Billie Holiday...Carnegie Hall Concert 1956

 No need for any introduction for this great singer !!....From 1956 complete with readings from her bio...this makes great listening !!

Billie Holiday’s famous back-to-back concerts on November 10, 1956, began at the beginning: “Mom and Pop were just a couple of kids when they got married. He was 18, she was 16, and I was three.”Narrating from the stage between songs, Gilbert Millstein of The New York Times read excerpts from Holiday’s recently published autobiography, Lady Sings the Blues. The unpolished prose describes moments from a childhood listening to Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith in the brothel where she ran errands, to her arrest in 1947 and the Carnegie Hall concert she gave just 10 days after her release. Although the book was ghost-written (and suspected to have been a less-than-perfect representation of Holiday’s experiences), the vignettes create a sharp and theatrical self-portrait when paired with her singing, the bluntness and bygone innocence of her story mirrored in her voice. Reviewer Nat Hentoff, who was in attendance, described her sound as “almost unbearably wise in disillusion and yet still childlike.”

1. Reading From "Lady Sings The Blues"

2. Lady Sings The Blues

3. Ain't Nobody's Business If I Do

4. Reading From "Lady Sings The Blues" with Trav'lin Light 

5. Reading From "Lady Sings The Blues"

6. Billie's Blues (aka I Love My Man )

7. Body And Soul

8. Reading From "Lady Sings The Blues"

9. Don't Explain

10. Yesterday's

11. Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone

12. I'll be Seeing You

13. Reading from " Lady Sings The Blues"

14. My Man

15. I Cried For You

16. Fine And Mellow

17. I Cover The Waterfront

18. What A little Moonlight Can Do

          1. Reading From "Lady Sings The Blues"

          2. Lady Sings The Blues

Ladies With Soul... VA

A nice L/P of the Song Birds with Soul....Courtesy of Marcos all the way from Brazil..Thanks Marcos !

          11. If You Go Away

Antal Dorati...Verdi Overtures.

Now for two posts from John From New Zealand,that are completely different !!

Thanks John for your varied contributions !

        1. La Forza Del Destino

Wanda Jackson...There's A Party Goin' On.

There's a Party Goin' On is a studio album by country music and rockabilly singer Wanda Jackson. It was released in January 1961 by Capitol Records. The album cover calls it "a collection of great country songs in the rhythmic singing style of Wanda Jackson."

          4. Bye Bye Baby

Ella Fitzgerald & Duke Ellington

Another great live performance from Ella .......Grrrrrrrreat !!!

The Stockholm Concert, 1966 is a 1966 live album by the American jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald, accompanied in part by the Duke Ellington Orchestra. The recording remained unreleased until 1984.

It is notable as the last release of Ella's four recorded collaborations with Duke Ellington. Later in 1966 Ella and Duke went on to record their final album together; Ella and Duke at the Cote D'Azur.

 Ella doing what she is best at.....Nobody can scat like Ella

          9. Cottontail

Pam Garner...Sings Quietly.

Once more we delve into the realm of the forgotten classy singers !....and here's 5 of them !!

Again we have a singer that has only made a couple of L/P's and here is one of them !...she has a great voice that should be heard more !...What a great recording of "In The Still Of The Night"!!

1. Softly As In Morning Sunrise

2. Lonesome Road

3. Sweet Silence

4. In The Still Of The Night

5. Me And My Shadow

6. Swing Low Sweet Chariot

1. My Heart Stood Still

2. Quietly 

3. The Lamp Is Low

4. A Stranger In Town

5. Let Me Hear You Whisper

6. Speak Low

           4. In The Still Of The Night

Carol Ventura...Carol.

Number Two Of The Forgotten Lady Singers !

Not very much info on this singer which is a pity...I would have liked to hear more of her !

Another great forgotten voice that needs to be heard !!

This Newark-born lady replaced Keely Smith in Louis Prima's orchestra (after Keely left the picture, of course). She came from a musical family. Her father was a vaudeville performer, her mother a singer, her brother a drummer. Carol did her singing apprenticeship by working with a few bands, including Charlie Spivak's. Traveled across the country, and to Europe.Carol recorded the odd single here and there, for a few labels, including Capitol. As far as albums go, she made only two, both of them released on Prestige Records.

Carol's music career never took off beyond these 1960s albums. The liner notes indicate that she was studying acting and dancing, with a view to becoming a Broadway stage performer. Those dreams do not seem to have been realized, either.If word of mouth is true, this New Jersey native wounded up living in the streets, due to mental illness. She allegedly needed to be medicated, and would take to a homeless life on those occasions in which she stopped using medication. She is said to have passed away at a senior home in 2010..... ( Info edited from "Steve Hoffman" Music Forums )

         2. Lonesome Road

Katyna Ranieri...I'm In The Mood For Amore.

A Little Gem In Italian !!

Caterina Ranieri (31 August 1925 – 3 September 2018), known professionally as Katyna Ranieri, was an Italian actress and singer. She was born in Follonica, Italy. She had her first hit in 1954 at the Sanremo Music Festival with the song "Una canzone da due soldi".

1. I'm In The Mood For Love

2. Manname Nu Raggio'e Sole

3. A Frangesa

4. Amore Baciami

5. Acqua Amare

1. Amani Se Vuoi

2. Parole e Musiica

3. Estas Commigo

4. Ce Soir

5. Un Mondo Raro

6. Le Tue Mani

          1. I'm In The Mood For Love

Betty Bennett...I Love To Sing.

Number Four of the forgotten Singers 

Artist Biography by Ron Wynn

An experienced, sometimes sultry singer, Betty Bennett also studied piano while attending Drake University. She sang with Georgie Auld in 1943, then performed in a number of bands after completing time in the navy in 1945. These included orchestras led by Claude Thornhill, Alvino Rey, Charlie Ventura, Woody Herman, Charlie Barnet and Stan Kenton. She married Andre Previn in the mid-'50s, made two recordings with him directing. She later divorced Previn and married Mundell Lowe. By the late '80s she was touring Europe with Lowe, and was a featured performer for opening night of Wolsey's club in London.

1. I Love To Sing / it's Easy To Remember

2. It Isn't So Good

3. Over The Rainbow

4. Like Someone In love

5. All At Once

1. Who Cares

2.Young And Foolish

3. Love Isn't Born

4. Then I'll Be Tired Of You

5. Down With Love

6. It Never Was You

           7. Young And Foolish

Joyce Carr

Here's a forgotten singer doing some great interpretations of some great standards that should be heard more often !.....so folks spread the word !!

Artist Biography by Bruce Eder

Joyce Carr abandoned her studies at the University of Montana at the age of 19 to become a successful pop vocalist. After testing the waters of performing in Montana, she left her home state for New York, where she intended to pursue a career in musical comedy. Instead, she ended up in Washington, D.C., where she soon began singing in a local club, where she was seen by other musicians. Word of mouth began to spread about the 20-year-old, who soon found herself a winner on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scout television show. From there, it was on to entertaining President Eisenhower at the White House, and a six-year engagement at the King Cole Room in D.C., where she became a top attraction for foreign dignitaries visiting the city. After that establishment was sold, she moved on to other top venues in the city. She cut albums for Seeco and appeared on television, as well as performing with orchestras in concert. Then, in the mid-'60s, Carr left music.... At the end of the '70s, after a decade away from performing, she returned to music, singing at Charlie Byrd's club in Georgetown. She also resumed recording in 1981 with Joyce Carr on the Audiophile label, accompanied by Bob Vigoda, Jay Leonhart, Bill Gibson, and Dick Thomas........Love kept Joyce Carr from travelling, so she sang at the same nightclub in Washington, DC for more than twenty years. Her phrasing and delivery of the lyrics put her among the best cabaret singers of the 20th century. Ellis Larkin, the famous New York pianist (Little Carnegie Tavern) accompanies her on half the tunes, Bob Vigoda the rest.

 1. I Wish You Love

2. Every Time

3. Skylark

4. I'm Glad There Is You

5. It Never Entered My Mind

6. I Get Along Without You Very Well

7. As Children Do

8. Yesterday

9. The Folks Who Live On The Hill

10. Here's That Rainy Day

11. Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out To Dry

12. You Don't know What Love Is

13. Make The Man Love Me

14. Talk To The Trees

15. My Future Just Passed

16. Most Gentleman Don't Like Love

17. Rolling Road

18. I Got it Bad

19. Hi Lili Hi Lo

20. Little Girl Blue

21. Sad Sad Sad

22. I Know What The Score Is

23. They All Laughed

24. When All The World Is Young

          4. I'm Glad There Is You

Nina Simone

Wild Is the Wind is the sixth studio album by American singer and pianist Nina Simone released by Philips Records in 1966. The album was compiled from several recordings that were left over from sessions (in 1964 and 1965) for previous Philips albums.

1. I Love Your Lovin' Ways

2. Four Women

3. What More Can I Do

4. Lilac Wine

5. That's All I Ask

6. Break Down And Let It All Out

1. Why Keep Breaking My Heart

2. Wild Is The Wind

3. Black Is The Colour of My true Loves hair

4. If I Should Lose You

5. Either Way I Lose

          2. Four Women

Julie Covington...The Beautiful Changes.

The magic is there !!!!!!....in abundance !!!... just have a listen !!!!!

The Beautiful Changes is the debut album by British performer Julie Covington, released in 1971 on Columbia Records. All songs were written by the songwriting team of Pete Atkin and Clive James, except for three tracks. Covington's previous recordings had been private releases and demos in collaboration with the two.

Covington, James and Atkin met at Cambridge University as members of the Footlights. In 1966, Covington answered a notice board advertisement and auditioned for a Rag Day review organized by Atkin. As James and Atkin began writing songs together, many of their tunes were written with Covington in mind.

          4. He Just Don't Appeal To Me

The Popsters...They Tried To Rock..VA

We definatley have some surprises in this compilation !

The early struggle by Popsters, including Frank Sinatra, Doris Day, the Mills Brothers, Perry Como and Lawrence Welk, who tried to come to terms with rock 'n' roll's challenge to traditional pop music. This took place during the early to mid-1950s, before anybody knew whether it was just a fad that would blow over or something that truly threatened to revolutionize popular music.

By mid-1956, it was official: rock 'n' roll was not a fad. It was threatening to take over American popular music. You could ignore it at your own peril, and that choice might cost you your career.

Contains rarities that will surprise both pop fans and collectors.

Includes tracks by established stars like Sinatra, Dean Martin, Peggy Lee and Doris Day, who you'd never think would 'stoop so low.'

Reveals the importance of 'cover records' in the era just before the emergence of 'singer/songwriters' all but ended that industry-wide practice.

Shows some surprising successes at coming to terms with rock 'n' roll by singers you'd never expect to 'get it.'

We should be impressed by the huge amount of musical talent that got involved in this fascinating story. Both good and bad records emerged from wise and unwise decisions. Some of them featured really strong performances by good musicians, singers, writers and arrangers. Let's give them all a listen.

         10. Hey Naughty Papa

         12. Soda Pop Hop

Sandie Shaw..Love Me Please Love Me

Sandie Shaw, MBE (born Sandra Ann Goodrich; 26 February 1947) is an English singer. One of the most successful British female singers of the 1960s, she had three UK number one singles with "(There's) Always Something There to Remind Me" (1964), "Long Live Love" (1965) and "Puppet on a String" (1967). With "Puppet on a String", she became the first British entry to win the Eurovision Song Contest. She returned to the UK top 40, for the first time in 15 years, with her 1984 cover of the Smiths song "Hand in Glove". Shaw announced her retirement from the music industry in 2013.

Love Me, Please Love Me is the third original album or LP by 1960s British singer Sandie Shaw. It was issued by Pye Records in November 1967, several months after Shaw's triumph in that year's Eurovision Song Contest. The album mainly contains cover versions of songs made popular by other artists, like Michel Polnareff's "Love Me, Please Love Me", though two songs are written by Chris Andrews, who was Shaw's personal songwriter for much of the 1960s.

1. Love Me Please Love Me

2. One Note Samba

3. Smile

4. Yes My Darling Daughter

5. Ne Me Quitte Pas

6. Every Time we Say Goodbye

1. The Way I Remember Him

2. Hold Him Down

3. I Get A Kick Out of You

4. Time After Time

5. That's Why

6. By Myself

          7. The Way I Remember Him

Andre Previn...Love Walked In

André George Previn KBE (born Andreas Ludwig Priwin; April 6, 1929 – February 28, 2019) was a German-American pianist, composer, and conductor. His career had three prongs: Hollywood, jazz, and classical music. On each he achieved success, and the latter two were part of his life until the end. In the movies, he arranged music and composed. In jazz he was a celebrated trio pianist, a piano-accompanist to singers of standards, and pianist-interpreter of songs from the "Great American Songbook". In classical music he worked as a pianist too but gained television renown as a conductor, and during his last thirty years created his legacy: as a composer of art music.

Before the age of twenty Previn began arranging and composing for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. He would go on to be involved in the music of more than fifty films and would win four Academy Awards. He won Grammy Awards as well, ten of them, for recordings in all three areas of his career.And then one more, for lifetime achievement.

1. Who's Sorry Now

2. Love Is Just Around The Corner

3. There Will Never Be Another You

4. Skylark

5. Back Home in Indiana

1. Love Walked In

2. Nevertheless

3. My Shining Hour

4. This Heart Of Mine

5. Thinking Of You

          6. Love Walked In

Ambose & His Orchestra...Hors D'oeuvres

Some Big Band Jazz Swing from the 30's / 40's

AllMusic Review by arwulf arwulf  

Bert Ambrose led one of the finest British dance bands of the 1920s and ‘30s. CD reissues of his extensive discography began to appear in the late '90s, and the Dutton Laboratories have done more to preserve his legacy than any other label. While most Ambrose collections are packed with period pop vocals, Hors d'Oeuvres is an almost entirely instrumental album. This is a very important development! The time line extends from January 1935 through the period immediately following the Second World War. The only vocal tracks are W.C. Handy's "Memphis Blues," with lyrics dutifully enunciated by the Rhythm Sisters, and "Swing Low, Sweet Clarinet," in which Reginald Kell's woodwind artistry is pitted against a carefully controlled choir. Ambrose's orchestra was a fabulous dance band with strong jazz overtones. Worthy examples of wordless delights are "Caravan," "Deep Henderson," "Message from Mars," "Copenhagen," and "Embassy Stomp," which was named after London's original Embassy Club in Bond Street. The swing element is strongly presented in this set, thanks largely to solid arrangements and skilled instrumentalists like reedman Danny Polo, trombonist Ted Heath, and trumpeter Kenny Baker, who pops up on "Dardanella" and "Rose of Washington Square." Shortly after these two sides were cut in 1945, Baker would become one of the great featured soloists with Ted Heath & His Music. The clarinetist on "Dance of the Potted Puppet" has been identified as Carl Barriteau, whereas Jack Simpson plays xylophone on the title track and "Wood and Ivory." This is an outstanding Ambrose collection, and with all due respect to everyone who ever sang with the band, one can only hope for further collections focusing upon its instrumental output.

          19. Hors D'oeuvres