Mildred Bailey Recommendation Sought

[paul secor]

Can anyone recommend a Mildred Bailey disc with good songs, good backing musicians, and good sound? I'm pretty sure that she tended to record good tunes and usually had good musicians backing her, so the good sound is probably important.

Thanks in advance for any recs.

[jazzbo]

I recommend either of the two on "The Old Masters," they're among the best single discs of Mildred material I've owned. Sound is quite good actually.

Album Notes
Personnel includes: Mildred Bailey (vocals); Eddie Lang's Orchestra, Frank Trumbauer's Orchestra, Jimmie Noone's Orchestra, Casa Loma Orchestra, Paul Whiteman, Matty Malneck.Recorded between 1929 & 1932. Includes liner notes by Rob Bamberger.Personnel: Mildred Bailey (vocals).Liner Note Author: Robert Bamberger.Photographer: Frank Driggs.Unknown Contributor Roles: Ken Crawford; Bill Thompson.

The second of two CDs from the TOM ("The Old Masters") label finishes the documentation of singer Mildred Bailey's earliest recordings. Bailey is featured with Paul Whiteman, the Dorsey Brothers Big Band, the Casa Loma Orchestra("Heat Wave"), an all-star group with Benny Goodman (and tenor-great Coleman Hawkins) and on a her few of her own sessions. Although the emphasis is on ballads, the program generally holds on to one's interest (despite a few songs with racist lyrics, notably "Snowball") and the Goodman session (which is rounded off with an instrumental version of "Georgia Jubilee") is a near-classic. Other highlights include "I'll Never Be the Same," "Love Me Tonight," a touching "There's a Cabin in the Pines" and Bailey's earliest version of her future theme song "Rockin' Chair."

http://www.allmusic.com/album/band-vocalist-mildred-bailey-vol-2-mw0000004044

Edited April 12, 2014 by jazzbo

[Chuck Nessa]

To compliment the above recommendations, Sony issued an 18 track disc (culled from the Mosaic set) covering 1933-42.

Edited April 12, 2014 by Chuck Nessa

[Fer Urbina]

JRT Davies remastered the whole run of Red Norvo as a leader from 1933 to 1942 (IIRC) for Hep. Not compilations, though, but complete works.

F

[gmonahan]

I don't know how much duplication there is with the above, but GRP's Decca Jazz did a nice compilation of Bailey's recordings with Universal-owned labels, "Mildred Bailey: The Rockin' Chair Lady (1931-1950)." It includes her last recordings as well as one of my favorites among her sessions, the 1935 one with Bunny Berigan recorded for English Parlophone.

gregmo

[paul secor]

Many thanks for the recommendations. They all seem to be good ones.