11/10/2022 0 Comments Flame of fire blossom diarie![]() ![]() One of the best tracks here is Haymes’ “ You For Me”, which doesn’t come across as silly like some others, but is nevertheless full of funny lines like: The much-covered “ ’Deed I Do”, “ Everything I’ve Got”, “ Comment Allez Vous” (with slightly overdone male/female backing vocals), “ Tout Doucement” (a popular French cabaret tune?), “ I Hear Music”, and “ I Won’t Dance” (half in English, half in French) are the cutest, or silliest, depending on your perspective, but all are so tastefully done, with that winning vocal-timbre, that you just have to give in and enjoy them!īlossom sings three songs by Bob Haymes here (his big one, a few years prior to this album, was “That’s All”, but she doesn’t do it). After all, Blossom had to entertain supper-club audiences in smoky Parisian nightclubs, and sometimes you’ve got to mix it up. Some of the cuts also feature backing vocalists.īe warned if you’re a “serious” jazz fan: some of the songs are cute (yes, like Blossom herself) and even rather silly. Now able to accompany herself on her own big-label LP, Blossom was fortunate to be joined by bassist Ray Brown (Ella Fitzgerald) and drummer Jo Jones (Count Basie Orchestra), themselves not exactly slouches in jazz performance. Still, she was often spoken of as a very fine pianist and accompanist, and certainly sounds great. Her tinkling of the ivories can be heard throughout this disc, though the piano isn’t particularly well-miked on some of the tunes (the bass, however, is). On this first Verve long-player, she also sings some of the chansons française she learned over in gay-Paree – sometimes singing in both French and English – which also adds to the novelty of this fine recording, which is otherwise laden with bebop-era standards.īut Blossom was primarily, perhaps, a pianist. But then again, she never sounds overly clever or insincere. Everything she sings sounds slightly tongue-in-cheek, and her voice exudes cuteness, which is just as well with a name like “Blossom Dearie”. But it’s not slick like Bennett’s it has some gravitas… somehow. ![]() Some have called it an acquired taste, but upon first impression I found it instantly agreeable. ![]() But Blossom was also friends with Tony Bennett, and it was towards cabaret that she had moved even before Granz invited her to record for all-powerful Verve in 1956, upon her return to the USA.īlossom had sung for years in vocal groups in New York (with Woody Herman’s Blue Flames, for one), and was possessed of a unique and high-pitched voice. Blossom had already put in several years within the bebop scenes in Manhattan through the 1950s (she was chums with Gil Evans, and apparently was present for some of the Davis/Evans Birth of the Cool sessions, for example she knew Bird and Dizzy, too). Granz may have already known who she was or maybe he didn’t. The story goes that Norman Granz, famed jazz impresario and Verve Records main-man, was checking out the clubs in Paris, France one evening in 1955 or 1956, when he saw and heard Blossom Dearie, who’d been in Paris for a while singing and playing piano. ![]()
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