He joined a small band led by a friend the alto player George Davis

He joined a small band led by a friend, the alto player George Davis. “Another friend brought a 17-year-old girl singer in one night and asked me to let her sit in,” said Kral “I was reluctant. Girls usually sing in the key of Z.”But this one was different She was Jackie Cain. The owner of the club was there and he said, “Hey, she’s great. You need a vocalist on the weekends.”"We do?” asked Kral.”You do.”Gradually the new singer was drawn into the band and worked every night. When the band began broadcasting from Chicago, its fame spread.

A local disc jockey, Dave Garroway, presented jazz concerts in the area. By now the band was playing polished Kral compositions for alto, his and Jackie’s voices and piano. At one of the concerts, they shared the bill with Charlie Ventura’s 10-piece band. Much impressed, Ventura hired Jackie as his singer.In 1948 Ventura broke up the band and formed his seven-piece unit Bop for the People, a group that played simplified Bebop that was accessible to general audiences.

He took on Kral as arranger, pianist and vocal foil for Jackie Cain. The two worked out a multitude of numbers where they sang and improvised in the manner of jazz instrumentalists.The band began travelling and recording, quickly rising to win all the magazine polls. Jackie and Roy became the major attraction, and Ventura was not without qualms as he saw the duo attract more acclaim than he did. Kral’s arrangement of the 1919 song “I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles”, with Bebop vocal lines by the duo, proved to be the biggest hit that Ventura had, and it endures in the record catalogues to this day.By now Cain and Kral had become involved off stage and they left Ventura in 1949 to marry From then onwards they worked as “Jackie and Roy”.