Joyce Collins On Piano Jazz

Joyce Collins began playing piano professionally as a teenager in Reno, Nev. After moving to Los Angeles in the late '50s, Collins continued to work in Reno as well as Las Vegas, where she became the first woman to conduct a resort-show band. She also worked in film and television, spending 10 years in the band on the Mary Tyler Moore Show and also on Bob Newhart's shows.

Her albums recorded with vocalist Bill Henderson, Their Street of Dreams and Tribute to Johnny Mercer, were Grammy nominees. In the '70s, Collins began teaching piano and continued to write and arrange extensively. She was a gifted yet underrated arranger, and in her singing she had a knack for dead-on interpretation of the lyricist's intention. Joyce Collins died earlier this year at age 79 after a long illness.

On this Piano Jazz session from 2002, Collins plays and sings on a set of classic tunes including "All Blues," "On Green Dolphin Street," "Falling in Love With Love" and her own "Marjolane."

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