Kit McClure

The Kit McClure Band made its debut at the Ritz in New York City in 1982. The band became a popular fixture in the New York nightclub scene and soon toured with the great Cab Calloway. This led to recording industry interest. Kit and her band were put on the payroll of Island Records to prepare a show with the rock star Robert Palmer. Palmer highlighted Kit on saxophone in his band, while featuring the Kit McClure Band within his show. Performances played to sold-out houses at Radio City Music Hall, the Garden State Arts Center and similar venues across the Northeast. Eight tours of Japan ensued while the Kit McClure Band released their debut recording Some Like It Hot, on RedHot Records. The success of this recording caught the attention of jazz legend Teo Macero, who produced McClures second release, Burning, in 1996.
The Kit McClure Band toured Europe five times in support of these two recordings and then settled into a steady calendar of U.S. dates. Dedicated to keeping a dance floor full as well as providing an exciting show in concert halls and jazz festivals, the Kit McClure Bands music ranges from the influence of Ellington and Basie, to straight ahead jazz, to the soulful grooves of Aretha Franklin and the funk of James Brown, in addition to the original compositions of Kit McClure and her band mates. The Kit McClure Band has enlivened ballrooms all across the USA including the inaugural ball of President Clinton.
Kits non-profit Women in Jazz, Inc. has the mission of furthering the recognition and celebration of the achievements of women in jazz. The Sweethearts Project, the bands third recording, is a tribute to The International Sweethearts of Rhythm, popular all women big band of the WW11 swing era. The preparation for The Sweethearts Project (released to critical acclaim in 2004 on RedHot Records) involved detailed historical research and transcriptions of the original Sweethearts repertoire which the Kit McClure Band lovingly recorded in a style faithful to the swing of their big band sisters of an earlier era. Nat Hentoff wrote that The Sweethearts Project is both a musical and a historic event...Whoever hears this recording will find it hard not to get up and dance.
While recording The Sweethearts Project, the women of McClures band began to have creative ideas about ways to bring the music of the Sweethearts back to the future by re-imagining, re-grooving and re-harmonizing the repertoire with contemporary flavors such as hip-hop, funk and salsa. This latest recording Just The Thing is due in stores on July 11, 2006 on RedHot Records, in association with Motema Music and RedEye Distribution. Spanning seven decades of women in jazz, this recording documents an unparalleled joining of the creative efforts of historical and contemporary women in jazz.
The Kit McClure Band was invited to perform this music at the prestigious JVC Jazz Festival in New York City and Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Festival at the Kennedy Center. These critically acclaimed performances included both original and up-dated versions of the Sweethearts music.