Canada|date=March 15, 2011}}
Her music appears in the animated short film Black Soul (2000).
She is also a children's book writer (author of Nana, What Do You Say?); an educator, long associated with the University of Laval in Quebec City and the Schulich School of Music of McGill University;{{cite web|url=http://www.justin-time.com/artists.php?lang=en&aid=308|title=Ranee Lee|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20101204074831/http://www.justin-time.com/artists.php?lang=en&aid=308 |archivedate=December 4, 2010|website=Justin Time Records}} and she hosted the television series The Performers.{{cite web|url=http://www.digmagazine.ca/2010/05/ranee-lee-dark-diva|first=Lucas|last=Sader|title=Ranee Lee: Dark Diva|website=dig! Magazine|date=May–June 2010}}
Honors and awards
Martin Luther King Jr. Achievement Award in 1988 for her musical and actorial achievements. Lee was named a member of the Order of Canada in 2006. She received the International Association of Jazz Educators award in 2004 and 2008.{{cite web|url=http://www.wildwestartistmanagement.com/?aid=Ranee_Lee&lang=en|title=Ranee Lee|website=Wild West Artist Management}} She won a 2010 Juno Award for her album Ranee Lee – Lives Upstairs.
Discography
- All Grown Up (RCA Victor, 1980)
- Live at Le Bijou (Justin Time, 1984)
- Deep Song: a tribute to Billie Holiday with Oliver Jones (Justin Time, 1989)
- The Musicals: Jazz on Broadway (Justin Time, 1992)
- I Thought About You (Justin Time, 1994)
- You Must Believe in Swing (Justin Time, 1996)
- Seasons of Love (Justin Time, 1997)
- Presents Dark Divas (Justin Time, 2000)
- Maple Groove: Songs from the Great Canadian Songbook (Justin Time, 2003)
- Just You, Just Me with Oliver Jones (Justin Time, 2005)
- Lives Upstairs (Justin Time, 2009)
- A Celebration in Time with Oliver Jones, (Justin Time, 2010)
- What's Going On (Justin Time, 2014)
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- Jim Santella, [http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=19669 review of "Ranee Lee & Oliver Jones: Just You, Just Me (2005)"]. All About Jazz, November 9, 2005.
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20110713131053/http://www.justin-time.com/artists.php?lang=en&aid=308%2F Justin Time (label): Ranee Lee.]
- [http://www.wildwestartistmanagement.com/?aid=Ranee_Lee&lang=en Ranee Lee at Wild West Artist Management.]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Ranee}}
Category:Actresses from Montreal
Category:American expatriate musicians in Canada
Category:Anglophone Quebec people
Category:Canadian musical theatre actresses
Category:Dora Mavor Moore Award winners
Category:Canadian women jazz singers
Category:Canadian jazz singers
Category:Juno Award for Vocal Jazz Album of the Year winners
Category:Members of the Order of Canada
Category:Musicians from Brooklyn
Category:Jazz musicians from New York City
Category:Singers from Montreal
Category:20th-century Black Canadian women singers
Category:20th-century Canadian women singers