Some days, it
isn't so hard to see why rock'n'roll pissed off so many people. While the pop charts of the immediate pre-rock era were top-heavy with novelty songs about doggies in the window and baby's dimples, it was also a fabulous time for vocal jazz records, especially for women. Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, June
Christy and Chris Connor were at their artistic and commercial peaks,
and there were plenty of rivals in waiting. Some of their voices were sweet and lightly
swinging (Doris Drew), while some smouldered in the Julie London style
(take a bow, Dolores Gray). This was the age of the Midcentury Minx, and it would be all but wiped out by rock'n'roll.
Other singers were very highly regarded by other
musicians but never really clicked with the public. Chicago singer
Lurlean Hunter was singing in clubs before the war, accompanying big
bands, and cut four albums between 1956 and 1960 with such ace
arrangers as Al Nevins, Quincy Jones (who described her voice as
“like clothing”) and Al Cohn. Cohn also worked with Irene Kral, a
regular vocalist on The
Steve Allen Show in 1959.
This led to her first solo LP for United Artists Records, entirely
written by Allen, and awkwardly titled Steveireneo.
The same year, she
cut The
Band And I with Al
Cohn. By 1961, Kral had moved to Tarzana, California to raise a
family, and she was off the scene until the late '70s: “Now when
I'm old enough to appreciate them”, she sighed, “almost all the
really good bands are gone.”
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz-0EML7KQQSAxvy8Gb-ehFLSmGuwmwcCBE-bN2E9Y-Nh0_vQrGGitwMUFHMEOsTJIe8BxMbsXlBPopOSyulkuZSqea-fHwSEHWFxOANKKA9VNzMK48v9_zlAdQ4AS9VJwG_kxXWq4es0/s1600/MMsallieblair.jpg)
Dolores Gray began as a
cabaret artiste in San Francisco before moving to London and studying
at RADA. She worked mostly in theatre but had a plum role in the film
Designing Woman (1957) as Gregory Peck's former squeeze. The
come-hither stylings of Warm Brandy, her only album, appeared in the
same year. Theatre critic Michael Phillips once said that Dolores's
voice was like "a
freight-train slathered in honey." Anne Philips cut just one album in 1959 LP,
but had a long career as a New York demo singer in the '50s and '60s.
She sang all the backing vocals on Carole King's It Might as Well
Rain Until September in 1962 (think of the smooth “til September”
part towards the end of the song). Born To Be Blue was was recorded
over three dates at the Brill Building writers' favourite Bell Sound
Studio in 1959.
Beverley
Kenney's voice was breathy and girlish, not dissimilar to Blossom
Dearie's. She died tragically young, committing suicide in 1960 when
she was only 28. In the '50s she had sung with the Dorsey Brothers,
appeared on TV in the Steve Allen Show (on which she sang I Hate
Rock'n'Roll) and Playboy's Penthouse in 1958, and had released six
albums by the time of her death. Revered in Japan, a collection of
1954 demos entitled Snuggled On Your Shoulder was the first of three
Japanese-only collections of unreleased material. Here's a clip of her singing and chatting with Hugh Hefner on Playboy After Dark: http://www.thebluegrassspecial.com/archive/2012/february2012/beverly-kenney-news.html
Jane Fielding, even in the digital age, is extremely obscure.
The sleevenotes to 1956's superb Embers Glow reveal she was an ice
skater who suffered an injury and retired early. Singing slightly behind
the beat, her breathy voice was supported on her debut album by a stellar group: Kenny
Drew (piano), Joe Maini (alto sax), Ted Efantis (tenor sax), Leroy
Vinnegar or Paul Chambers (bass) and Larance Marable (drums). She was
a blue-eyed redhead who recorded one other album – Jazz Trio with
Lou Levy and Red Mitchell – and that's all we know.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUv0QyQUKHi3QKp95wtiXZSnYNRfwZFenZoJ5vRZKWagpX0OHVZY_I29NhvJksWy2RqZuQEFWBFzTKr9MKT3p3YfYT61uGlZzPiigoxSgeBDoe_YGUQe25gBGEnB8iBx_b_D03UbblVII/s1600/MMtoniharper-toni.jpg)
These singers had delicacy, accuracy and cool; their arrangements were hip, dry and understated. Croydon Municipal is happy to give them a home together on the Midcentury Minx compilation, available in all good record stores, or at Amazon if you must.
Gosh it's proving hard finding somewhere to listen to this before buying.
ReplyDeleteAlso saw on amazon that you're releasing Soho Blondes & Peeping Toms in a fortnight. Looking forward to hearing about that too!
Thanks for this great post. Opened my mind to a whole lot of less known singers... and do I like it !
ReplyDeleteSallie had two songs on Bethlehem Records' jazzy Porgy and Bess. I did an entry on Sallie a while back:
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