As her silky-smooth sensual vocals massaged the lyrics in front of big bands in the post-World War II era of cool jazz, June Christy led the way, her work considered the epitome of the vocal cool movement of the 1950’s. From her work fronting the Stan Kenton Orchestra on such hits including the million-selling “Tampico” and “How High the Moon” to a successful solo career where, with a wholesome persona, she would be invited to appear on practically every television variety show, Christy would become the “cover girl” of the genre.
June Christy (11/20/25-6/21/90), nee Shirley Luster grew up in Decatur in central Illinois. By the time she was 13 she was already singing professionally with the Bill Oetzel Orchestra. Through her high school years she would front other society and big bands in the region.
Upon graduation she moved to Chicago, changed her name to Sharon Leslie and would join saxophonist Boyd Raeburn’s big band. She would start working with band leader Benny Strong’s band, but when they moved to New York, Christy had to stay behind as she was quarantined with scarlet fever.
In 1945, after hearing Anita O’Day had left the Stan Kenton Orchestra, she auditioned and was accepted. She would change her name once again to June Christy. “Despite an early resemblance (physically and vocally) to O’Day, she soon found her own style – a warm, chipper voice that stretched out beautifully and enlivened Kenton’s crossover novelties (“Shoo Fly Pie and Appe Pan Dowdy” and “Tampico”) as well as the band leader’s intricately arranged standards,” notes the All Music Guide.
When the Kenton orchestra broke up in 1948, Christy was established enough to embark on a solo career. Marrying Kenton’s tenor saxophonist Bob Cooper, she would first start recording with him, and partnering with arranger Pete Rufolo, offering up her debut in 1954 with Something Cool (Capitol 516). That album has been heralded as a significant cornerstone in launching the vocal cool movement of the ‘50s. That would be followed up with a string of albums that would achieve Top 20 chart positions.
With her looks and her vocals, her popularity would translate to television where she would enjoy regular appearances on network variety shows, and would appear on “The Timex All-Star Jazz Show,” the first sponsored jazz concert on television in 1957.
Touring would take her around the world – Europe, South Africa, Australia and Japan. But it would also take its toll on her personal life and health. She would so into semi-retirement in 1969, in part due to a battle with alcoholism.
Re-uniting with the Stan Kenton Orchestra at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1972 re-invigorated Christy, who would return to the recording studio in 1977 for Impromptu (Interplay 7710), which would end up being her final solo effort. Over the next decade she would participate in various Kenton reunion projects, her final performance with trumpeter Chet Baker in 1988.
Retiring to California, sadly Christy would succumb to kidney failure in 1990 at the age of 64.
Taking a look at the body of work Christy left us with, R.M. Cook and Brian Morton noted in The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings, “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 – the heartbreaking ‘Something Cool’ itself, ‘Midnight Sun’ and ‘I Should Care’ – are as close to creating definitive interpretations as any singer can come.”