After winning the famed Apollo Theater amateur contest four weeks in a row, teenager Irene Reid was signed up by Dick Vance’s band in 1948. She stayed with the band for two years before striking out on a solo career that lasted through til her death in '08, with only a brief break in '61 to tour and record with Count Basie. While Reid never became a household name, she was a respected interpreter of pop standards, bittersweet jazz ballads, and the blues.