Carol Fredette

Carol Fredette is an excellent jazz singer who is particularly adept at handling tricky lyrics. She came from a very musical family that included an uncle, Marty Bell, who had recorded an album as a cool-toned trumpeter and singer in the 1950s with Don Elliott. She sang in school and, after attending Florida State University for a year, she heard the Stan Kenton Orchestra and decided that she had to move to New York and try to become a jazz vocalist. She dropped out of college, spending that summer singing with her uncle's band on weekends and learning scores of standards. Fredette worked locally in New York and picked up important experience singing with the big bands of Sal Salvador, Larry Elgart, and Neal Hefti. She also spent a lot of time on the road for two decades, appearing often overseas. In 1978, Carol Fredette resettled in New York and since then has performed with Mike Abene, Mike Renzi, Hank Jones, Steve Kuhn, Bucky Pizzarelli, Al Cohn, and Dave Frishberg, among others. She has also worked as an educator. Surprisingly, she has rarely recorded, just making an album apiece for Devil Moon (1983), Owl (1993), and Brownstone (1995). The latter project is her most memorable, featuring her witty renditions of the music of Dave Frishberg and Bob Dorough.