Supporting the Jazz Genre and The 4 Land's Region of Central Europe
Julie London - Around Midnight
Artist : Julie London Album : Around Midnight Year : 1960 Label : Liberty
Personnel : Julie London : Vocals | Dick Reynolds : Conductor and Arrangements
The fact that I have choosen an actress as a jazz album selection may come as a surprise to many of the 'true blue jazz fans', especially when there are so many back catalogue albums from stalwarts such as Lady Day, Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald. It's probably true that this trio would have been more synonymous with the great jazz standards than Julie London, but her albums come across as a fresh approach to classic songs, the analogy that I can offer is today's Smooth Jazz carrying on the legacy of Mainstream Jazz from the 30's to the 60's.
During the past 50 years when I mentioned to friends and colleagues in the music industry that I actually listen to jazz as opposed to the music I was playing to make a living they turned their noses up and commented 'That's just a blurred noise with no catchy beat'. To a jazz person that about summed up their level of understanding and unfortunately their depth of any real knowledge of music. I have found that in my experience 90% of people 'listen to music' and all too often do not anaylze it or as I mentioned in another article 'Hear' it.
So Julie London comes along in the mid 50's with her clear voice, jazz standards and wonderful arrangements and her previous notoriety
paves the way for a new audience to listen to jazz.
Born Nancy Gale Peck in 1926 in Santa Rosa, California to vaudevillian parents she was discovered as an actress whilst working as an elevator operator in downtown Los Angeles and began a 35 year old acting career.
Her attractive model looks paved the way for female
lead roles in numerous westerns and co-starred with Rock Hudson in 'The Fat Man' in 1951 and with Robert Taylor in 'Saddie In The Wind' in 1958 and opposite Robert Mitchum in 'The Wonderful Country' in 1959.
Known for her husky, smokey voice and languid vocal style she signed a recording contract with Liberty Records in the mid 50's and released 32 albums of pop and jazz standards during the 50's and 60's. She recorded her signature song 'Cry Me A River' in 1955 and sang it in the movie 'Girl Can't Help It' in 1956 and was ranked number 48 in NPR's list of 50 Greatest Jazz Vocals of all time.
Please continue in the next column
Julie London - Around Midnight
Around Midnight was arranged by Dick Reynolds who also conducted the orchestra on this 1960 outing for Liberty and it was recorded in the Capitol Studios in Los Angeles with Si Waronker as producer.
Julie chose an amazing collection of songs which of course lead off with Monk's standard 'Round Midnight' which sets the pace for many of the songs on the album which incidentally is the perfect album to set the mood for your own cocktail hour.
Errol Garner's 'Misty', Sonny Burke's 'Black Coffee'
and Billy Strayhorn's 'Lush Life' add to the cool mood whilst 'Lonely Night In Paris' eases the tempo upwards with a double bass intro leading to a full big band backing à la Duke or Count Basie as is Arthur Schwarzt and Howard Dietz's classic 'You And The Night And The Music' and George and Ira Gershwin's 'But Not For Me'.
For me the ballads are the real deal and other classics on this 12 track set include 'In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning', 'Don't Smoke In Bed', 'Something Cool', Irving Berlin's ' How About Me' and the Jule Styne penned 'The Party's Over' which concludes an album of delights that
will hopefully change the minds of listeners who claim jazz to be just a 'blurred noise'.
If you would like to be introduced to the world of Julie London and the Great American Songbook jazz standards, find a copy of Around Midnight', pour a glass of wine and sit back and relax in a dimly lit atmosphere to savour and fully appreciate this wonderful album.
Review by Wes George
(former Webmaster & Marketer with Sony Jazz)
