JULIE LONDON - About the Blues (1957-2002) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Julie London wasn't really a jazz singer, but she possessed a definite jazz feeling and many of her finest albums (such as Julie Is Her Name and Julie...At Home) feature small-group jazz backings. About the Blues was aimed at the 1950s pop market, but it may just be her best orchestral session. Since downbeat torch songs were London's specialty, the album features an excellent selection of nocturnal but classy blues songs that play to her subtle strengths instead of against them. Likewise, Russ Garcia's clever arrangements bleed jazz touches and short solos over the solitary strings and big-band charts. Like June Christy, London usually included a couple of new songs in with a selection of standards, and her husband, Bobby Troup, wrote two excellent numbers for the album. One of them, the emotionally devastating "Meaning of the Blues," is the album's highlight, and was turned into a jazz standard after Miles Davis recorded it the same year for Miles Ahead. by Nick Dedina
Tracklist:
1 Basin Street Blues 3:06
Spencer Williams
2 I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues 2:58
Harold Arlen / Ted Koehler
3 A Nightingale Can Sing the Blues 3:11
Dick Charles / Larry Markes
4 Get Set for the Blues 2:44
Joe R. Karnes
5 Invitation to the Blues 2:51
Doris Fisher / Arthur Gershwin / Allan Roberts
6 Bye Bye Blues 1:41
David Bennett / Chauncey Gray / Frederick Hamm / Bert Lown
7 Meaning of the Blues 2:58
Bobby Troup / Leah Worth
8 About the Blues 3:08
Arthur Hamilton
9 Sunday Blues 2:56
Leonard Adelson / Geoff Clarkson
10 The Blues Is All I Ever Had 2:53
Bobby Troup
11 Blues in the Night 3:41
Harold Arlen / Johnny Mercer
12 Bouquet of Blues 2:58
Arthur Hamilton
- Bonus Tracks -
13 Baby, Baby All the Time 2:25
Bobby Troup
14 Shadow Woman 2:39
Arthur Hamilton
15 Meaning of the Blues 2:58
Bobby Troup / Leah Worth
16 Dark 2:38
Edwin Greines
Credits:
Arranged By, Conductor – Russ Garcia
Accompanied By – Spencer-Hagan Orchestra (tracks: 16)