While her name may not be as well-known as some others, Carol Sloane has enjoyed a career spanning more than sixty years. She began singing at an early age, but hit the jazz scene when she was offered an audition with bandleader Larry Elgart. She landed the job and spent a few years touring and singing with the Larry Elgart Band. By 1960, she was done with the road and had started working temporary secretarial jobs, still singing when the gigs came along. It was when Sloane was singing at a festival in Pittsburgh that her break really happened: Jon Hendricks was there and, after hearing her sing, asked Sloane if she could learn the Lambert, Hendricks, and Ross songbook just in case Annie Ross needed a fill-in. While checking out the group one night at The Village Vanguard, Hendricks invited her to come up and sing. The club owner immediately offered her a gig...alongside pianist Oscar Peterson. According to Sloane, "I stammered an acceptance, and walked five feet off the ground on the way home".
It was Hendricks who suggested her to the Newport Jazz Festival and in 1961, she made her debut on the Newport Festival stage. That gig led to a record deal with Columbia Records and her first albums "Live at 30th Street" and "Out of The Blue" with arrangements by Bill Finigan and Bob Brookmeyer were released in 1962. After success with Columbia, Sloane continue to tour and later signed with Concord Records. She found a particularly receptive audience in Japan, where she would release several more albums. With over 25 albums as a leader, her career having stops and re-starts, she continued recording through 2010 when "We'll Meet Again" was issued on Arbors records. A native of Providence, she was inducted into the Rhode Island Music Hall of Fame in 2016.
