"Detective Bill Reed" (see previous post) has finally tracked down jazz singer Carole Creveling after more than a year of searching for her!
I was first attracted to Carole when I became aware of the huge amounts that record collectors were paying for the ultra-scarce 1955 LP, "Here Comes Carole Creveling." But the album, when I finally was able to hear it, turned out to be uncommonly good and I have spent many hours since then trying to learn more details about the genesis of this vinyl wonder. I even went so far as to shepherd the release of this LP as a CD in Japan. It came out only this week in that country and has already garnered several highly favorable reviews.
Last week I finally unearthed a party who was undoubtedly a relation of Carole's. It turned out to be her sister.
How I finally found Carole Creveling's sister is a story best left for some other long night around the camp fire. (But I do need to acknowledge the Watson-like advice of Page Cavanaugh Fan Number One, Larry Canova.) Today I have had two phone conversations with Creveling's sibling. She assures me that this near-legendary phantom singer will phone me this weekend to fill me in on all the details about her brief but fascinating career. I can hardly wait. It should be added that Carole has gone about her daily activities, which include a full-time job, entirely unaware of the steadily increasing interest in her half-century-old one-off.
What I have learned thus far is that Carole recorded the album---believe it or not---when she was only 18 years old. She sounds years more mature on "Here Comes Carole Creveling." How it came to be made is something I have yet to learn. However, I now know this much: Carole is alive and well and still living in Southern California. And. . .she turns out to be not nearly as advanced in years as I might have assumed judging from the mature sound of her voice on the 1955 album.
To cut to the chase, by the time Carole was twenty she had married, and had left (so to speak) the business. One that she was barely a part of to begin with. Soon she was a full-time mother and wife and apparently never gave much more thought to a professional singing career. Motherhood's gain was jazzdom's loss.
I look forward to hearing from Carole herself this weekend.
