Artist.......: Christy June and Jeri Southern
Album........: Something Latin Something Porter
Label........: DRG Records
Genre........: Jazz
Catnr........: 8507
source.......: CDDA
rip.date.....: Mar-02-2011
str.date.....: Jun-02-2009
quality......: VBR/44,1Hz/Joint-Stereo
Url..........: n/a
track title time
01. Do I Hear a Waltz? 02:19
02. Long Ago 02:23
03. Come Back to Me 02:01
04. Here's That Rainy Day 02:37
05. He Touched Me 02:34
06. Love Theme From "The Sandpiper" 02:57
07. Gimme Some 02:07
08. What Did I Have That I Don't Have? 03:01
09. Run For Your Life! 02:32
10. Tell Me More 02:24
11. Cast Your Fate to the Wind 02:27
12. One Note Samba (Samba De Uma Nota So) 01:55
13. Don't Look At Me That Way 03:00
14. Get Out of Town 03:05
15. Looking at You 02:32
16. It's All Right With Me 04:46
17. Let's Fly Away 02:32
18. Why Shouldn't I? 02:31
19. You're The Top 02:52
20. After You 02:52
21. Which? 02:42
22. I Concentrate On You 03:49
23. It's Bad For Me 02:14
24. Weren't We Fools 02:49
25. Love Is the Sweetest Thing 02:02
Runtime 67:03 min
Size 87,7 MB
Release Notes:
There's lots of Broadway and throaty singing in a
tasteful jazz style on a DRG release that reissues
recordings originally on vinyl on Capitol Records.
The double bill pairs the great jazz singer June
Christy (1925-1990) with Jeri Southern, who was
born a year later than June and died a year after
her. Both left a bunch of classy recordings, with
striking and creative orchestral arrangements that
bring new colors and rhythms to some familiar and
some not overly familiar songs. One minor sign of
the still cautious times (recordings were made in
1958 and 1965): one track on each lady's set finds
her avoiding a lyric with the word "hell." The
tracks are not remixed and re-anything-ed, but the
sound is fine. Original producers, coincidentally,
were both men named Miller: Bill Miller for
Christy, Tom Miller for Southern. Especially
informative and insightful liner notes are by jazz
writer Will Friedwald who puts the times and tunes
in perspective.
Recorded in 1965, June Christy's original album,
arranged and conducted by Ernie Freeman with a bevy
of top jazz musicians, brought the Latin and bossa
nova sounds then quite the rage to a group of 11
songs, several from Broadway musicals of the time,
and it's a refreshing, rich and respectable
recital. Purists who don't like jazz and big band
folks fiddling with the drama or pizzazz of the
original contexts might fuss and fume. They can
make an argument that some highs and lows of
emotion the theatre versions were born with are
smoother and more laidback when the musical
adoptive parents take over. For example, with two
songs from On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, the
original key element of real frustration is hard to
find in "Come Back to Me" or a percolating "What
Did I Have That I Don't Have?" But both feature
marvelous singing and intriguing arrangements that
don't disrespect the material or exactly turn it on
its ear. Golden Boy's "Gimme Some" trades its
urgency and restlessness for a more generalized
insistence in a jazz comfort zone. And there's a
sense of relaxed contentment in the recording of
"He Touched Me" ("She Touched Me" in the show Drat!
The Cat!, the deliciously romantic words by Ira
Levin, graceful melody by Milton Schafer). That
contrasts with the wonder and awe it's imbued with
in the context of the show, but it should be noted
that the Christy version was recorded a few weeks
before the show played its first preview.
Richard Rodgers and Stephen Sondheim's title song
from Do I Hear a Waltz? retains its sense of
exultant joy and, naturally, was a good fit for
this project that put a lot of focus on the tempi
and musical sway, swing or swirl. With the
narrower agenda being mainly theatre songs that
were new in 1965, there are song choices that might
have been lost in the shuffle of a generic
"Broadway songs" album. For example, "Long Ago,"
the simple and sincere love ballad from Half a
Sixpence, receives a rather perfunctory gloss-over,
but Skyscraper's "Run for Your Life" gets more
juice and vim. Its jaunty lyric by Sammy Cahn
brings a sense of fun, as does a
lively-getting-livelier spin through the melody by
James Van Heusen. One of his older melodies is
here, too, warmly approached: "Here's That Rainy
Day" (with a Johnny Burke lyric) became something
of a standard, but it is from a 1953 Broadway show
that lasted just six performances, Carnival in
Flanders. The remaining Christy cuts are not
Broadway, but stay with the cozy "Latin" feel.
Added to the original album is the bossa nova
classic from the pen of Jobim, "One Note Samba."
From a rare single, it's a perfect fit.
Contrariwise, there's one extra track on the Jeri
Southern set of Cole Porter songs, but, oddly it's
not a Porter song at all. Stuck in at the end as
an odd P.S. after the sophistication and high
polish of Porter, it's the old and rather corny but
likeable "Love Is the Sweetest Thing" by Ray Noble.
The previously unissued track is a light charming
bit of fluff, though the dopey back-up chorus
chirping is annoying. Jeri Southern, who started
as a pianist, had a lower-profile, shorter career,
as she retired early to teach. But her recordings
are satisfying and she's quite attentive to the
Porter priorities of lovingly respecting the lyrics
and lush melodies of ballads like "I Concentrate on
You" and a ballad version of "It's All Right with
Me." No gimmicks, no pretentiousness, no flash,
just quality unfussy singing. The Porter songs
were arranged and conducted by one of the giants of
the era: Billy May, frequent collaborator on
classic albums by Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee, and his
own instrumental records. Though more celebrated
for his brassy, boisterous charts, his ballad work
here with strings is lovely and sympathetic in
gentle settings for such cuts as Jeri Southern's
plaintive, reflective rendition of "Why Shouldn't
I?" (a real highlight).
Less frequently approached Porter nuggets "Weren't
We Fools?" and "Which?" are pure pleasure to hear,
especially treated with such intelligence. There's
little of the more showy, sly, brittle or smug
Porter picks with cascades of wordplay. The only
"list" song is "You're the Top." Those looking to
delve into the rich Porter canon and find something
other than the usual suspects and the more common
emphasis on just the sassy wit and highbrow hijinks
are urged to make a Southern turn.