Jane Harvey...Leave It To Jane.

Here we defiantly have a Jazz singer !!

Jane Harvey (January 6, 1925, – August 15, 2013) was an American jazz singer, known for recording several tracks with famous musicians and Benny Goodman during the 1940s. Harvey began her musical career at Barney Josephson's nightclub, occasionally performing there. She spent the majority of the 1940s singing in nightclubs. Harvey made only a handful of recordings during the big band era, none of them hits, though her legacy has continued to endure.

In 1946, she joined Desi Arnaz's Orchestra, until she left in 1958 to raise her son, Bob Thiele Jr. She also entertained at military bases overseas with Bob Hope. Around the time of her death, she performed locally, all over the Los Angeles area.

Jane Harvey's a singer who didn't record much in the late 50s (according to the notes, she spent most of her time playing house with Bob Thiele!) -- but she's a hell of a great singer, and one we wish had issued more sessions like this! She's got a voice trained in the big bands, one with more than enough punch to swing out in front of a large group on the stage -- but she's also recording here in a hipper 50s jazz setting, one that brings a nice "close up" feel to her dynamic energy -- letting it open up strongly on some swingers, and sparkle in more subtle ways on some of the gentler backings. The arrangements aren't credited, but they're pretty fresh, and free from hoke -- and titles include "Telephonez Moi", "Witchcraft", "Blue Again", "A Lover In The House", "Impossible", "Misty", and "Can't Get Out Of This Mood".

1. Sent For You Yesterday And Here You Come Today

2. Misty

3. Everything But You

4. Impossible

5. A Lover In The House

6. Telephonez Moi

1. Witchcraft

2. Trav'lin Light

3. The Man That Got Away

4. Blue Again

5. Can't Get Out Of This Mood

          8. Trav'lin Light

ILene Woods...It's Late.

Jacqueline Ruth "Ilene" Woods (May 5, 1929 – July 1, 2010) was an American actress and singer. Woods was the original voice of the title character of the Walt Disney animated feature Cinderella, for which she was named a Disney Legend in 2003.

This was the only studio recording that she made apart from her "Disney" work "Cinderella" & "Snow White".......her voice has that gentle quality to it wouldn't say it was in the Jazz type but it's blended to  the well known standard songs that most of the lady singers of the jazz style did....Its sad that she did not record any more and even sadder about her later life...For something really good and pleasant this is a must to listen to !!!

In 1948, two of her songwriter friends, Mack David and Jerry Livingston, called Woods to record "Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo", "A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes", and "So This is Love". Soon, the songs were presented to Walt Disney so that they could be used in the English version of Cinderella. Walt Disney heard the demo recordings, and two days later asked Ilene to voice the star role of Cinderella. She gladly accepted  She said in an interview for Classicfilm, "Seeing it [the film] in its new form was breathtaking for me. It's so beautiful. The colour is magnificent, it just took my breath away, it was so wonderful. I sort of forget when I'm watching the movie that I had anything to do with it. 

Suffering from Alzheimer's disease in a nursing home at Canoga Park, Woods didn't remember that she voiced Cinderella but was mostly comforted by the film's song "A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes" and the nurses played it for her as often as possible, realizing she liked it. She died on July 1 2010.

1. Its A Blue World

2. Everytime

3. When Your Lover Has Gone

4. If I Love Again

5. What A Difference A Day Makes

6. Estrelita

1. While We're Young

2. If You Were Mine

3. I'm Old Fashioned

4. You're Blase

5. I Remember You

6. It's Late

          9. I'm Old Fashioned

Dick Schory On Tour.

Schory was a classically trained percussionist who moved easily from symphony to experimental music to popular recordings. He served in the percussion section

of the Chicago Symphony, worked as educational and advertising director for the Ludwig Drum Company, formed the New Percussion Ensemble and commissioned contemporary composers to write pieces for it, and wrote and recorded musical backgrounds for radio and television commercials.

Thanks to the popularity of Music for Bang, Baaroom, and Harp, Dick Schory and his Percussion Pops recorded Music to Break Any Mood in 1959 and Wild Percussion and Horns A’ Plenty in 1960, both for the RCA Victor label. The latter brought him his first Grammy nomination for Arranger of the Year.

1. Baby Elephant Walk

2. William Told

3. The Wandering Fifer

4. Charade

5. Sing Sing Sing

6. On Top Of Old Smokey

1. Bidin' My Time

2. South Rampart Street Parade

3.Bleep Blop Bloob

4. Londonderry Air

5. Orinoco

6. St Louis Blues

            6. On Top Of Old Smokey

Helen Humes...Songs I Like To Sing.

Helen Humes (June 23, 1913 – September 9, 1981) was an American jazz and blues singer......This L/P was recorded in 1960 and I am wondering why I have never heard of her before, because as the notes say's below she sounds like a young Ella which as soon as I heard this L/P that was my first thought......It does nothing to take away the fact that she was a fine underrated singer that I feel should have been more popular....

Humes was a teenage blues singer, a vocalist with Count Basie's band, a saucy R&B diva, and a mature interpreter of the classy popular song. Along with other well-known jazz singers of the swing era, Humes helped to shape and define the sound of vocal swing music.

Humes's vocal range was from G3 to C5, as she stated in a letter to the arranger Buck Clayton in preparation for a European tour, along with a list of her preferred songs. According to many critics, her voice was versatile, suiting pop songs and ballads as well as blues. She was compared to Ethel Waters and Mildred Bailey from early in her career and was often recorded singing the blues after her association with Basie. In an interview with the jazz critic Whitney Balliett, Humes explained, "I've been called a blues singer, a jazz singer, and a ballad singer – well, I'm all three, which means I'm just a singer." A review from Downbeat Magazine of her albums Talk of the Town, Helen Comes Back, and Helen Humes with Red Norvo and His Orchestra said the following about her collaboration with Red Norvo:

Norvo's sparkling vibes are the ideal compliment to Helen's lithe, light timbered clarity…Helen is in particularly fine voice…with an uncanny resemblance to early Ella [Fitzgerald] in her sound and phrasing.

1. If I Could Be With You

2. Don't Worry 'Bout Me

3. Mean To Me

4. Every Now And Then

5. I Want A Roof Over My Head

6. St Louis Blues

1. You're Driving Me Crazy

2. My Old Flame

3. Million Dollar Secret

4. Love Me Or Leave Me

5. Imagination

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

          1. If I Could Be With You

Joanie Sommers...Softly,The Brazilian Sound.

If you like you music sung softly with the Brazilian Beat then have listen to this one !

Joanie Sommers (born Joan Drost, Buffalo, New York, February 24, 1941) is an American singer and actress with a career concentrating on jazz, standards and popular material and show-business credits. Once billed as "The Voice of the Sixties", and associated with top-notch arrangers, songwriters and producers, Sommers' popular reputation became closely tied to her biggest, yet most uncharacteristic, hit song, "Johnny Get Angry".

1. Meditation

2. Dear Heart

3. Watching The World Go By

4. Quiet Nights

5. Once

6. Softly As I Leave You

1. I Could Have Danced All Night

2. I'll Remember April

3. You Can't Go Home Again

4. Manha De Carnival

5. Old Guitron

6. That's All

          10. Mana de Carnival

Joe Derise Sings.

I have never heard of this singer so it's a first of the forgotten Male singers...Introducing "Joe Derise " !!

A pianist and vocalist who recorded for Bethlehem in the '50s, then resurfaced in the late '70s and was very active during the '80s. Derise played in a bebop style, though he also recorded with a big band and even with The Australian Jazz Quartet. But most of his dates were with a small combo.

Derise became a band vocalist with Tommy Dorsey at the age of 21 and then worked as a guitarist, singer and arranger with the Claude Thornhill Orchestra in 1948-50 ("Easy Does It", V-Disc , 1948). In the same year he recorded "You Can not Buy Happiness" in a duet with singer Barbara Lynn ..In 1953 he recorded for Bethlehem Records the LP Joe Derise Sings , in which Milt Hinton and Osie Johnson participated and he sang standards such as " It Might be Well Be Spring ", " How Long Has This Been Going On?"  "My Romance ".From 1969 to 1978 he toured with the Diamonds as musical director and vocalist.

          2. It Might As Well Be Spring

Teresa Brewer...When Your Lover Has Gone.

A Great L/P that shows that the "Music Music Music" girl could sing the standards with feeling and later on in her career paved the way for the Jazz L/P's...

Teresa Brewer (born Theresa Veronica Breuer; May 7, 1931 – October 17, 2007) was an American singer whose style incorporated pop, country, jazz, R&B, musicals, and novelty songs. She was one of the most prolific and popular female singers of the 1950s, recording nearly 600 songs.

 In 1949 she recorded the song Copenhagen (a jazz perennial) with the Dixieland All-Stars. For the B side she recorded the song "Music! Music! Music!". Unexpectedly, it was not the A side but the B side which took off, selling over a million copies and becoming Teresa's signature song. 

Brewer re-emerged as a jazz vocalist on Thiele's Amsterdam label in the 1980s and 1990s recording a number of albums including tribute albums to Bessie Smith, Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller and Irving Berlin. She also recorded with such jazz greats as Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Earl Hines, Svend Asmussen and Bobby Hackett. A landmark recording in her career was Softly I Swing (Red Baron Records, 1992) which was produced by Thiele and featured David Murray, Ron Carter, Kenny Barron and Grady Tate. And "Memories of Louis", also recorded for Thiele's Red Baron Records. 

1. When Your Lover has Gone

2. Maybe You'll Be There

3. I Had The Craziest Dream

4. Darn That Dream

5. Baby Don't Be Mad At Me

6. A Faded Summer Love

1. Mixed Emotions

2. You Go To My Head

3. More Than You Know

4. Music Maestro Please

5. Time Out For Tears

6. Fools Rush In

          2. Maybe You'll Be There

Judy Garland...The Letter.

 Here's an unusual Judy Garland L/P highlighting the Concept of the "Concept Albums" !!.......The Letter is a 1959 concept album by American vocalist Judy Garland arranged by Gordon Jenkins chronicling a relationship, the album features John Ireland

AllMusic Review by John Bush..

Conceived by arranger Gordon Jenkins as a relationship concept album (with one side each from the man and the woman), The Letter turned into something quite different when Capitol requested it be turned into Judy Garland's next LP. Garland and her narrator co-star, past Academy Award nominee John Ireland, look back at their relationship -- trading dialogue, singing reflective songs, and reading excerpts from "the letter," which he has written to her as one last plea before the end of their love affair. Jenkins' ambitious concept was written well and executed perfectly, and no one was better than Garland for a dramatic romantic role encompassing hope and humour. And yet, The Letter suffers, as all but the best concept albums do. Ireland is no match for Garland (fortunately his role is much smaller), and the few audio concepts on display tend toward gimmicks -- occasional sound effects, a humorous conversation between Garland and Ireland while a bluesman is singing at a Greenwich Village dive, and the Ralph Brewster Singers, who intrude very seldom but are stuck harmonizing at least one line that should never have been harmonized quite so reverently -- "It was just another saloon, with pretty good food." None of these songs were performed much afterwards, but they are very good; "The Worst Kind of Man," "That's All There Is, There Isn't Any More," and "The Red Balloon" would do well in anyone's repertoire. In all, The Letter is a fair concept album, its interruptions annoying but its overall power raised by the twin talents of Judy Garland and Gordon Jenkins. Capitol certainly pulled out all the stops in its recording and release; the original three-track stereo recording is exquisite, and upon its initial release, special copies of "the letter" were placed in envelopes and taped to the front of each record jacket.

1. Beautiful Trouble

2. Love In The Village

3. Charley's Blues

4. The Worst Kind Of Man

5. That's All There Is There Isn't Any More

6. Love In Central Park

7. The Red Balloon

8. The Fight

9. At the Stroke Of Midnight

10. Come Back

11. Beautiful Trouble (Alternative Take)

12. That's All There Is There Isn't Any More (Alternative Take)

13. The Worst Kind Of Man (Alternative Take)

Teddy Wilson & His Trio...Play Gypsy In Jazz.

A different kind of piano playing now....Jazz Interpretations of the songs from Gypsy...I am not familiar with some of the songs  but its a great Jazz L/P and well worth a listen to !! if like me you like the old Joanna

          5. Together Wherever We Go

Louis Armstrong...Jazz Classics

Satchmo in his early 1935 days recording for the "Decca / Brunswick" labels with some "Jazz Classics" as the title says !

         9. You Rascal You

Nat King Cole...The Touch Of Your Lips.

We now have the smooth vocals of Nat smooching away with a  dozen of well known standard songs proving that in the 50's and 60's he was one of the best !!

          1. The Touch Of Your Lips

The Happy World Of Tommy Steele.

Another "World Of " from New Zealand to the "Cosmos" !

Sir Thomas Hicks (born 17 December 1936), known professionally as Tommy Steele, is an English entertainer, regarded as Britain's first teen idol and rock and roll star. After being discovered at the 2i's Coffee Bar in Soho, London, Steele recorded a string of hit singles including "Rock with the Caveman" (1956) and the chart-topper "Singing the Blues" (1957). 

          12. Sweet Georgia Brown

The World Of Stanley Holloway.

Some English spoken monologues now...all the way from NZ via JohnF...thanks  for something unique and different !.

Stanley Augustus Holloway OBE (1 October 1890 – 30 January 1982) was an English actor, comedian, singer and monologist. He was famous for his comic and character roles on stage and screen, especially that of Alfred P. Doolittle in My Fair Lady. He was also renowned for his comic monologues and songs, which he performed and recorded throughout most of his 70-year career. Holloway had a 54-year recording career, beginning in the age of acoustic recording, and ending in the era of the stereophonic LP. He mainly recorded songs from musicals and revues, and he recited many monologues on various subjects. Most prominent among his recordings (aside from his participation in recordings of My Fair Lady) are those of three series of monologues that he made at intervals throughout his career. They featured Sam Small, Albert Ramsbottom, and historical events such as the Battle of Hastings, Magna Carta and the Battle of Trafalgar.

He introduced to London audiences the monologue The Lion and Albert. The monologue was written by Marriott Edgar, who based the story on a news item about a boy who was eaten by a lion in the zoo.[55] In the monologue, Mr. and Mrs. Ramsbottom react in a measured way when their son Albert is swallowed. Neither Edgar nor Holloway was convinced that the piece would succeed, but needing material for an appearance at a Northern Rugby League dinner Holloway decided to perform it. It was well received, and Holloway introduced it into his stage act. 

          1. The Lion And Albert

Rita Reys...The Cool Voice of Rita Reys

Its great to hear some great voices that maybe you would not get to hear without this great cosmos ! space ! air waves ! that enables us to use the "Internet !!....and this voice that goes by the name of "Rita" is definitely one to listen to !!

 Rita Reys was long ago billed as "Europe's First Lady of Jazz." A legend overseas, Reys was one of the top jazz singers in Europe from the mid-'50s to the turn of the millennium.
 Rita Reys (born Maria Everdina Reijs; 21 December 1924 – 28 July 2013) was a jazz singer from the Netherlands. At the 1960 French jazz festival of Juan-les-Pins, she received the title, "Europe's first lady of jazz".^[

            5. I should Care

Randy Newman...Good Old Boys.

Good Old Boys is the fourth studio album by American musician Randy Newman, released on September 10, 1974, on Reprise Records, catalogue number 2193. It was Newman's first album to obtain major commercial success, peaking at number 36 on the Billboard 200 and number 58 in Canada. The premiere live performance of the album took place on October 5, 1974, at the Symphony Hall in Atlanta, Georgia, with guest Ry Cooder and Newman conducting the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.

Good Old Boys was initially envisioned as a concept album about a character named Johnny Cutler, an everyman of the Deep South. Newman made a demo of these songs on February 1, 1973: they were released as the bonus disc for the 2002 reissue, titled Johnny Cutler's Birthday.

        2. Birmingham