Corky Hale

All Music Guide:

Her name sounding like a combination of bad wine and bad weather, Corky Hale is known on one hand as a jazz harpist gentle enough to appeal to the easy listening crowd. On the other hand, plenty of hands being needed for the harp let alone what is to follow, she is a multi-instrumentalist with abilities in both the string and woodwind families. She is also a singer, at least one talent that hands are not a requirement for. Getting all of this together required starting early: piano at three, harp five years later, flute at the close of her first decade, then cello at the dawn of teendom. Most of these lessons were taken in her hometown of Freeport, IL; however, she also studied at the Chicago Music Conservatory as well as at summer school in Interlochen, MI. Professionally she went for fairly commercial outfits, beginning with the orchestra of Freddy Martin in 1950. For a good deal of the first half of the '50s she was on the road with Liberace, then was featured as both a singer and harpist with the popular trumpeter Harry James. Ray Anthony subsequently presented her vocal stylings, but this time in combination with her pianistic skills. She comes across well onscreen in The Benny Goodman Story, while critics declared her a harp innovator following Kitty White's decision to let Hale come down, so to speak, on a 1954 album. Her real name is Merrilyn Hecht.

Wikipedia:

Corky Hale (born Merrilyn Hecht in Freeport, Illinois on July 3, 1936) has been a working jazz musician since the late 1950s. As an in-demand session player, she has traveled across the United States and throughout Europe, playing harp, piano and flute, and singing, as well. In addition to her musical resume, Hale has been a theater producer, political activist, a restaurateur and even the owner of a once-famous Los Angeles women's clothing store, "Corky Hale."

Childhood

Corky was raised in a small midwestern town where she been playing piano at the age of three. At seven, she was enrolled in classical piano studies at the Chicago Conservatory. It was here that she also became interested in the harp, and a life in music was born. In addition to her classical studies, she learned to love and play show tunes and standards, and soon embraced the jazz sounds of Stan Kenton.

At age 16, Corky's parents enrolled her in Stephens College, a school for young ladies, for her last year of high school. After graduation, Corky announced to her parents that she was moving to Hollywood to be a musician, whereupon her father immediately sent her to nearby University of Wisconsin–Madison. But it was too late; she’d been bitten by the "show biz bug," and after one year, she announced that now she was definitely going to Hollywood. A compromise was reached: Her parents would drive her to Los Angeles and enroll her at UCLA, where she would live in the sorority house. However, life as a student lasted only a few weeks. Through a friend, the opportunity arose to play harp on the "Freddie Martin Show." Her career had begun.

Career

From the 1950s through today, Corky has amassed a long list of performance and recording credentials, including sessions, TV shows and concerts with Liberace, Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Elkie Brooks, Tony Bennett, Billie Holiday, Harry James, Peggy Lee, James Brown, George Michael and Björk, to name a few.

She has also produced plays, including "Give 'Em Hell, Harry", starring Jason Alexander and "Lullaby of Broadway", a personal profile of the lyricist Al Dubin.

She appeared at Vibrato.

In 2009, she had a launch party for her new CD.

Personal

In the late 1960s, she moved to New York and was asked to do some demos for the songwriting team of Leiber & Stoller. Almost immediately, Corky Hale and Mike Stoller fell in love and, since 1970, have been happily married.

Off stage

Corky has been active outside of the performing arena: