It’s Frank’s world we just live in it.   Deano sings in French on Reprise records. Frank Sinatra’s label.

Arranged and conducted by Neal Hefti.

(14 votes, average: 3.71 out of 5)

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What a nice portrait of the beautiful, soulful, jazzy, political and proud Nina Simone deep in thought. The photo is uncredited, but there’s a good chance it was done by Burt Goldblatt who did many for Bethlehem at this time.

Nina Simone and Her Friends (1959) is actually a compilation album of Bethlehem recording stars including Simone and her label mates Chris Connor and Carmen McCrae. The Nina Simone tracks were recorded in New York City in 1957 with Simone singing and on piano, Jimmy Bond on bass and Al Heath on drums. Her four songs here are “He’s Got the Whole World In His Hands,” “I Loves You Porgy,” “For All We Know” and the instrumental “African Mailman”.

(13 votes, average: 4.54 out of 5)

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Billy Holiday on Commodore Records   Cover Photo: Skippy Adelman   Cover Art: John DeVries

A collection of 78 records from two sessions one from 1939 and the other from 1943.   Included is the two-sided hit and best-selling record of her career “Strange Fruit” and “Fine and Mellow”.

Billie Holiday to Nat Hentoff as recalled in his book “Hear Me Talkin’ to Ya” — “I don’t think I’m singing.   I feel like I’m playing a horn.”   “I try to improvise like Les   Young. like Louis Armstrong, or someone else I admire.   What comes out is what I feel.”   Amen.

(17 votes, average: 4.59 out of 5)

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Cover photo: Charles Stewart Notes by: Ralph J. Gleason

“A wild, swinging, demoniac, funky, hilarious, way-out, continental, down home, home-cooked, volatile, expoobident, grooy, bombastic, stoned, risque, hip, incredible, orgiastic, superstitious, finger-popping, rabelasian, didactic, crowd-pleasing, recherche, humanitarian, nitty gritty, spontaneous, unspeakable Sunday Afternoon with Babs Gonzales at Small’s Paradise (1963) on Dauntless records.

Babs Gonzales (vocalist and raconteur) with Johnny Griffin (tenor sax), Clark Terry (trumpet and flugelhorn), Horace Parlan (piano), Buddy Catlett (bass), Ben Riley (drums).

Babs passed away in 1980 in his home in New Jersey. Try to find his book “I, Paid My Dues.” (Good times – no bread, a story of jazz). Expubidence Publishing Corp., East Orange, NJ. 1967.

(9 votes, average: 3.78 out of 5)

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“Pick yourself up. Dust yourself off. And start all over again.” This was one of my stepfather’s records and I pulled it out of his small collection when I was about 14 (maybe the cover piqued my pubescent interest).   Anita O’Day remains maybe my favorite female jazz vocalist. When I first moved to New York, I hitchhiked to see her at a small club in New Jersey and sat and spoke with her for about an hour.

Cover photo by the great Herman Leonard. Buddy Bregman arranges and conducts.

Anita O’Day, the last surviving member of the pantheon of great jazz singers (whose ranks also include Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, and Sarah Vaughan), passed away Thanksgiving morning at the age of 87. Born in Chicago, O’Day gained national attention as the girl singer with drummer Gene Krupa’s orchestra on the hit record “Let Me Off Uptown.” After two tenures with Krupa and one, inbetween, with Stan Kenton and his Orchestra, O’Day became a solo star and, along with Fitzgerald and Vaughan, a founding fore-mother ofmodern jazz vocals. Known for her inventive scatting as well as her touching balladeering, O’Day recorded several dozen classic albums, mostly for the Verve label in the 1950s. Ms. O’Day was often as flamboyant visually as she was innovative vocally, evidence of which can be found in the films “The Gene Krupa Story” and “Jazz On A Summer’s Day. A survivor of both heroin and alcohol addiction, she was also the author of one of the great jazz memoirs, “Hard Times, High Times” and the subject of a full-length documentary film, ‘Anita O’Day – The Life of A Jazz Singer’ which is currently in the final stages of completion. –Will Friedwald November 23, 2006

(13 votes, average: 4.46 out of 5)

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Pinky Tomlin (1907 – 1987), who wrote the 1930’s hit ”The Object of My Affection” toured for more than a decade with his own band, writing along the way such songs as ”The Love Bug Will Bite You if You Don’t Watch Out” and ”If It Wasn’t for the Moon.”

Country Boy on Arvee.   Cover design: Jac Brahm / Cover photo: Carlyle Blackwell / Car:   AC-Ford Cobra / Arranged and conducted by Nelson Riddle

(9 votes, average: 3.33 out of 5)

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Mark Murphy’s Hip Parade (1959). Capitol Records. Arranged and conducted by Bill Holman. From the liner notes by Peggy Lee: “He phrases at times like a horn; and a horn with a modern sound. As the expression goes, you might say, ‘He blows.'”

(8 votes, average: 4.50 out of 5)

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