Catherine Whitney

Who is Catherine Whitney?

Catherine Jane Whitney is an American jazz singer who is Chicago-based and is not only a vocalist, but composer and lyricist as well. She sings in the "vo-cool" style similar to that of Anita O'Day and Peggy Lee. She is published by Second Floor Music in New York. She was a lyricist for the late Freddie Hubbard, jazz trumpet legend.

She learned about music and jazz as a child, since her mother, Dorothy Brady, made a living as a vocalist/bandleader herself with a jazz trio known around the Chicago area in the 1950s and 1960s as "The Dottie B Three". Her stepfather was the late George E. Lescher, a pianist who played with the Spike Jones Band during World War II and was a longtime Chicago South Side resident. In later years, her stepfather led the George Lescher Ballroom Orchestra, a 10-piece band that performed at numerous sites around the Chicago area. He died in March 1986 at the age of 64 near Houston, Texas, while on tour with the Jan Garber Band. He was a lifetime member of the Chicago Federation of Musicians.

Catherine began her professional jazz singing career under the mentoring of Chicago tenor saxman Von Freeman in the early 1990s.