{"product_id":"the-great-jazz-and-pop-vocal-albums-isbn-9780307379078","title":"The Great Jazz and Pop Vocal Albums","description":"The author of the magisterial \u003ci\u003eA Biographical Guide to the Great Jazz and Pop Singers \u003c\/i\u003enow approaches the great singers and their greatest work in an innovative and revelatory way: through considering their finest \u003ci\u003ealbums, \u003c\/i\u003ewhich is the format in which this music was most resonantly organized and presented to its public from the 1940s until the very recent decline of the CD. It is through their albums that Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee, Sarah Vaughan, Nat King Cole, Judy Garland, and the rest of the glorious honor roll of jazz and pop singers have been most tellingly and lastingly appreciated, and the history of the album itself, as Will Friedwald sketches it, can now be seen as a crucial part of musical history. We come to understand that, at their finest, albums have not been mere collections of individual songs strung together arbitrarily but organic phenomena in their own right. A Sinatra album, a Fitzgerald album, was planned and structured to show these artists at their best, at a specific moment in their artistic careers.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eYet the albums Friedwald has chosen to anatomize go about their work in a variety of ways. There are studio and solo albums: Lee’s \u003ci\u003eBlack Coffee, \u003c\/i\u003eJune Christy’s \u003ci\u003eSomething Cool, \u003c\/i\u003eCassandra Wilson’s \u003ci\u003eBelly of the Sun. \u003c\/i\u003eThere are brilliant collaborations: famous ones—Tony Bennett and Bill Evans, Louis Armstrong and Oscar Peterson—and wonderful surprises like Doris Day and Robert Goulet singing \u003ci\u003eAnnie Get Your Gun\u003c\/i\u003e. There are theme albums—Dinah Washington singing Fats Waller, Maxine Sullivan singing Andy Razaf, Margaret Whiting singing Jerome Kern, Barb Jungr singing Bob Dylan, and the sublime Jo Stafford singing American and Scottish folk songs. There are also stunning concert albums like Ella in Berlin, Sarah in Japan, Lena at the Waldorf, and, of course, \u003ci\u003eJudy at Carnegie Hall. \u003c\/i\u003eAll the greats are on hand, from Kay Starr and Carmen McRae to Jimmy Scott and Della Reese (\u003ci\u003eDella Della Cha Cha Cha\u003c\/i\u003e). And, from out of left field, the astounding \u003ci\u003eGod Bless Tiny Tim.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEach of the fifty-seven albums discussed here captures the artist at a high point, if not at the expected moment, of her or his career. The individual cuts are evaluated, the sequencing explicated, the songs and songwriters heralded; anecdotes abound of how songs were born and how artists and producers collaborated. And in appraising each album, Friedwald balances his own opinions with those of musicians, listeners, and critics. A monumental achievement, \u003ci\u003eThe Great Jazz and Pop Vocal Albums \u003c\/i\u003eis an essential book for lovers of American jazz and popular music.Preface and Acknowledgments ix\u003cbr\u003eIntroduction: The Origins and Development of the Pop Music Album from \u003ci\u003eTo Mother \u003c\/i\u003eto \u003ci\u003eThe Voice \u003c\/i\u003exiii\u003cbr\u003e1. \u003cb\u003eLouis Armstrong, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eLouis Armstrong Meets Oscar Peterson \u003c\/i\u003e3\u003cbr\u003e2. \u003cb\u003eFred Astaire, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Astaire Story \u003c\/i\u003e11\u003cbr\u003e3. \u003cb\u003eChet Baker, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eLet’s Get Lost: The Best of Chet Baker Sings \u003c\/i\u003e25\u003cbr\u003e4. \u003cb\u003eTony Bennett and Bill Evans, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Tony Bennett \/ Bill Evans Album \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eTogether Again \u003c\/i\u003e34\u003cbr\u003e5. \u003cb\u003eRay Charles, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eModern Sounds in Country and Western Music \u003c\/i\u003e43\u003cbr\u003e6. \u003cb\u003eJune Christy, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eSomething Cool \u003c\/i\u003e50\u003cbr\u003e7. \u003cb\u003eRosemary Clooney, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eBlue Rose \u003c\/i\u003e59\u003cbr\u003e8. \u003cb\u003eNat King Cole, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eAfter Midnight \u003c\/i\u003e69\u003cbr\u003e9. \u003cb\u003eNat King Cole, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eSt. Louis Blues \u003c\/i\u003e76\u003cbr\u003e10. \u003cb\u003eBing Crosby, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eBing with a Beat \u003c\/i\u003e82\u003cbr\u003e11. \u003cb\u003eBing Crosby and Louis Armstrong, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eBing \u0026amp; Satchmo \u003c\/i\u003e91\u003cbr\u003e12. \u003cb\u003eDoris Day, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eDay by Day \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eDay by Night \u003c\/i\u003e97\u003cbr\u003e13. \u003cb\u003eDoris Day and Robert Goulet, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eAnnie Get Your Gun \u003c\/i\u003e105\u003cbr\u003e14. \u003cb\u003eBlossom Dearie, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eMy Gentleman Friend \u003c\/i\u003e112\u003cbr\u003e15. \u003cb\u003eMatt Dennis, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eMatt Dennis Plays and Sings Matt Dennis \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eBobby Troup, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eBobby Troup Sings Johnny Mercer \u003c\/i\u003e117\u003cbr\u003e16. \u003cb\u003eBilly Eckstine, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eBilly’s Best! \u003c\/i\u003e127\u003cbr\u003e17. \u003cb\u003eElla Fitzgerald, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eLullabies of Birdland \u003c\/i\u003e134\u003cbr\u003e18. \u003cb\u003eElla Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eElla \u0026amp; Louis \u003c\/i\u003e142\u003cbr\u003e19. \u003cb\u003eElla Fitzgerald, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eMack the Knife: Ella in Berlin \u003c\/i\u003e148\u003cbr\u003e20. \u003cb\u003eJudy Garland, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eJudy at Carnegie Hall \u003c\/i\u003e154\u003cbr\u003e21. \u003cb\u003eJohnny Hartman, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eJohn Coltrane and Johnny Hartman \u003c\/i\u003e163\u003cbr\u003e22. \u003cb\u003eDick Haymes, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eRain or Shine \u003c\/i\u003e171\u003cbr\u003e23. \u003cb\u003eBillie Holiday, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eLady in Satin \u003c\/i\u003e177\u003cbr\u003e24. \u003cb\u003eLena Horne, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eLena Horne at the Waldorf Astoria \u003c\/i\u003e184\u003cbr\u003e25. \u003cb\u003eBarb Jungr, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eEvery Grain of Sand: Barb Jungr Sings Bob Dylan \u003c\/i\u003e190 \u003cbr\u003e26. \u003cb\u003eDave Lambert, Jon Hendricks, and Annie Ross, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eSing a Song of Basie \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eAnnie Ross, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eSings a Song with Mulligan! \u003c\/i\u003e197\u003cbr\u003e27. \u003cb\u003eEydie Gormé and Steve Lawrence, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eEydie and Steve Sing the Golden Hits \u003c\/i\u003e209\u003cbr\u003e28. \u003cb\u003ePeggy Lee, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eBlack Coffee \u003c\/i\u003e214\u003cbr\u003e29. \u003cb\u003ePeggy Lee, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Man I Love \u003c\/i\u003e221\u003cbr\u003e30. \u003cb\u003eMarilyn Maye, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eMeet Marvelous Marilyn Maye \u003c\/i\u003e228\u003cbr\u003e31. \u003cb\u003eCarmen McRae, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eAs Time Goes By: Live at the Dug \u003c\/i\u003e234\u003cbr\u003e32. \u003cb\u003eAnita O’Day, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eAnita O’Day Sings the Winners \u003c\/i\u003e241\u003cbr\u003e33. \u003cb\u003eDella Reese, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eDella Della Cha Cha Cha \u003c\/i\u003e250\u003cbr\u003e34. \u003cb\u003eJimmy Scott, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Source \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eLost and Found \u003c\/i\u003e255\u003cbr\u003e35. \u003cb\u003eBobby Short, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eBobby Short \u003c\/i\u003e265\u003cbr\u003e36. \u003cb\u003eNina Simone, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eNina Simone and Piano! \u003c\/i\u003e272\u003cbr\u003e37. \u003cb\u003eFrank Sinatra, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eIn the Wee Small Hours \u003c\/i\u003e280\u003cbr\u003e38. \u003cb\u003eFrank Sinatra, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eSongs for Swingin’ Lovers! \u003c\/i\u003e288\u003cbr\u003e39. \u003cb\u003eJo Stafford, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eJo Stafford Sings American Folk Songs \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eJo Stafford Sings Songs of Scotland \u003c\/i\u003e297\u003cbr\u003e40. \u003cb\u003eJo Stafford, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eI’ll Be Seeing You (G.I. Jo) \u003c\/i\u003e307\u003cbr\u003e41. \u003cb\u003eKay Starr, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eI Cry by Night \u003c\/i\u003e314\u003cbr\u003e42. \u003cb\u003eMaxine Sullivan, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eMemories of You: A Tribute to Andy Razaf \u003c\/i\u003e321\u003cbr\u003e43. \u003cb\u003eJack Teagarden, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eThink Well of Me \u003c\/i\u003e329\u003cbr\u003e44. \u003cb\u003eTiny Tim, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eGod Bless Tiny Tim \u003c\/i\u003e338\u003cbr\u003e45. \u003cb\u003eMel Tormé, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eMel Tormé with the Marty Paich Dek-Tette (Lulu’s Back in Town) \u003c\/i\u003e347\u003cbr\u003e46. \u003cb\u003eSarah Vaughan, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eSarah Vaughan \u003c\/i\u003e355\u003cbr\u003e47. \u003cb\u003eSarah Vaughan, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e“Live” in Japan \u003c\/i\u003e361\u003cbr\u003e48. \u003cb\u003eDinah Washington, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eDinah Washington Sings Fats Waller \u003c\/i\u003e368\u003cbr\u003e49. \u003cb\u003eMargaret Whiting, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eMargaret Whiting Sings the Jerome Kern Song Book \u003c\/i\u003e376\u003cbr\u003e50. \u003cb\u003eLee Wiley, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eNight in Manhattan \u003c\/i\u003e383\u003cbr\u003e51. \u003cb\u003eCassandra Wilson, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eBelly of the Sun \u003c\/i\u003e390\u003cbr\u003eDiscography 399\"Will Friedwald's thoughtful analysis and insight into the background and nuances of the music by the artists featured in his book make each song a more enriching experience for casual listeners and music aficionados alike. I'm honored to be included and grateful to Will for keeping the American Songbook and jazz classics relevant for generations to come.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Doris Day\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Absolutely indispensable . . . Friedwald . . . brings his rare ability to write about singing in a way that effectively bridges impressionistic interpretation with musical analysis to the task of ‘reading’ an album the way a literary critic reads a poem. The result is never less than perceptive and often stop-in-your tracks brilliant. . . . A magnificent achievement.” \u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e—Bill Ott, \u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e (starred review)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"With verve and an infectious love of music, jazz critic Friedwald tells the stories of fifty-seven jazz and pop albums that have become benchmarks by which subsequent records have been measured. . . . His passionate description of each album in this indispensable guide will drive readers to listen to the albums once again, or for the first time.\"\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly,\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cb\u003estarred review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eWILL FRIEDWALD\u003c\/b\u003e has written about music for \u003ci\u003eThe Wall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e and was the jazz (and cabaret) critic for \u003ci\u003eThe New York Sun\u003c\/i\u003e. He is the author of nine books, including \u003ci\u003eA Biographical Guide to the Great Jazz and Pop Singers; Stardust Melodies: The Biography of Twelve of America's Most Popular Songs; Jazz Singing: America's Great Voices from Bessie Smith to Bebop and Beyond; Sinatra! The Song Is You; \u003c\/i\u003eand\u003ci\u003e Tony Bennett: The Good Life\u003c\/i\u003e (with Tony Bennett). He has written liner notes for nearly five hundred compact discs, for which he has received eight Grammy nominations. He has also written for \u003ci\u003eVanity Fair, The Village Voice, Entertainment Weekly, American Heritage, \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times,\u003c\/i\u003e among other publications.\u003cb\u003eFrom the Introduction:\u003cbr\u003eThe Origins and Development of the Pop Music Album from \u003ci\u003eTo Mother\u003c\/i\u003e to \u003ci\u003eThe Voice\u003c\/i\u003e (1926–1945)\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“Ha ha ha. Who’s got the last laugh now?” In 1937, George and Ira Gershwin immortalized, in an irreverently syncopated style, a sequence of celebrated accomplishments of innovation and invention. Chief among them was the widely accepted fact that Thomas Edison was the first man to record sound. For well over a hundred years, it was taken for granted that sound recording was perhaps Edison’s first great achievement, even before the electric light or the motion picture camera. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eYet in recent years, it has become known that sound recordings were actually made (and still exist) at least twenty years before Edison’s tinfoil experiments. As early as 1857, a Frenchman named Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville had invented a device called the phonautograph, which successfully captured soundwaves and represented them visually. At that time, it was not actually possible to play back the sound in any way, although in 2008, the recorded noises of 150 years earlier were extracted and made available on the Internet. (Where else?) The fidelity is far from wonderful—in fact, it’s hard to tell exactly what you’re listening to—yet they constitute a genuine precedent to Edison. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eWhich goes to show that you can never say that something is the “first” of anything. Inevitably there’s something else out there, waiting to be discovered. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eI offer the above “cautionary tale” as a preamble before attempting to track the history of the popular music album. No one can say what the first pop album actually was, but one point that needs to be made at the outset is that the album—as both a concept and a commercial reality—predates the long-playing record (or LP) by many years. Albums were, in fact, a viable and familiar concept to record producers and buyers deep into the 78 era, well before World War II. It’s often reported that the technology of the long-playing album inspired creative musicians like Frank Sinatra, Miles Davis, and Duke Ellington to craft more ambitious, extended projects for a bigger canvas, but in fact it was the other way around: it was artists who drove the technology. Likewise, albums too were very much a part of the pop music market for at least a decade before the long-playing disc was perfected, thereby enabling record labels to release eight (later twelve) songs on a single disc. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eThe concept of the album had a long and respectable run. We know of pop albums going back to at least 1926, when the dominant format—virtually the only format—was individual 78 rpm discs. The 10-inch LP medium, introduced in 1948, was the next step forward, succeeded by the 12- inch LP, which became the standard, in America at least, about 1955, and then the compact disc (from 1985 on). The CD would be, so far, the last physical format for which artists would put together programs of creative and interesting music. In the post-physical age of listening to music, the album is more or less passé: kids primarily download individual tracks, and pay attention to entire albums only secondarily. Thus the age of the pop music album is finite, stretching for roughly eighty years, picking up speed slowly from the mid-1920s onward and then losing momentum quickly in the mid-“aughts.” \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eThe purpose of this book is to talk about the great jazz and pop vocal albums, and in this introductory chapter we trace the development of the concept—the events that led up to the development of the pop music “album.” We’ll go from the first pop albums, well before the start of the Depression, up to the successful introduction of the long-playing record after the war. By the time that the LP was good to go, creative artists like Frank Sinatra and Duke Ellington (not to mention forward-looking producers like Jack Kapp, George Avakian, and Norman Granz) were truly ready for it. Throughout this whole period, for our purposes, there were essentially three types of albums:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e* Existing Songs \/ Existing Recordings: The most basic kind of album (then as now) was a collection of tracks that had already been recorded, and, in most cases, already released. Usually these were collections of songs that had been hits in the singles format; more often than not, they sport titles like \u003ci\u003eThe Best of So-and-So \u003c\/i\u003eor \u003ci\u003eSo-and-So’s Greatest Hits\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e* New Songs \/ New Recordings: On the other end, there was the all-original album, which actually began in 1946 with the release of \u003ci\u003eManhattan Tower,\u003c\/i\u003e a groundbreaking and genre-defying work which all but singlehandedly invented what later became known as the concept album. In the 1960s, this idea came to dominate in rock-oriented pop music (although there already was a precedent in the jazz world). In most classic rock albums from the Beatles onward, the tracks were all newly recorded and all the songs were completely original as well, written in almost all cases by the performing artist. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e* Existing Songs \/ New Recordings: There was a halfway point between the two above extremes (completely unoriginal and completely original), which was perfected by Frank Sinatra in 1945 with the first pop music “concept” album, \u003ci\u003eThe Voice.\u003c\/i\u003e Nearly all of the great pop and jazz vocal albums would follow this format: the songs themselves were already of a certain vintage, well known and well loved enough to be considered classics. But the recording itself was new, and so was everything else: the interpretations, the arrangements, the sequencing. It became a challenge for the singers, orchestrators, and producers of the era, which reached a peak in the 1950s and ’60s, to be able to take standard songs and use the album concept—i.e., the act of taking individual songs, written for different purposes by different composers, and making them relate to each other, thus forging a new collective statement out of songs that already existed. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eIt’s the contention of this book that the most creative, interesting, and memorable albums (starting with those of Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald) belong to this third category. There was, quite possibly, more creativity and more great results from this particular combination of the old and the new (a new spin on songs the listeners already knew) than in any other use of the album format. The central idea behind this book is to show how this format (old songs in a new context) evolved, and to identify and discuss the classics of the genre. (For the most part, I’m leaving original cast albums out of this categorical discussion, although I will mention a few—they are a distinct genre unto themselves.)","brand":"Pantheon","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46304428196069,"sku":"NP9780307379078","price":40.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780307379078.jpg?v=1767739639","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/the-great-jazz-and-pop-vocal-albums-isbn-9780307379078","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}