Mary Kaye's Swing and Sway

Guitarist Mary Kaye led a popular trio from the 1940s through the 1960s that roosted in Las Vegas in 1953. There, she helped establish the lounge phenomenon that showcased small snappy singer-player ensembles in smaller, intimate rooms at emerging resorts. Of Hawaiian descent, Kaye played and sang while her two male counterparts sang and played, accompanyied and hammed it up a bit. In the 1950s, she also played a role in the history of the Fender Stratocaster, promoting the new model with a singular color scheme (blonde wood body and gold hardware), which became standard for the line. Kaye died in 2007.

Here are bunch of clips of the Mary Kaye Trio in action that Milt Cohen sent along:

Here's the trio in 1945...

Here's the trio in Las Vegas in the mid-1950s...

Here's Kaye and the trio singing Just One of Those Things...

Here's Kaye playing the very first Fender Stratocaster c. 1954...

Here's the trio in 1963, with Kaye singing I Left My Heart in San Francisco...

Bonus: Here's the trio's recording of I Should Care in the late 1950s...