Marilyn Moore
Biography Marilyn Moore
Marilyn Montez Moore
was born to Montez and Lester Moore, backstage at a Chicago theatre, the Moores moved to Oklahoma City. Marilyn began performing at the age of three, singing and dancing in the finale of her family’s vaudeville act. She attended Jefferson and Edgmere grade schools, Harding junior high school and graduated from Classen High School in 1946. As a teenager, she decided to concentrate on singing and soon turned to jazz, working in clubs in Oklahoma City and Chicago.
During her high school years, she performed with Herbie Fields and later with Dizzy Gillespie and Charles Parker in Chicago. Following graduation, Marilyn joined the Woody Herman band then went on tour with Benny Goodman and his orchestra. Twenty-five years after her parents had played there, she was the featured vocalist with Charley Barnett at the Apollo Theatre in New York.
From the early 50’s she sang with various groups, including those led by Ray McKinley, Boyd Raeburn and Al Cohn, whom she married in 1953 and became a lifelong resident of New York City. They had two children, Lisa and Joe Cohn (now a leading jazz guitarist), and Moore’s life became focused upon her home and family.
