MILDRED BAILEY - 1937-1938 (2000) FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

Volume three in Mildred Bailey's Classics chronology revives 24 excellent recordings she made for the Vocalion label between January 19, 1937 and March 14, 1938. During this period, Bailey sang on quite a number of recordings issued (and subsequently reissued) under the name of her third husband, xylophonist Red Norvo. Everything on this compilation came out under the name of Mildred Bailey & Her Orchestra. A glance at the enclosed discography substantiates a claim made by producer Anatol Schenker in his liner notes: "The small band recordings made by Mildred Bailey in the late thirties certainly bear comparison with those made by Billie Holiday." Alternating throughout the discography with sessions featuring Red Norvo's big band, the septets heard backing Mildred Bailey are populated with accomplished improvisers like Roy Eldridge, Chu Berry, Buck Clayton, Scoops Carey, Herschel Evans, Hank D'Amico and Edmond Hall. The rhythm sections were driven by such master musicians as Teddy Wilson, Zutty Singleton, Freddie Green, Walter Page and Dave Tough. Anyone seeking particularly wonderful examples of Tough's marvelously controlled percussion artistry needs to listen to "I See Your Face Before Me," "Thanks for the Memory," "From the Land of Sky Blue Water" and "Lover Come Back to Me." Mildred Bailey was among the very first people in showbiz to recognize Billie Holiday's unique abilities as a jazz vocalist. This compilation demonstrates some of the songs, moods and instrumentalists that the two singers had in common. A more far-reaching assessment of their parallel careers is sobering; Billie Holiday struggled against racism, patriarchal oppression, entrenched conventions that made her feel like her own voice was "not legitimate," and a swarm of pernicious addictions that ultimately slew her. Mildred Bailey pioneered the feminine art of jazz singing and enjoyed enormous popularity for a while during the '30s; then, obese and diabetic, she found herself marginalized as an insufficiently svelte anomaly and was ultimately discarded by an entertainment industry that has always valued physical glamour over artistic ability. by arwulf arwulf 
Tracklist
1 My Last Affair 03:02
Haven Johnson
2 Trust in Me 03:03
Milton Ager / Arthur Schwartz / Ned Wever
3 Where Are You? 03:16
Harold Adamson / Jimmy McHugh
4 You're Laughing at Me 02:51
Irving Berlin
5 Never in a Million Years 02:52
Mack Gordon / Harry Revel
6 There's a Lull in My Life 02:56
Mack Gordon / Harry Revel
7 Rockin' Chair 03:16
Hoagy Carmichael
8 Little Joe 03:09
Jule Styne
9 If You Ever Should Leave 03:05
Sammy Cahn / Saul Chaplin
10 The Moon Got in My Eyes 02:38
Johnny Burke / Arthur Johnston
11 Heaven Help This Heart of Mine 02:45
Teddy Powell / Walter Samuels / Leonard Whitcup
12 It's the Natural Thing to Do 03:04
Johnny Burke / Arthur Johnston
13 Bob White (Whatcha Gonna Swing Tonight?) 02:59
Bernie Hanighen / Johnny Mercer
14 Just a Stone's Throw from Heaven 02:58
Charles Carpenter
15 Loving You 03:04
Victor Schertzinger
16 Right or Wrong 03:01
Victor Schertzinger
17 I See Your Face Before Me 03:00
Howard Dietz / Arthur Schwartz
18 Thanks for the Memory 02:38
Ralph Rainger / Leo Robin
19 From the Land of the Sky Blue Water 02:49
Charles Wakefield Cadman / Nelle Richmond Eberhart
20 Lover, Come Back to Me 03:17
Oscar Hammerstein II / Sigmund Romberg
21 Bewildered 02:58
Teddy Powell / Leonard Whitcup
22 I Can't Face the Music 02:57
Rube Bloom / Ted Koehler
23 Don't Be That Way 03:03
Benny Goodman / Mitchell Parish / Edgar Sampson
24 At Your Beck and Call 02:36
Eddie DeLange / Buck Ram

MILDRED BAILEY - 1937-1938 

(The Chronological Classics 1114)

(2000) Classics / FLAC (image+.cue), lossless