Lorraine Geller

Lorraine Winifred Geller (née Walsh; September 11, 1928 – October 13, 1958) was an American jazz pianist. Geller was born in Portland, Oregon on September 11, 1928. She started out with the all-female big band Sweethearts of Rhythm, based in New York. She met saxophonist Herb Geller, and married him in 1951. Together they moved to Los Angeles, where they played with many of the stalwarts of the West Coast jazz scene, such as Shorty Rogers, Zoot Sims, Stan Getz, and Red Mitchell; she also did sessions with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. In 1957, she accompanied Kay Starr. The following year, she concentrated on bringing up her daughter, so did not often perform, but she did play at the first Monterey Jazz Festival. On October 13, 1958, Lorraine Geller died in Los Angeles; this has been attributed to heart failure or pulmonary infection.