Carmen McRae, 74, the jazz stylist whose intimate, conversational ballads established her as one of America's most individualistic singers, died Nov. 10 at her home in Beverly Hills, Calif., a month after suffering a stroke. She had been bedridden with a bronchial ailment for several years.
She made "tragedies and celebrations of life out of every song," critic Ralph Gleason once observed. She was the only singer of her generation who could "make you permanently lyric-conscious," he said.
"Every word is important to me," Miss McRae once told an interviewer. "It's like an actress who selects a role that contains something she wants to portray. If I don't have something new to offer in a song, well, I just won't sing it."
She said she was not interested in singing "senseless lyrics, or things that I can't convince the audience of. I will not do certain songs because the words are fairy tales. I want to talk about life, about realistic things."
Her repertoire included "God Bless the Child," a song closely associated with her biggest influence, Billie Holiday; Cole Porter's "I've Got You Under My Skin"; Billy Joel's "New York State of Mind"; and Dave Brubeck's "Take Five."
Her more than 20 albums also included homages to Holiday, Charlie Mingus, Thelonious Monk and Sarah Vaughan. Among her other records were "The Great American Songbook," "I Am Music on Blue Note," "Sound of Silence," "Just A Little Lovin'," "Portrait of Carmen," "It Takes a Whole Lot of Human Feelings," "Carmen's Gold" and "You Can't Hide Love."
Miss McRae was honored as an American Jazz Master this year by the National Endowment for the Arts. She was cited for her "instinctive feeling for rhythm, her skillful vocal technique, her innovative scat singing, as well as her relaxed manner of presentation."
The daughter of immigrants from the West Indies, Miss McRae was born in the Harlem neighborhood of New York. Her parents pushed her to study classical piano when she was young, hoping she would become a concert artist. But she said she knew as a youngster that she would take another direction. She told an interviewer in 1966 that she hid popular tunes among the classical material in the piano bench, "and when everyone was out of earshot I let go with the pops."
Miss McRae's career was launched when she was a teenager, after winning an amateur contest at the Apollo Theatre. She became friends with her idol, Holiday, the era's premier jazz vocalist, and she wrote a song Holiday recorded in 1939, "Dream of Life."
Miss McRae was to imitate Holiday for several years in what was a slow-starting career. She sang with the bands of Benny Carter, Earl Hines and Mercer Ellington but also was employed as an intermission pianist and clerk-typist. During World War II, she moved to Washington to work for the government.
Miss McRae developed her own smoky, interpretive style after going solo in Chicago in the late 1940s, accompanying herself on piano and playing mostly club dates. She moved back to New York after more than three years in Chicago and began to develop a following among other jazz musicians.
In 1953, she recorded with the Stardust and Venus labels, and in 1954, she signed with Decca. She was voted Best New Star by Downbeat magazine that year, after her first album was released. The next year, she tied with Ella Fitzgerald for best female vocalist in a Metronome magazine poll.
Increasingly compared with jazz divas such as Fitzgerald and Vaughan, Miss McRae began to tour internationally, gaining strong audiences in Japan and Europe. She performed frequently at jazz festivals, made television appearances and broadened her repertoire to include songs by contemporary composers such as the Beatles, James Taylor, Elton John, Barry Manilow and Leon Russell.
Jazz saxophonist Stanley Turrentine called Miss McRae "the last great stylist of her time. ... She was spicy. She was Carmen. And she didn't hesitate to speak her mind."
"She picked unusual songs, not standard songs," Turrentine said. "She was a great piano player too. Not just a vocalist, a great musician."
Miss McRae's marriages to drummer Kenny Clark and pianist Ike Isaacs ended in divorce.
Appreciation on Page H1.
JOHN R. 'JACK' HALOTA
Manufacturer's Representative
John "Jack" R. Halota, 76, a manufacturer's representative who also had a variety of business interests, died Nov. 3 at Suburban Hospital after a heart attack.
Mr. Halota, who lived in Bethesda, was born in Butler, Pa., and raised in Ellwood City, Pa. He attended Dartmouth College and graduated from Ohio State University. He also studied at the Industrial College of the Armed Forces and had a study fellowship at Mellon Institute of Industrial Research in Pittsburgh.
During World War II, he served in the Navy, then after the war founded Duracote Corp., which manufactured plastic coated fiber glass, in Ravenna, Ohio.
He was recalled to active Navy service during the Korean War and was assigned to the Bureau of Ships in Washington as an industrial mobilization officer. He remained in the Naval Reserve until retiring as a commander in the 1970s.
After the Korean War, Mr. Halota remained in the Washington area as a manufacturer's representative. In this period he had several overlapping business interests. Those included positions as vice president of Bellingham Chain and Forge, which produced restraining chain to hold back airplanes on aircraft carrier decks, and Topp Industries, which manufactured control systems for F-16 fighter aircraft.
His work also included rubber tire recycling projects and the procurement of rock salt for snow removal in the metropolitan Washington area. He was the builder and owner of the Top o' the Town restaurant in Arlington. He had worked at the Department of Commerce as a specialist in foreign investments, procured meat supply contracts for public institutions for Washington Beef Co. and was helping to procure equipment for a textile mill in Lagos, Nigeria.
Survivors include his wife of 52 years, Enid Julihn Halota of Bethesda; four children, Brooks Halota of Potomac, Christine Halota and Craig Halota, both of Bethesda, and Cheryl Halota of San Francisco; a brother, James Halota of Potomac; two sisters, Helen Halota of Potomac and Mary Jane McKenna of McLean; and a grandchild.
WILLIAM HENRY GILBERT
Physicist
William Henry Gilbert, 75, a physicist who retired around 1974 after 34 years with the Navy Department, died Nov. 10 at his home in Chevy Chase. He had Parkinson's disease.
Mr. Gilbert, a researcher in underwater sound, retired as supervisor of the surface ship noise section of the hydromechanics laboratory at the David Taylor Model Basin. Earlier, he headed the basin's acoustics division and was assistant to the head of the physics section of the structural mechanics division. He was a consultant after he retired.
Mr. Gilbert, a Washington native, was a graduate of Roosevelt High School and Catholic University, where he also did graduate work in electrical engineering.
He served in the Navy during World War II and remained in the the Navy Reserve as a lieutenant until 1951.
He was a member of Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church in Washington and the Knights of Columbus.
Survivors include his wife of 52 years, Cecilia Reidy Gilbert of Chevy Chase; four children, Gail C. Davis of Chicago, Elizabeth C. Gilbert and Denise C. Willsey, both of Kensington, and William H. Gilbert Jr. of Washington; a sister, Jeannette Goffredi of Washington; seven grandchildren; and a great-granddaughter.
A daughter, Madeline Claire Krantz, died in 1975.
ROBERT FRANKLIN JOHNSON
Meat Cutter
Robert Franklin Johnson, 66, a retired meat cutter with Giant Food in Manassas who was active in church and community groups, died of emphysema Nov. 9 at the Winchester Medical Center in Winchester, Va.
A Washington native, Mr. Johnson graduated from Bell Vocational High School. He served in the Navy in the Korean War.
In 1954, he went to work for Safeway Stores as a meat cutter, and he stayed with that company until joining Giant in 1963. He retired in 1975 for reasons of health.
Mr. Johnson lived in Manassas Park from 1958 to 1982, when he moved to Winchester. He was a founding member and past vice president of the Manassas Park Citizens Association and a past master of Cub Scout Pack No. 137 in Manassas Park and of Boy Scout Troop No. 1188 in Manassas.
He was a member of the parish of All Saints Catholic Church in Manassas and a former deputy grand knight of the George Brent Council of the Knights of Columbus.
Survivors include his wife of 40 years, Nellie Marie Johnson of Winchester; four children, Robert F. Johnson Jr. of McLean, William L. Johnson of Reston, Barbara Allyn Fogle of Winchester and James L. Johnson of Toms Brook, Va.; two brothers, William E. Johnson of Bealeton, Va., and Donald R. Johnson of Camp Springs, Md.; and three grandchildren.
