Carmen McRae always had a nice voice but it was her behind-the-beat phrasing and ironic interpretations of lyrics that made her stand out the most. She studied piano early on. Singing with Benny Carter's big band in 1944 was her first significant job but it would be another decade before her career really had much of a flow. In 1954, she began to record as a leader and by then she had absorbed the influences of Billie Holiday and bebop into her own style. McRae would record steadily up to 1989 and, although her voice was higher in the 1950s and her phrasing would be even more laidback in later years, her general style and approach did not change much through the decades. Carmen McRae, who refused to quit smoking, retired in 1991 due to emphysema.

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