Excellent vocal jazz from postwar Paris! The Blue Stars were a legendary combo that were led by Blossom Dearie, and which featured a host of great vocal talents that would later go onto form groups like Les Double Six or The Swingle Singers, including Mimi Perrin and Christine Legrand, as well as instrumental jazz artists like Fats Sadi and Roger Guerin, who are doing some rare vocalization here. The first 4 tracks on the set are pulled from a 1956 ep – and it features the group on the tracks "Jumpin At The Woodside", "C'est La Vie", "Broadway At Basin Street", and "Grapevine". The next 12 tracks are from the Pardon My English LP – which has the group down to a sextet, working without Dearie, in a groovy accented English vocal style that's a direct precursor of the vocalese grooving of Les Double Six. Titles on that set include "Small Talk", "Move", "Did You Close Your Eyes?", and "Promises & Lies". The last 3 tracks on the set are a bit different – featuring vocals and guitar by Henri Salvador, with backing on bass and drums. The style of Salvador's work is still similar, though – way more vocalese than the "blues" in the title would make you expect – and the tracks are lifted from a rare Fontana ep-only release that was recorded in the same year. Titles include "Don't Blame Me", "Salvador Plays The Blues", and "Stompin At The Savoy". CD

Great later work from Abbey Lincoln! The album Talking To The Sun is something of a comeback set for Abbey Lincoln – an extremely powerful set from the early 80s, and one that helped set the tone for some great albums to come! Abbey's working here in a bold style that includes a fair bit of original material – done in collaboration with alto saxophonist Steve Coleman, whose edgey tone really adds a lot to the record! There's a sense of voice here that takes us back to Abbey's bold experiments with Max Roach in the early 60s – a righteous tone that effortlessly mixes politics and art, yet which never forgets its key mission of music. The set includes original compositions "The River", "Talking To The Sun", "People On The Street", and "Prelude/A Wedding Song" – plus a nice take on the Mercer/Mancini number "Whistling Away The Dark". On the second two records, Abbey Lincoln takes on the legacy of Billie Holiday – in a strong live set recorded with a small group at the end of the 80s! The setting's a bit more relaxed here than on some of Abbey's other albums of the period – a bit looser and sometimes more languid, but only in the best sort of ways to get at the moodiness of Billie Holiday's approach to the tunes. A few numbers seem to bristle with a bit more of that Abbey Lincoln sense of pride – that righteous legacy that runs straight from Billie's classic "Strange Fruit" – but overall, the spirit of Holiday's more traditional approach definitely guides the performance. The group's a quartet – with Harold Vick on tenor – and titles include "For All We Know", "No More", "Gimme A Pigfoot", "God Bless The Child", "For Heaven's Sake", and "Don't Explain". CD

Includes the songs "Green Eyes", "Let Me Off Uptown", "Kick It!", "After You've Gone", "Rockin' Chair", "Armour", "Stop! The Red Light's On", "Watch The Birdie", "The Walls Keep Talking", "Skylark", "Bolero At The Savoy", "Thanks For The Boogie Ride", "Keep 'Em Flying", "Pass The Bounce", "Ball Of Fire", "Harlem On Parade", "Knock Me A Kiss", "Barrelhouse Bessie From Basin Street", "That Drummer's Band", "Murder He Says", "Bop Boogie", "Watch Out", "Swiss Lullaby", and "Why Fall In Love With A Stranger". (Jazz, Vocalists) CD