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Black Coffee---Peggy Lee


BruceH

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I recently picked up this album, and I'm impressed. It's just a nice solid album, even though it's really a combination on a 10" and some extra tracks to make a 12" album---the two sessions mesh very well. All the tracks are small-group jazz, including Jimmy Rowles and Pete Candoli; Lee is in excellent voice. This stands up to comparison with the great Sinatra albums of the period (53/57). Anyone else have this one? (This re-issue is a digipak, but don't hold that against the music.)

Edited by BruceH
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I don't have Black Coffee (wish I did), but another "jazzier" side of Lee can be found on Things Are Swingin'. That one holds up over time.

I'll second Late's opinion on THINGS ARE SWINGIN', which I got a few months ago. I ordered BLACK COFFEE a couple of weeks ago, and it should be showing up any day now. An interesting Lee album that works sporadically for me is LATIN A LA LEE (it was her version of "Till There Was You" from that LP that inspired McCartney and the Beatles to cover it). Hoping to work up a Lee big-band show for March that draws on some of the larger-ensemble Capitol dates as well as the early sides with Goodman.

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Hoping to work up a Lee big-band show for March that draws on some of the larger-ensemble Capitol dates as well as the early sides with Goodman.

Not exactly a "big band" date (lots o'strings), but this one is a mostly a gem afaic:

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Never mind the "orchestra conducted by Frank Sinatra" crap. Maybe he did, maybe he didn't, whoknowswhocares, etc. What you got here is Lee singing ballads, great ballads, with arrangements by Nelson Riddle, who turns in some of his most harmonically devious work here. The version of "HAppiness Is Just A Thing Called Joe" is earfuck enough, but there's more...

Plus, Lee sounds like she's in some kind of wierd, channelling Billie Holliday mode here. Kinda creeped me out at first, but the arrangements drew me into the total package, and now I'm hooked.

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Yeah, I have never minded the conducting crap on this one for some time. You can get it paired with "Things are Swinging" from British EMI on one cd. Now THAT is one fine pairing!

Really? That's strange, as my English EMI edition has Things Are Swingin' paired with Jump for Joy:

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Another fine one ...

That was a fine series (is it still going?) — the English Capitol/EMI two-fer series of vocalists. Some fine Julie London and (even) Dean Martin could be picked up that way ...

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I've never heard Jump for Joy, bet it's good, I really like Peggy of this period.

It's a good session. I like Things Are Swingin' a little better, but Jump for Joy is a nice pairing. It has fine versions of "Just in Time" and "Cheek to Cheek" — the latter tune, I think, is very hard not to make schmaltzy, and Lee brings it off without schmaltz.

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Yeah, I have never minded the conducting crap on this one for some time. You can get it paired with "Things are Swinging" from British EMI on one cd. Now THAT is one fine pairing!

That sounds like a must-have. What's on the cover? (The picture of the guy lunching on her neck makes me kinda sick....)

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