Chris immediately started to show me all of the records she had done in her long and bumpy career which started as early as 1947 when she left her hometown Kansas City for New York. She had already worked with Bob Brookmeyer then but it was her move to NY which really started her career big time. She was hired by the great Claude Thornhill and then went on to work with Stan Kenton where she had her first hit with All About Ronnie. She debuted on her own in 1953 and released a string of highly successful and critically acclaimed albums like Chris Craft, Sings Ballads of the Sad Cafe, or A Portrait of Chris. In the 60s, she recorded for various labels with varying success and throughout the next decade, continued to perform all over the world. Although she never had the chance to return to her big popularity in the 50s and 60s, interest in her music remained pretty high and she was signed by the New York based independent label HighNote Records where she released her last recording, Everything I Love in 2003 still regularly featured here on JazzRadio as well as many of
her Atlantic and Bethlehem recordings.

MK, 01.09.09