  |
|
|
 |
| The Essential Jimmy Scott - The Voice of an Angel (2CD) |
| Jimmy Scott |
első megjelenés éve: 1975
132 perc |
|
| (2008)
|
|
2 x CD |
Kérjen
árajánlatot! |
|
| 1. CD tartalma: |
| 1. | After I'm Gone
|
| 2. | The Talk Of The Town
|
| 3. | I'll Be Seeing You
|
| 4. | The Loneliest House On The Street
|
| 5. | Anytime Anyday Anywhere
|
| 6. | When Did You Leave Heaven?
|
| 7. | Guilty
|
| 8. | Everybody Needs Somebody
|
| 9. | Why Don't You Open Your Heart?
|
| 10. | Time On My Hands
|
| 11. | Imagination
|
| 12. | Don't Cry Baby
|
| 13. | How Can I Go On Without You?
|
| 14. | Street Of Dreams
|
| 15. | Someone To Watch Over Me
|
| 16. | Recess In Heaven
|
| 17. | If You Only Knew
|
| 18. | Am I Wrong?
|
| 19. | Laughing On The Outside
|
| 20. | I'll Be All Right
|
| 21. | Please Be Kind
|
| 22. | Oh, What I Wouldn't Give
|
| 23. | All Or Nothing At All
|
| 24. | I'm Through With Love
|
| |
| 2. CD tartalma: |
| 1. | What Wouldn't I Give
|
| 2. | When It Comes To Love
|
| 3. | There Will Never Be Another You
|
| 4. | I'm Afraid The Masquerade Is Over
|
| 5. | Once
|
| 6. | What Good Would It Be?
|
| 7. | The Way You Look Tonight
|
| 8. | Things That Are Love
|
| 9. | Everybody's Somebody's Fool
|
| 10. | Time On My Hands
|
| 11. | Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child
|
| 12. | If I Ever Lost You
|
| 13. | Please Forgive Me
|
| 14. | How Else?
|
| 15. | If You Are But A Dream
|
| 16. | An Evening In Paradise
|
| 17. | My Romance
|
| 18. | When You Wish Upon A Star
|
| 19. | Smile
|
| 20. | You've Changed
|
| 21. | Can't We Begin Again?
|
| 22. | The More I See You
|
| 23. | When I Fall In Love
|
Jazz
Someone to Watch Over Me
CD1: 64:03 min.
CD2: 67:32 min.
The New York Times judged Jimmy Scott "the most ravishing and powerful vocal instrument in American popular music." The Essential Jimmy Scott presents 47 tracks by this uniquely haunting singer, so widely admired since his stunning comeback in the 1990s.
"What's this little boy going to do out there? I thought to myself. But Jimmy was something else. Wasn't five feet tall. Hardly moved his hands. Didn't dance. Didn't sway. Didn't even shake his hips. But, Lord, have mercy, this boy brought down the heavens."
Ruth Brown
"We called him Crying Jimmy Scott. Night after night, I'd be sitting back there in the trumpet section, listening to this man cry his heart out. He'd just tear you up, you could sense Jimmy taking us all to an emotional level that was high and deep at the same time."
Quincy Jones
Jimmy Scott didn't appear to have much going for him. One of ten siblings, his beloved mother Justine was killed when he was 12 after which his Cleveland-based family broke up. Also, he was afflicted with Kallman's Syndrome, a hormonal deficiency that stunts the advent of adolescence, and so entered adulthood with an androgynous, underdeveloped physique to endure a lifetime of misunderstanding.
Yet, in another way, he was blessed. Blessed with a singing voice that seemed to come through a hotline from his heart. "His soul scorched you clean," said rhythm and blues singing legend Ruth Brown. "By exposing his emotional insides, he exposed yours."
He got his break as the ballad specialist in Lionel Hampton's band where he stayed from 1948 until 1950, hitting the R&B charts with "Everybody's Somebody's Fool". The record influenced Johnny Ray's emotive style, but although Ray was a star in the early '50s, sustained success eluded Scott.
He kept working, sat in with his friend Charlie Parker in the Royal Roost, recorded for many small labels, returned to Hampton for a while and ended up on Herman Lubinsky's Savoy Records. Many contemporaries hit singing big-hearted ballads: Cole, Mathis, Al Hibbler. But Jimmy didn't.
Bad luck, bad business and his intense singing style - somewhere between a man and a woman, an idiosyncratic hybrid of jazz, R&B and slow-motion sound painting - along with the ambiguity of his persona (it wasn't unusual to hear the word 'freak' called out when he performed in the 1950s) kept him from mainstream success. Whatever style he tried - and Lubinsky had him try a few - it never quite clicked. Scott tried to leave Savoy to join Ray Charles's Tangerine label in the early 1960s, but Lubinsky threatened to sue, forcing Scott's Charles-produced masterpiece album Falling In Love Is Wonderful to be withdrawn.
It was enough of a blow for Scott to retreat back into Cleveland and, for the most part, scuffling obscurity. He recorded The Source in 1969 with Joel Dorn at Atlantic but Lubinsky blocked that too. Ironically, he returned to Savoy in 1975 to record Can't We Begin Again, but once more, not much came of it.
In the 1980s, things started changing. A radio jazz interview here, a Newark club date there and in 1987, a letter to Billboard magazine from songwriter friend Doc Pomus who had heard 62-year-old Jimmy and had been blown away. "Let's do something now," he called upon the music business. "I've shed enough tears for enormously talented friends who died penniless in relative obscurity." It would be another three and a half years in 1991 before Seymour Stein, head of Sire Records, heard Jimmy Scott sing at Doc Pomus's funeral. "No one in the world sings this soulfully," Stein thought to himself, "I've got to sign him."
Sign him he did and one of the greatest comebacks in show business history continues into the new millennium; albums, concerts, rave reviews, even the acclaimed reissue of the legendary Falling In Love Is Wonderful.
Here we present 47 tracks from Scott's classic period 1952-1960 and highlights from his 1975 Savoy return. Hear what Nancy Wilson, Marvin Gaye, Ray Charles and countless other luminaries knew long ago, that Jimmy Scott was something special. As the New York Times judged, Scott was "arguably the most ravishing, penetrating and powerful vocal instrument in American popular music."
CD1
1. After I'm Gone
2. The Talk Of The Town
Terry Gibbs (vibes); Howard Biggs (piano, arranger); Hy White (guitar); Unknown (bass); Louis Bellson (drums). March 1952
Two cuts released only as singles on the Royal Roost label between stints in the Hampton band. Note the use of Hampton's instrument, the vibraphone, behind Jimmy's vocal, a preference of Scott's whenever it was possible. "After I'm Gone" is a plaintive, unique (to Jimmy Scott) recasting of Creamer and Layton's 1918 song "After You've Gone". "It's The Talk Of The Town" is a song Scott has sung his whole career, from his first ever time in public when he sat in with Lester Young in Meadville, Pennsylvania in 1943 to his 1995 album Dream.
3. I'll Be Seeing You
4. The Loneliest House On The Street
5. Anytime Anyday Anywhere
Probably Howard Biggs (piano). Remainder of band unknown. Mid-1950s.
A mysterious session recorded for Roost sometime in the mid 1950s with few details available, but it's a gem. The wistful wartime ballad "I'll Be Seeing You" becomes something altogether more passionate in Jimmy's hands. No one else ever recorded the obscurity "The Loneliest House On The Street" before or since Jimmy's version and hearing it now, they needn't bother. His performance is magnificent and definitive. Recorded by the likes of Duke Ellington and Glenn Miller in the early thirties, "Anytime Anyda y Anywhere" was old fashioned even in the mid-fifties, but Jimmy gives it a quality close to timelessness here.
6. When Did You Leave Heaven?
7. Guilty
8. Everybody Needs Somebody
9. Why Don't You Open Your Heart?
Budd Johnson (tenor sax); Howard Biggs (piano, arranger); Mundell Lowe (guitar); Charles Mingus (bass); Rudy Nichols (drums). February 1955
Scott's first session for Savoy in its entirety and the one where bassist Charles Mingus was supposed to have stormed off, disturbed by Jimmy's tendency to sing behind the beat. The two Richard Whiting songs "When Did You Leave Heaven" and "Guilty" are superb examples of this trait, but check out Jimmy swinging on "Everybody Needs Somebody". He could sing in the groove when he wanted to, he just mostly didn't want to, or as he puts it, "I just had a different feeling for rhythm". As Billie Holiday (another singer who was sometimes accused of not knowing where the beat was) once told him, "I hear what you're doing, and you're doing it right."
10. Time On My Hands
11. Imagination
12. Don't Cry Baby
13. How Can I Go On Without You?
Dave McRae (alto and baritone sax); George Berg (tenor sax); Howard Biggs (piano, arranger); George Barnes (guitar); Al Hall (bass); Dave Bailey (drums). April 1955
Pianist/arranger Howard Biggs and the boys creating spacious, sensitive backings within which Jimmy lets fly with and the effect is startling, probably unlike anything else in popular music. "Time On My Hands" and "Imagination" are typical Scott transformations of unassuming 1930s material into burnished, heartfelt epics. Although Jimmy's material is often forlorn, he rarely ventured into the blues style preferring to sing strong, expressive melodies. "Don't Cry Baby" is an exception and shows Jimmy's blue s inflexions were right there to be utilised when needed.
14. Street Of Dreams
15. Someone To Watch Over Me
George Berg (tenor sax); Phil Kraus (vibes); Howard Biggs (piano, arranger); Sal Salvador (guitar); Jack Lesberg (bass); Cliff Leeman (drums), Cissy Houston (voice). June 1955.
Though one of the great balladeers, Jimmy - usually at the suggestion of A&R men who thought they knew best - often sang songs that are the repertoire equivalent of 'B' movies (see "How Can I Go On Without You" above); not without charm but sometimes lacking somewhat in finesse. So it's a real treat to hear him sing some superior songs by Harry Warren and George Gershwin. Jimmy is heard singing Harry Warren's "Street Of Dreams" to great atmospheric effect during the movie Glangarry Glen Ross many years later. "Someone To Watch Over Me" features Cissy Houston (Whitney's mother) w atching over him from soprano heaven, a kitschy touch the track probably could have done without. Jimmy didn't like it either, but happy to be recording his first album, kept quiet.
16. Recess In Heaven
17. If You Only Knew
18. Am I Wrong?
Budd Johnson (tenor sax); Howard Biggs (piano, arranger); Everett Barksdale (guitar); Wendell Marshall (bass); Kenny Clarke (drums). October 1955
"Recess In Heaven" is archetypal Jimmy, all angels and celestial smiles. The only thing missing is the billowing clouds of vibes chords. "If You Only Knew" is a delightful, obscure swinger while "Am I Wrong" is a sweet doowop-style pop tune. Beautifully sung as these sides are, it's hard to know who they were aimed at and none were hits. "Some said that was because I was too jazz for pop fans," Jimmy told biographer David Ritz. "Others said I was too pop for jazz fans. My fans said, 'Just keep doing what y ou're doing.'" Amen to that.
19. Laughing On The Outside
20. I'll Be All Right
21. Please Be Kind
Dave McRae (alto sax); Warren Luckey (tenor sax); Leslie Johnakins (baritone sax); Kelly Owens (piano, probably arranger); Mickey Baker (guitar); Leonard Gaskin (bass); Arthur Edgehill (drums). 3rd October 1956.
A year on and with Jimmy in fantastic voice, this session is the clearest indication yet of the heart-on-the-sleeve holler that would influence members of the next generation of soulful pop singers such as Frankie Lymon and Frankie Valli. "Laughing On The Outside" and "I'll Be All Right" are magnificent martyr pieces while the romantic vulnerability of "Please Be Kind" is immensely touching.
22. Oh, What I Wouldn't Give
23. All Or Nothing At All
24. I'm Through With Love
Jerome Richardson (flute, tenor sax); Dave McRae (alto sax);Warren Luckey (tenor sax); Kelly Owens (piano, probably arranger); Mickey Baker (guitar); Leonard Gaskin (bass); Sol hall (drums); 18th October 1956
If anyone needs a twelve second glimpse of what Jimmy Scott is about, the astonishing a cappella opening of "Oh, What I Wouldn't Give" is it; he goes from a melodious roar to a beautifully controlled whisper in five words, capturing the entire emotional sweep of the song (fierce longing to gentle tenderness) before the band even enter. The three-sax backings - now under the aegis of Kelly Owens, like the previous session - are full of musical detail and greatly contribute to one of the most satisfying dates Jimmy made for Savoy. "All Or Nothing At All", one of the several Sinatra-related songs Jimmy would be attracted to in his career, is nicely recast as a yearning rumba while "I'm Through With Love", with almost the same lyrical theme, virtually turn this sequence of songs into a 'You Or No One' mini suite.
CD2
1. What Wouldn't I Give
2. When It Comes To Love
Buddy Lucas (tenor sax); Lincoln Chase (piano); Lord Westbrook, Skeeter Best (guitars); George Duvivier (bass); Bobby Donaldson (drums). Arranged by Billy Ver Planck. March 1958.
In the intervening eighteen months between Savoy sessions, Jimmy had recorded several singles for King Records of an increasingly commercial nature. "I wasn't comfortable with the material," Jimmy has said, "but I was willing to go along for the ride." Back at Savoy and with everyone's eyes set firmly on a hit, Jimmy gamely attacks the doowop ballad "What Wouldn't I Give" and the Fats Domino-style "When It Come To Love", the latter written by the session's pianist Lincoln Chase. The guitars are turned up, the rhythms more obvious, the songs are OK and Jimmy is great. But they still weren't hits.
3. There Will Never Be Another You
4. I'm Afraid The Masquerade Is Over
5. Once (Jackson) Copyright Control
6. What Good Would It Be?
Howard Biggs (piano, arranger); Bucky Pizzarelli (guitar); Lloyd Trotman (bass); Bunny Shawker (drums); five violins. December 1959
Twenty months on and arranger Howard Biggs and producer Freddy Mendelsohn raise their commercial game. They overdub sprightly strings and try market-friendly gimmicks like dressing the 1943 standard "There Will Never Be Another You" like Buddy Holly's "It Doesn't Matter Any More" (a huge hit earlier in 1959) and treat "I'm Afraid The Masquerade Is Over" and "Once" to arpeggiated, tremeloed electric guitar. The string flourish that heralds "What Good Would It Be" seems to quote Gershwin's "Bess You Is My Wo man", but thereafter it's a doowop 'B' song all the way. As ever Jimmy sings his heart out, hoping for the payday that would come with a hit. It never came.
7. The Way You Look Tonight
8. Things That Are Love
9. Everybody's Somebody's Fool
10. Time On My Hands
Robert Banks (piano); Charles May (guitar); Abe Baker (bass); Bobby Donaldson (drums); with strings. Arranged by Howard Biggs. January 1960
The standards "The Way You Look Tonight" and "Time On My Hands" along with a remake of Jimmy's hit with Hampton "Everybody's Somebody's Fool" get the arpeggio-plus-backbeat treatment in an effort to update Scott's sound for the marketplace. The records themselves are well done and the firmer grooves and tempos should have made Jimmy's somewhat elastic, declamatory style acceptable to the general public, but somehow it didn't. "Things That Are Love" is better, purer Scott anyway, with guitarist Charles May freely accompanying and Jimmy enjoying the space.
11. Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child
12. If I Ever Lost You
13. Please Forgive Me
14. How Else
15. If You Are But A Dream
16. An Evening In Paradise
Robert Banks (piano, organ); Hy White (guitar); Al Lucas (bass); Paul Gusman (drums); with strings. Probably arranged by Howard Biggs. April 1960.
This and the previous two sessions were designed to get Jimmy in the charts. All thathappened was that the tracks came out in late 1960 on the album The Fabulous Songs Of Jimmy Scott (the first time 'Little' had been dropped from his professional name) which bombed. Looking back in later years, Jimmy thought the remakes "didn't sound fresh" and the arrangements "cramped my style". Actually, the sides were a fair attempt at commercialising Jimmy's intense style and some tracks work well. This version of "So metimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child" is beautifully dramatic and moody while the exotic oddity that is "An Evening In Paradise" (on which Jimmy appears to get writer's credit along with pianist Banks) while admittedly "cheesy" as Jimmy himself judges, is also rather lovely. The other tracks may not be great songs, but at least they benefit from fully committed performances from Jimmy at the peak of his powers.
17. My Romance
18. When You Wish Upon A Star
19. Smile
Unknown pianist; probably Charles May (guitar); Lloyd Trotman (bass); Bobby Donaldson (drums); with strings. November 1960
From Jimmy's final session for Savoy for 15 years. An evocative eastern pizzicato string prefaces an otherwise straightforward early '60s reading of Rodgers and Hart's 1941 standard "My Romance", another failed single. Jimmy retired from Savoy soon after and the fulsome readings of "When You Wish Upon A Star" and "Smile" remained unreleased until 1999. Those who know the man might say that those two songs, taken together, go some way to encapsulating the essence of Jimmy Scott; hopes and dreams remaining a live while adversity is met with good cheer and sound philosophy.
20. You've Changed
21. Can't We Begin Again?
22. The More I See You
23. When I Fall In Love
Carl 'Ace' Carter (piano); band unknown; strings arranged by Alex Hamilton. May 1975
.
Though Jimmy Scott had suffered what might be described as restraint of trade at the hands of Savoy boss Herman Lubinsky for over a decade, Jimmy agreed to return to Savoy for one more album. As Lubinski became ill, Freddy Mendelsohn, Jimmy's faithful producer in the 1950s, assumed more control of the label and keen to right Lubinki's previous wrongs, advanced Scott $1500, seven times more than he'd ever got from Savoy before. The sessions were not the triumph they might have hoped for however. Jimmy remembers 'Ace' Carter, the pianist and arranger, being drunk and the half-complete arrangements needing improvised work in the studio. Nevertheless, it's good to hear 50-year-old Jimmy sing some high quality standard songs again along with a rare self-penned original, "Let's Begin Again". It wasn't yet the anticipated new beginning - that was still a decade or so off - but the spirit of patient hope that infuses all Jimmy Scott's work is there to behold.
Chris Ingham
The compiler acknowledges the invaluable assistance of David Ritz's excellent biography of Jimmy Scott Faith In Time (Da Capo 2002) in preparing these sleeve notes.
Chris Ingham is a jazz musician, songwriter, author of The Rough Guide To The Beatles and the forthcoming Rough Guide To Frank Sinatra and contributor to Mojo magazine. |
|
CD bolt, zenei DVD, SACD, BLU-RAY lemez vásárlás és rendelés - Klasszikus zenei CD-k és DVD-különlegességek |  | | Webdesign - Forfour Design |
|
|
