... LP, Vinyl record album

A 60s LP that compiles Julia's earlier sides for Capitol – a mixture of jump blues, swing, and R&B, recorded with players that include Red Norvo, Benny Carter, Vic Dickenson, and Baby Lovett – all killer work from the early years of the labgel! Titles include "Last Call For Alcohol", "After Hours Waltz", "King Size Papa", "Snatch It & Grab It", "You Ain't Got It No More", and "Crazy World". (Soul, Vocalists) LP, Vinyl record album

... LP, Vinyl record album

2 Capitol Records gems from Louis Prima & Keely Smith – on a single CD, and with bonus tracks too! Hey Boy Hey Girl is a groovy little soundtrack recording – done for a rare film that starred Louis Prima and Keely Smith, working very much at the height of their 50s Capitol powers! The sound of the album's every bit as great as some of the better-known studio sets by the pair – and like those sets, the record's a mix of the duo's great duet numbers and some excellent solo tracks too – numbers that either have Louis in the lead, or Keely hitting a few warmer, mellower notes. Backings are by Sam Butera & The Witnesses – and titles include "Hey Boy Hey Girl", "Banana Split For My Baby", "Fever", "You Are My Love", "Oh Marie", "Lazy River", and "Nitey-Nite". Swinging Pretty is a classic album by Keely Smith – Louis Prima's one-time wife and classic singing partner, working here on her own! Arrangements are by Nelson Riddle – showcasing Keely as a great singer in her own right, able to work in that sophisticated jazz-based style that you'd find with the best Capitol singers, like Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee, or Nat King Cole. Titles include "It's Magic", "Indian Love Call", "Someone To Watch Over Me", "Stormy Weather", and "There Will Never Be Another You". Bonus tracks include "A Foggy Day", "Nothings Too Good For My Baby", "The Lip", and "I've Got You Under My Skin" by Louis & Keely – plus "It's Magic", "Don't Let A Memory", and "Don't Take Your Love From Me" by Keely Smith. CD

One of the weirdest records ever from Shel Silverstein – and that's saying a heck of a lot, given what a weirdo he is! The set was recorded hot on the heels of the big Johnny Cash recording of "Boy Named Sue" – and it features Shel singing that famous tune, plus a host of other original country material – all of which is quite different than the usual songs coming from Nashville in the 60s! Production was done by Chet Atkins – who must have flipped a wig recording this one – and Shel's raspy, nasally voice is surprisingly at home in the professional Nashville backings. The record's a great leftfield country relic from the 60s – and titles include "Boy Named Sue", "Dirty Ol Me", "Alimoney", "Someday's Here", "Time", "Comin After Jinny", and "Daylight Dreamer". LP, Vinyl record album

A surprisingly jazzy score – thanks to orchestrations by Ralph Burns, and musical direction by Elliot Lawrence! And of course, the vocals by Sammy Davis Jr are pretty darn nice too! (Soundtracks, Vocalists) LP, Vinyl record album

... CD

... LP, Vinyl record album

... CD

... CD

A real classic from Sammy Davis Jr & Carmen McRae! Given Sammy's great talent for personal interaction on the stage, as heard often on his key Rat Pack recordings, he's a real natural for this sort of duet mode – as he manages to talk and sing his way through the tunes beautifully, really opening up Carmen a heck of a lot, and getting her past the staid, serious mode of most of her 50s albums. Titles include "People Will Say We're In Love", "Happy To Make Your Acquaintance", "You're The Top", "Cheek To Cheek", "Baby It's Cold Outside", and "Tea For Two". LP, Vinyl record album

Great early work from Oscar Brown Jr – a hip mix of jazz and soul, working in Brown's unique sense of showmanship, and his almost beat-like flair with a lyric! Ralph Burns and Quincy Jones handled the arrangements – and the album's filled with great original tracks by Brown, including "Mr. Kicks", "Opportunity, Please Knock", Love is Like a New Born Child", "Elegy (Plain Black Boy)", "Hazel's Hips", and many more! Nice jazzy groove, and very much in the best style of Oscar's 60s work! LP, Vinyl record album

CD includes 28 tracks, with music by the early King Cole Trio, plus some nice solo material too! Titles that include "Nature Boy", "Too Young", "Send For Me", "Mona Lisa", "On The Street Where You Live", "Almost Like Being In Love", "Smile", and "LOVE". CD

An unforgettable album from Natalie Cole – a record that came at a time when her R&B career was faltering slightly, and a set that not only helped Natalie reach a new level of sophistication in her music – but also find a huge new audience too! If the title sounds familiar, it's because it's the name of a huge hit for Natalie's dad, the great Nat King Cole – who makes a surprising appearance here via the magic of technology, as he duets with his daughter on the album's hit title track. There's a jazzy vibe to the whole set – thanks in part to some piano work by Ike Cole too – and titles include "The Very Thought Of You", "Paper Moon", "Mona Lisa", 'This Can't Be Love", "Lush Life", "That Sunday That Summer", "Avalon", "Don't Get Around Much Anymore", "Nature Boy", "Darling Je Vous Aime Beaucoup", "Thou Swell", and "Unforgettable". (Soul, Vocalists) LP, Vinyl record album

A pair of albums from the great Jackie DeShannon – back to back on a single CD! First up is the UK-only release Don't Turn Your Back On Me – a great batch of material with a sweet west coast pop groove – and one that includes a fair number of original tunes written by Jackie herself! Jackie's ability to write her own material really made her stand out amongst sweeter female 60s singers – and it ensured that on an album like this, she'd be working with a depth that went beyond simple pop, and which avoided the over-trodden filler that clogged up too many other albums of the genre. Titles include "Needles & Pins", "Don't Turn Your Back On Me", "She Don't Understand Him Like I Do", "When You Walk In The Room", "Oh Boy", "Hold Your Head High", "It's Love Baby", "The Prince", and "You Won't Forget Me". This Is features the young Jackie DeShannon in a really wonderful setting – partly in the mode of her earlier singles for Imperial Records, partly hitting some hipper, more adult modes – thanks in part to production help from Burt Bacharach! Burt gives Jackie a great early hit with a classic reading of "What The World Needs Now" – and in the spirit of including that tune, the record opens up a bit more to other songwriters than some of DeShannon's other albums – as Jackie's wonderful vocals really do a great job with a nice variety of work, alongside a few of her own tunes too. Titles include "What The World Needs Now", "Don't Let The Sun Catch You Crying", "Take Me Tonight", "Summertime", "Go On Your Way", "After Last Night", "Am I Making It Hard On You", "Hellos & Goodbyes", and "I'm Gonna Be Strong". (Rock, Vocalists) CD

Early genius from Kurt Elling – one of Blue Note's best vocal signings of the 90s, and a richly talented singer who's still not well understood by many audiences! The set's got Kurt doing a bit of everything he does great – completely transforming old standards like "Nature Boy" and "April In Paris"; coming up with new lyrics for harder jazz numbers, like Jimmy Heath's "Gingerbread Boy" or Donald Byrd's "Tanya Jean"; and working through compelling original material that includes "It's Just A Thing", "Endless", and "The Messenger". CD

No Reservations is quite an unusual little set for the time – as it's a bit looser and less structured than most other vocal dates – very much in the spirit of Faye's famous performances in clubs, with a gritty, personal approach to the music that's really great. The orchestrations are relatively loose – often holding back to let Faye lead the way on vocals and piano, as she steps up and moves back her level of energy in some very unusual interpretations of the tunes. 12 titles in all, including the striking original "You're Heavenly", plus "Mad About The Boy", "Drunk With Love", "The Man I Love", "Night & Day", "A Hundred Years From Today", and "Miss Otis Regrets". LP, Vinyl record album

Massive music from Ella Fitzgerald – 4CDs worth of sublime small group recordings – all of them live, and all of them previously unissued! The set follows the same format of the Verve Ella In Hollywood album – recorded in a small club setting, with combo backing that really lets Fitzgerald open up and swing – inflecting the tunes with the kind of warmth and spontaneity that she brought to her famous live performances of the time – which were almost always more compelling than her studio sides, no matter how great those were too! The first 3CDs feature material from two weeks' worth of recording in May of 1961 – with backing from Jim Hall on guitar, Lou Levy on piano, Wilfred Middlebrooks on bass, and Gus Johnson on drums – and CD four features Ella returning to Hollywood for two more nights in 1962, with trio backing from Paul Smith on piano, Middlebrooks on bass, and Stan Levey on drums. There's a massive 77 tracks in all – handsomely package in a hardcover 7" square book – which also features beautiful color pages inside, lots of notes on the music, and design that's every bit as groovy as the old albums on Verve. Titles include "Joe Williams' Blues", "It's De-Lovely", "Lorelei", "I Can't Get Started", "Round Midnight", "Perdido", "Little White Lies", "Lover Come Back To Me", "Across The Alley From The Alamo", "Love For Sale", "Exactly Like You", "Mack The Knife", "Teach Me Tonight", "My Kind Of Boy", "It Had To Be You", "Hard Hearted Hannah", "All Of Me", and "Too Darn Hot/Ella's Twist". And, in case you're wondering, there's almost no repetition in the set at all – all discreet, unique tunes – not just the sort of rehash you might get in other concert box sets of this nature! CD

Ella Fitzgerald and Joe Pass return to the studio just a few years after their initial meeting – once again to work in a stripped-down duet format that's completely sublime! The spare setting is one that Ella never got in the older days – and there's an intimacy here that almost makes it like we're hearing a new singer entirely – one who's not surging over bigger band arrangements, but laying back and singing in a mode that's almost more torchy than we could have ever expected. Pass' guitar is acoustic, and gentle – and titles include "All Too Soon", "One Note Samba", "Rain", "You Took Advantage Of Me", "That Old Feeling", "I've Got The World On A String", and "Nature Boy". CD

One of the rarest Lee Hazlewood albums, and one of the coolest, too – the set falls a bit later than some of his other work on the Swedish scene – and, like Cowboy In Sweden, it's also a soundtrack too – but the vibe is different than that one, and almost shows this maturation of Lee's style – as if he's absorbing even more unusual elements during his time overseas, and finding a way to keep growing his sound away from his American years in LA! All the Hazlewood craft for songs and nicely wry vocals is still very much in place – but there's also some nice shifts in the arrangements, too – deepening things some fuller elements at times, yet stepping back into tighter elements at others. Titles include "Soul's Island", "A House Safe For Tigers", "Our Little Boy Blue", "Sand Hill Anna & The Russian", "Absent Friends", and a nice remake of "The Nights"! CD

A wonderful set from vocalist Jon Hendricks – and quite different than most of his other work! This set was one of a few that Jon recorded while living in the UK at the end of the 60s – and it features orchestrations by Wally Stott, and production by Johnny Franz – the team who both made the Scott Walker records of the late 60s so great! The style here is a bit more subdued than that on the Scott Walker albums – warm and lush, in a mode that has Hendricks singing as a traditional vocalist, in a mellow late nite style. The album features a few original tunes – "Times Of Love", "Where", and "One Rose" – plus great versions of "I Concentrate On You", "Lil Darlin", and "Nature Boy". Oddly dark, with some nice touches – and a whole new side of Hendricks' vocals! LP, Vinyl record album

One of the best-remembered jazz albums from singer Bev Kelly – partly for the record's great use of guitar by Johnny Smith, but also for the great vocals from Bev herself! The album's one of a few that really set a new standard for small combo jazz in the 50s – different than the bigger band records with singers, but also not nearly as cabaret-styled as some of the other records with a small group behind the vocalist. Smith's tone is wonderful – that moody, mellow magic he did so well – and his pairing here is not unlike that of Barney Kessel with Julie London, but with much more of a New York vibe overall. Titles include "Looking For A Boy", "Destination Moon", "Tis Autumn", "Almost Like Being In Love", "Snuggled On Your Shoulder", and "Moe's Blues". CD

Not much here in the way of notes, but a great little session – one of those mature, intimate sessions that Irene Kral recorded so beautifully in the later years of her life! The track selection is quite strong – lesser-known numbers that offer a sophisticated look at love and live, often with a nice undercurrent of wit – sung just right by Irene with the sort of inflections to underscore the best elements of the lyrics, without getting too kitschy or cloying. There's only a bit of piano and bass to back up the vocals on most tracks – although the instrumentation, which is uncredited, also features guitar, flute, and percussion on other numbers. Titles include "Unlit Room", "On Top Of Mt Tipsy", "Once Upon Another Time", "Misty Roses", "Wheelers & Dealers", "Lady Of Lavender", "Lucky To Be Me", "Little Bitty Boy", and "Poems To Eat". CD

Two albums from Peggy Lee on one CD. First up is I Like Men! – an obscure album of "guy" songs from the end of the 50s! There's a playful feel to the music that fits Lee's vocals very well – as do the bouncy arrangements from Jack Marshall, who turns out to be one of the best musical partners that Peggy could ever hope for! The set's got that nice jazzy groove that really makes Lee's return to Capitol Records so great – and titles include "Good For Nothing Joe", "Charley My Boy", "Jim", "Bill", and "It's So Nice To Have A Man Around the House". On Sugar 'N' Spice Peggy's sweet as sugar, but working here with a heck of a lot of spice – thanks to arranger Benny Carter, who brings in a wonderfully jazzy feel to the set! The album's one of Peggy's best from her comeback years at Capitol – and a prime example of the syncopated, slinking mode of arrangement that was the best 60s discovery for the Peggy Lee voice – and which allowed her to create a unique space for her own maturing sexuality in pop music. The whole thing's great, and avoids the cliches of some of the other Peggy Lee albums from the time. Titles include "I Believe In You", "Ain't That Love", "The Best Is Yet To Come", "The Sweetest Sounds", "Teach Me Tonight", "Tell All The World About You", and "Big Bad Bill". CD

Groundbreaking work from Ketty Lester – a really important singer who equally skirted the worlds of jazz and soul! Ketty's got a great sophisti-soul style on the set – working with arrangements by Lincoln Mayorga, and coming off with a sound that would clearly go onto inspire Nancy Wilson and Marlena Shaw. Includes the hit "Love Letters", plus "You Can Have Him", "When Day Is Done", "Lonely People Do Foolish Things", "Hello Lover, Goodbye Tears", and "Looking For A Boy". (Soul, Vocalists) LP, Vinyl record album

Two great lost albums from Carmen – very different than her earlier work, kind of a mixture of jazz, soul, and pop, in territory that's a bit like work by Nancy Wilson or Marlena Shaw. Sound of Silence has Carmen working with arrangments by Shorty Rogers and Jimmy Jones – nicely jazzy, but with other sophisticated touches that open up Carmen's palette a lot. Titles include "Watch What Happens", "Sound Of Silence", "MacArthur Park", "Can You Tell", and "Gloomy Sunday". Portrait Of Carmen is one of her hippest LPs ever, and a great set of vocal gems that often gets overlooked. Arrangements are by Benny Carter, Shorty Rogers, and Oliver Nelson – and the album's got a swinging groovy style that pushes Carmen past her schmaltzier jazz vocal roots. The album kicks off with an amazing reading of Tommy Wolf's "I'm Always Drunk In San Francisco", done by Carmen in a way that makes you know she owns the song – and then it moves through a compelling blend of compositions that includes "My Very Own Person", "Ask Any Woman", "Boy, Do I Have A Surprise For You", and "Elusive Butterfly". CD

A wonderfully moody album from singer Helen Merrill – recorded with backing by pianist John Lewis, in an overall feel that's got some of the styles that Lewis forged with the Modern Jazz Quartet! The tunes are familiar ones, mostly, but arranged in a style that's got wonderfully sad and somber touches – really bringing out the best of the dark qualities in Merrill's vocals. Backing is by a quartet with Lewis, Richard Davis, Hubert Laws, and Connie Kay – and titles include "Close Your Eyes", "I Didn't Know What Time It Was", "The Singer", "Yesterdays", "How Long Has This Been Going On", "Mad About The Boy", and "Django". LP, Vinyl record album

One of the coolest jazz vocal albums you'll ever find! Frank Minion sings this suite of tracks billed as an "Introduction To Black Opium Street", and he puts the music together with little recitations in between the tracks, so that the whole thing sounds like one of the great Langston Hughes jazz albums from the same period. Minion's singing voice is in the same rich-toned tradition as singers like Johnny Hartman, but his speaking voice is raw and very soulful – and he gets more than able backing by a great set of players that includes Tommy Flanagan on piano, Roland Alexander on tenor and flute, Dannie Richmond on drums, and Paul Chambers on bass. The whole album sounds more like a rare session on Candid than it does the usual stuff on Bethlehem – and it's a surprisingly hip album that still holds up well over the years! Titles include "Oddsville USA", "Bongo Blues", "Autobiography Of A Musician", "Watermelon", "Flamenco Sketches", "Laughing Boy", and "Later". CD

Kenneth Patchen, like Kenneth Rexroth, was one of the few poets who really understood what it meant to read and write in a jazz idiom – as you'll hear on this excellent set of beatnik jazz tracks! The album features Patchen reading in a great style – angular, cynical, really working the words of his poems perfectly over backings by the Alan Neil Quartet. The poems are set to music written by George Wallington, Charlie Parker, and others – and tracks include "There's A Place", "They Won't Let You In There", "Do I Not Deal With Angels", "Not Many Kingdoms Left", "The Lonesome Boy Blues", "As I Opened The Window", and "A Sight Is Little Altered". (Spoken Word, Vocalists) CD

A pretty amazing set from Esther Phillips – her final album for Kudu – and a beautiful mix of soaring soul sounds from one the most unique, emotionally-inflected soul vocalists of her era! Esther's in prime Kudu mode here – working with jazzy arrangements by David Matthews and Pee Wee Ellis, adding her unique, grit-inflected soul chanteuse vocals to a smoother mix of instrumentation that creates a perfect counterpoint that took her way past her earlier work! There's also a couple of really sweet disco skewed numbers that work incredibly well – with spacier bits of synth and a dancefloor soul bed of percussion and rhythms – and in general, the arrangements are pretty great from track-to-track! Players include Randy Brecker and Mike Brecker on trumpet and tenor sax, Bray Miles on synthesizer, Bobby Lyle on clavinet, Eric Gale on guitar, Joe Farrell on tenor sax and alto flute, percussionist Ralph MacDonald and other excellent name musicians and others bring a grand sweep and sweeter intimacy when the mood requires. Titles include "Magic's In The Air", "A Beautiful Friendship", "Boy I Really Tied One On", "Higher & Higher", and "All The Way Down". (Soul, Vocalists) LP, Vinyl record album

An interesting set – kind of a parody of the Girl Meets Boy album that had been issued a year or two before on Columbia – done with vocals by Jimmy and Ada Moore, and recorded as a "story in jazz" about love, love found, and love lost. Jimmy and Ada sing both separately and together, Buck Clayton plays a few instrumental sides – and titles include "The Blues", "Cool Breeze Woman", "Ain't She Sweet", "If I Could Be With You", and "Pretty Little Baby". LP, Vinyl record album