Vocalist and guitarist Rebecca Kilgore, passionate interpreter of the Great American Songbook, died on Jan. 7 at age 76.
Kilgore is known for her performance and preservation of 1930s and 1940s-era vocal jazz, as well as her long-time collaboration with the witty musician-composer Dave Frishberg, who penned vocal jazz standards “I’m Hip” and “Peel Me A Grape,” plus the Schoolhouse Rock! classic “I’m Just a Bill.”
News of her death filtered through social media last week, and is confirmed by her husband, Dick Titterington. Musicians and jazz organizations in the Pacific Northwest and around the country, shared praise for the singer and guitarist, who is revered for her bright, elegant voice, subtle humor, and knack for unearthing underperformed swing gems.
“All she did was dig for all tunes,” said Titterington in an interview with KNKX. “That’s what she spent her time doing: playing guitar, sitting in her office, and working out tunes.”
Kilgore was born Sept. 24, 1949 in the Boston suburb of Waltham, Massachusetts. Her mother Jean Kilgore was a homemaker, and her father, George Mallard Kilgore, was a rivet salesman who also composed for and directed a church choir.
From a young age, Kilgore learned music theory and harmony from her father. As a teen, she got into folk musicians like Joan Baez and Judy Collins. Later, she discovered classic jazz through a local DJ in her area.
“I got acquainted with Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald and Anita O’Day and just flipped,” she told JazzTimes in 2011. “Those singers took me on a complete musical detour. They were my teachers, because I never had any formal training.”
At 30, Kilgore relocated to Portland, Oregon, where she began her professional music career fronting a swing band called the Wholly Cats, with whom she made her recording debut in 1982.
In 1991, Kilgore got a call from Frishberg, the witty musician-composer, who hired Kilgore to sing with him two nights a week at Portland’s Heathman Hotel. This started a long partnership between the two musicians that resulted in several sparkling duo records. Kilgore released A Little Taste: A Tribute to Dave Frishberg in 2024, following Frishberg’s death in 2021.
Over her career, Kilgore appeared as leader or featured vocalist on over 50 albums. Along with Frishberg, Kilgore worked closely with a variety of other musicians, including guitarist/banjoist/vocalist Eddie Erickson, pianist Keith Ingham, saxophonist Harry Allen, trombonist Dan Barrett, as well as the late guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli, and his guitarist-vocalist son, John Pizzarelli.
Kilgore appeared multiple times on public radio show Fresh Air with Terry Gross. She also performed at Carnegie Hall and on A Prairie Home Companion. In 2010, Kilgore was inducted into the Oregon Music Hall of Fame and the Jazz Society of Oregon's Hall of Fame, and in 2020, she was named Portland Jazz Master by PDX Jazz, Oregon’s nonprofit jazz concert promoter.
For nearly a decade, Kilgore experienced cognitive decline that was eventually diagnosed to be Lewy body dementia. In 2024, the Syncopated Times reported that Titterington started a GoFundMe for his wife, which helped support long-term care for Kilgore until her passing.
Titterington, a freelance trumpet player who’s worked with Tony Bennett and toured with Broadway musicals, met Kilgore on a gig in 2000 shortly after he moved to Portland. The couple married in 2002.
There are many things Titterington will miss about his late wife. She had kindness, elegance, and understatement in spades, he said, and a knack for clever wordplay.
“Not only word placement in, you know, just one word zingers or just [a] sentence that says it all, but placement in a song when she's singing, because her phrasing was peerless,” he said.
Kilgore is survived by her husband, her sister, Jane “Jenny” Kilgore, and a wide network of musician friends and fans. A memorial for Kilgore is being planned for late May or early June in Portland.
