Rebecca Kilgore, a vocalist and guitarist from America, is a master interpreter of American classic songs from the 1930s to 1940s. She has helped jazz fans of today relive the great hits of yesterday. Born in Waltham MA in 1949, she moved to Portland, OR at the age 30. She began her musical career as a frontwoman in a local swing band called the Wholly Cats. In 1982, Doggin’ Around was released. After the 1984 dissolution of the group, she started her own unit, Rebecca Kilgore Quintet. This was a major player in the Northwest jazz scene and she released the cassette-only I Hear Music in 1989. Kilgore recorded most of her subsequent albums with other musicians. In 1990 she teamed up with John Miller to record Put on a Happy Face. She also appeared in 1993 with Portland’s Tall Jazz Trio on the Plays Winter Jazz disc. Kilgore’s most successful collaborations were with pianist Dave Frishberg. They reunited in 1993 for Looking at You and then in 1997 for Not a Care in the World. In 2001, they teamed up again with The Starlit Hour. Kilgore was also a singer in a country-rock band called Beck-a-Roo. He was inspired by the Gary Larson comic strip and contributed vocals to the score for the CBS animated special Tales From the Far Side. Allmusic
