Like the old photographer’s cliché’ “It’s hard to take a bad picture of a flower,” it’s also just as difficult to do damage to anything composed by Johnny Mercer; even better when you’ve got a swingfest of a bad lead by vocalist/arranger/pianist John Bauers. You get lots of fun and extroverted pieces like the Louis Prima-inspired “That Old Black Magic” and a big and brassy “Too Marvelous For Words” as well as a fun to boogie “GI Jive” with some nice sax work by Michael Weisberger. A bit of “I’ll show you” attitude pops up on a couple revenge tunes such as “I Wanna Be Around” which includes some nice piano work by the leader and rich ‘bone solo by Robert Edwards, while Audrey Welber adds clarinet spice to “I Wanna Be Around.” A bit more reflective are the noir mooded “Moon River/The Days of Wine and Roses” and the classic last drink tune of “One For My Baby” with Bauers at his lugubrious best. Mercifully Mercer.
Zoho Records