Georgie Fame really sounds wonderful here – stepping out in a straight jazz mode, with the promised blues currents at the bottom – in a vibe that takes us back to his early work in the 60s! Ben Sidran produced the set, and also plays piano – with an all-star group that includes Mike Mainieri in vobes, Phil Woods and Pete King on alto, Stanley Turrentine and Bob Malach on tenor, Ronnie Cuber on baritone, and Grady Tate on drums! All that top-shelf jazz talent really makes the album sparkle – but, as always, it's Georgie and his wonderfully-inflected vocals that really hold the charm for the whole set – a voice that we'd rank right up there with Jon Hendricks or Mose Allison for sheer inventiveness and individuality. Titles include "The Woodshed", "The Blues & Me", "Maybe It's Because Of Love", "Roll With My Baby", "How Long Has This Been Going On", and "Pass Me By". CD

June's got rhythm, sure, but the real thing that makes her great is her dark and moody sense of melody! This album's one of June's late 50s efforts done with husband/arranger Bob Cooper – not as arch modern as some of her work with Pete Rugolo, but still in a style that's definitely inspired by that classic work. Backing is by a small group of LA jazzers – including Shelly Manne, Russ Freeman, Laurindo Almeida, Frank Rosolino, and Cooper – and titles include "My One & Only Love", "Blue Moon", "I Can Make You Love Me", "When Lights Are Low", and "Gypsy In My Soul". LP, Vinyl record album

One of our favorite albums by Nat King Cole – done with a bit more depth and feeling than some of his other Capitol sets of the time – and some great jazzy backings, too! Arrangements are by Dave Cavanaugh, but there's almost a Basie-like quality to the group at times – never too hard-swinging, but definitely that slow-burning quality the Count could hit so well with a singer, especially on the horns! The group is awash with Basie-ites – and saxes are by Marshall Royal, Frank Foster, Billy Mitchell, and Frank Wess; trumpets include Joe Newman and Thad Jones; trombones feature Al Grey, Henry Coker, and Benny Powell; and rhythm features guitar from Freddie Greene, piano from Gerald Wiggins, and drums from Sonny Payne – definitely a swinging lineup. Titles include the great "Welcome To The Club" – plus "Anytime Anyday Anywhere", "The Late Late Show", "Wee Baby Blues", "Avalon", "She's Funny That Way", and "The Blues Don't Care". LP, Vinyl record album

A near-lost album from Sammy's years at Reprise – and an album that's got that nice bouncey style that the label was using with Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra in the 60s! A lot of the thanks goes to producer Sonny Burke, who inflects Sammy's vocals with a punched-up set of rhythms that makes even the most familiar numbers come out groovy – a factor that Sam's certainly aware of, as he reaches to the top with that "yeah, man" style that helps to completely transform some of the tunes. Titles include great versions of "The Days Of Wine & Roses", "Not For Me", "I Wanna Be Around", "It's All In The Game", "Fools Rush In", and "Choose". CD

A classic album of Cole Porter tunes – sung by Mabel Mercer with just a bit of tinkling piano in the background! The overall sound's a bit older than you might guess from the date of the record – a mode that takes most of the Porter tunes relatively straight, served up in Mercer's trilling style of vocals – which have more of a 20s approach to the material than other 50s singers who were making Porter swing a bit more. Backing is by Cy Walter or Stan Freeman on piano, plus a bit of bass by Frank Carroll – and titles include "Ours", "Where Oh Where", "After You", "So In Love", "Looking At You", "Ace In The Hole", and "It's Delovely". LP, Vinyl record album

Think what you want about Dinah Shore, she could serve up some pretty great vocals at her best moments – and this album is definitely one of those moments! The style here is laidback and late nite – with Dinah singing alongside backing from the trio of Andre Previn on piano, Red Mitchell on bass, and Frank Capp on drums – all working in an easygoing mode that comes across with a great small club feel. Previn's piano is especially nice – filled with light flourishes that illuminate the tunes nicely, but in a subtle way that's never too over the top – and usually touched with just a hint of sadness to fit the mood of the songs. Titles include "April In Paris", "Then I'll Be Tired Of You", "The Man I Love", "That Old Feeling", "It Had To Be You", "I'll Be Seeing You", and "If I Had You". CD

Think what you want about Dinah Shore, she could serve up some pretty great vocals at her best moments – and this album is definitely one of those moments! The style here is laidback and late nite – with Dinah singing alongside backing from the trio of Andre Previn on piano, Red Mitchell on bass, and Frank Capp on drums – all working in an easygoing mode that comes across with a great small club feel. Previn's piano is especially nice – filled with light flourishes that illuminate the tunes nicely, but in a subtle way that's never too over the top – and usually touched with just a hint of sadness to fit the mood of the songs. Titles include "April In Paris", "Then I'll Be Tired Of You", "The Man I Love", "That Old Feeling", "It Had To Be You", "I'll Be Seeing You", and "If I Had You". CD also features 4 bonus tracks – "While We're Young", "Stars Fell On Alabama", "Like Someone In Love", and a duet version of "The Man I Love". CD

An oft-forgotten gem in Sinatra's catalog – a sad, somber late 50s session conducted by Nelson Riddle, with additional backing by the Hollywood String Quartet, who give the record all the weepiness it needs to make the songs hit home. Sinatra's in that post-revival mode vocally, hitting a mature tone that really brings the best emotional quality out of titles like "Love Locked Out", "PS I Love You", "Close To You", "Don't Like Goodbyes", and "Blame It On My Youth". Still entirely at the top of his game – and more proof that there never was a better singer! CD reissue features 15 tracks in all, and 24 bit digital remastering. CD

... LP, Vinyl record album

... LP, Vinyl record album

A soundtrack as important to the sound of Sinatra on Capitol Records as High Society – maybe even more so, as it features seminal readings of Rogers & Hart standards "Bewitched", "I Could Write A Book", "The Lady Is A Tramp", and "There's A Small Hotel". Arrangements by Nelson Riddle, too! LP, Vinyl record album

Sinatra's final album for Capitol – a contemplative set of tracks that reunites him with arranger Alex Stordahl, a frequent partner during the Columbia years, and an artist who's matured as much as Frank by this point, making a perfect fit for the sadder tone of the material. Tracks are in that "older man let alone" style of some of the Reprise recordings, and selections include "These Foolish Things", "When The World Was Young", "I'll Remember April", "September Song", "A Million Dreams Ago", and "Somewhere Along The Way". LP, Vinyl record album

The cover's got an image of Frank Sinatra from later years, but the music here is all from the singer's early days as a solo act on Columbia Records – material that has the great one really reinventing the role of the male voice in American music, especially on well-crafted ballads and love songs like these! Sinatra's already amazingly mature for the time – a master of pointed understatement who blows away just about all of his 40s competition – on Columbia classics that include "I Dream Of You", "I Have But One Heart", "The Girl That I Marry", "Lost In The Stars", "If I Forget You", "Mam'Selle", "Put Your Dreams Away", and "It Never Entered My Mind". LP, Vinyl record album

A delightful little jukebox EP from one of Sinatra's greatest records ever – pure genius all the way through! Frank's backed here by the orchestra of Count Basie, with some incredible arrangements by Quincy Jones that really have a jazzy, syncopated kick to them. The move seems to be an unintentional way of covering for Frank's slightly failing pipes – but it also picks up on a seminal beat change in 60s pop, the same sort of gentle snapping groove that you'd find in the best work by Bacharach, a shift that really infuses Frank's vocals with a whole new sound, one that shows that he's ready to keep on growing and growing after being stuck in a Nelson Riddle rut. All tracks are superb – hip 60s pop and showtunes, like "Fly Me To the Moon", "More", "The Good Life", and "I Wanna Be Around". (Funky 45's, Vocalists) 7-inch, Vinyl record

A beautiful little album that shows a whole new side of Sinatra! Frank's a bit late on the bossa game – but the record's a wonderfully gentle batch of bossa nova tunes, performed with musical and occasional vocal accompaniment by Jobim, and larger orchestral backings by Claus Ogerman. Far more than a gimmicky fake bossa album – this is a wonderful set of tracks that show that Sinatra could still hit a gentle ballad without going as over the top as he did on some of his other Reprise work. Jobim's talent is very respected – and the record is a true blending of musical styles, in a way that does justice to both artists equally. Titles include "Change Partners", "Dindi", "Meditation", "How Insensitive", and "I Concentrate On You". CD

A beautiful little album that shows a whole new side of Sinatra! Frank's a bit late on the bossa game – but the record's a wonderfully gentle batch of bossa nova tunes, performed with musical and occasional vocal accompaniment by Jobim, and larger orchestral backings by Claus Ogerman. Far more than a gimmicky fake bossa album – this is a wonderful set of tracks that show that Sinatra could still hit a gentle ballad without going as over the top as he did on some of his other Reprise work. Jobim's talent is very respected – and the record is a true blending of musical styles, in a way that does justice to both artists equally. Titles include "Change Partners", "Dindi", "Meditation", "How Insensitive", and "I Concentrate On You". CD

A beautiful little album that shows a whole new side of Sinatra! Frank's a bit late on the bossa game – but the record's a wonderfully gentle batch of bossa nova tunes, performed with musical and occasional vocal accompaniment by Jobim, and larger orchestral backings by Claus Ogerman. Far more than a gimmicky fake bossa album – this is a wonderful set of tracks that show that Sinatra could still hit a gentle ballad without going as over the top as he did on some of his other Reprise work. Jobim's talent is very respected – and the record is a true blending of musical styles, in a way that does justice to both artists equally. Titles include "Change Partners", "Dindi", "Meditation", "How Insensitive", and "I Concentrate On You". LP, Vinyl record album

A classic album by Keely Smith – Louis Prima's one-time wife and classic singing partner, working here on her own! Swingin Pretty features arrangements 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". LP, Vinyl record album

One of our favorite recordings ever of George Gershwin's Porgy & Bess – done by Bethlehem Records in the mid 50s, and featuring nearly every one of the label's great talents at the time! The choice of the lead characters is a bit odd – as Mel Torme plays Porgy and Francis Faye plays Bess – but both singers are actually pretty darn great for the set, and really bring a lot out of the tunes. Plus, the other artists on the set really keep things interesting – as the collection features vocal performances by Johnny Hartman, Frank Rosolino, Betty Roche, Bob Dorough, and Sallie Blair. Plus, the whole thing's presented as Gershwin wrote it – complete with narration by Al Jazzbo Collins, and a number of strong instrumental passages. Music is performed by groups led by Russ Garcia, Duke Ellington, Pat Moran, and Stan Levy – and players are an array of the best of both the New York and LA scenes at the time! LP, Vinyl record album

Sarah Vaughan gets some great backings here from Quincy Jones – who brings a nice sort of punch to the record, and makes it one of her grooviest from the early 60s! The style's still somewhat traditional – not as much in moddish Jones modes from a few years later – but there's already that strong sense of syncopation that really sets Quincy's charts apart, the same sort of rhythms he brought to his Reprise arrangements for Frank Sinatra and Count Basie, although not as Basie-bombastic overall. Vaughan's vocals are still beautifully smooth in the setting, and titles include "I Could Write A Book", "Maria", "Baubles Bangles & Beads", "So Long", "You're Mine You", "Moonglow", and "Invitation". LP, Vinyl record album