Lazaro Vega Posted June 22, 2016 Report Share Posted June 22, 2016 Yes, her singing sounds like pillow talk, yet on closer listening she's improvising, with mood, time, emotion, and is closely involved in the arrangements. From her first "hit" session with Clifford Brown, to the exciting unpredictable music recorded with Dick Katz, last night's Jazz From Blue Lake featured the music of Helen Merrill. If you missed it, here's another chance to listen. Helen Merrill : www.bluelake.org/ondemand (image by K. Abe). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AllenLowe Posted June 22, 2016 Report Share Posted June 22, 2016 (edited) I love Helen Merrill and I have a theory of why, at least to me, she sounds better on her '50s sessions than later. Given the timbre of her voice, she needs to be mic'd with a condenser microphone, which was most commonly used in the 1950s; my experience is that later engineers tend to always use ribbon mics; the effect, with a whispy voice like hers, is to deaden the sound of the voice (ribbons have a softening effect) and cause a loss of presence. Condensers, on the other hand, have high gain and just a generally fuller presence. This is why, to me, she sounds much better on the Clifford Brown sessions than, say, the Gil Evans re-do of Where Flamingos Fly. just my opinion. Edited June 22, 2016 by AllenLowe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted June 22, 2016 Report Share Posted June 22, 2016 Tantric, quite often. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
medjuck Posted June 22, 2016 Report Share Posted June 22, 2016 She sat in with the Gil Evans Project last month at The Jazz Standard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Nessa Posted June 22, 2016 Report Share Posted June 22, 2016 When I moved from Boston to Chicago in 1975, Don DeMichael asked me to join a newly reconstituted Jazz Institute board and I did. Helen was a Chicago resident at the time and was a member of the board. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corto maltese Posted June 23, 2016 Report Share Posted June 23, 2016 Much as I love her early sessions, I find myself returing more often to some of her later recordings. Jelena Ana Milcetic, her "Croatian" record, is a particular favourite. Not a conventional vocal jazz album by any means and her singing voice may have lost all traces of "pillow talk" by that point, but it's hauntingly beautiful and very moving. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soulpope Posted June 24, 2016 Report Share Posted June 24, 2016 21 hours ago, corto maltese said: Much as I love her early sessions, I find myself returing more often to some of her later recordings. Jelena Ana Milcetic, her "Croatian" record, is a particular favourite. Not a conventional vocal jazz album by any means and her singing voice may have lost all traces of "pillow talk" by that point, but it's hauntingly beautiful and very moving. Not bad either .... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted June 24, 2016 Report Share Posted June 24, 2016 There's a "Willow Weep For Me" on this one where Helen Merrill & Wayne Shorter are magical, individually and collectively. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lazaro Vega Posted June 24, 2016 Author Report Share Posted June 24, 2016 She replied to this post on Facebook, writing, " yes, night thoughts from beauty of true love to the ugliness of cruelty, l " And that's it. Wanting more! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost of miles Posted June 24, 2016 Report Share Posted June 24, 2016 Just heard her first-ever recording this morning on a used Earl Hines CD that I picked up in Manchester ("A Cigarette For Company," with the Hines Sextet in 1952). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lazaro Vega Posted June 29, 2016 Author Report Share Posted June 29, 2016 And "A Whirl In A Whirl" from that one. Xanadu lp here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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