Just when you think there are no more ladies at the jazz microphone, Barcelona-based Fresh Sound Records does some fracking and comes up with more black gold!
Cora Lee Day only recorded this one album before becoming an actress, ranging in TV shows like Hunter or in films such as What’s Love Got To Do With It. As a vocalist, she has a bit of a mix of Eartha Kitt and hints of Billie Holiday, teaming herself on this 1960 session with a sextet and orchestra conducted by pianist Jimmy Jones. The Basie alumni Harry Edison/tp, Illinois Jacquet/ts and Osie Johnson/dr give R&B is support, with Day slinking with the horns on “When Your Lover Has Gone”. She oozes through Jacquet’s fog on a rich “Try a Little Tenderness” and slithers on “Ain’t No Use” with a stark take of “This Masquerade is Over” with sublime work by Jones. A ringer!
Debbie Moore is almost as obscure; she did sing a bit for Earl Hines, but this 1959 album with the disparate team of guitarist Barry Galbraith, swinging trumpeter Harry Edison, classy pianist Jimmy Jones and steady bassist George Duvivier also includes drummer Elvin Jones, and he’s in a bluesy mood along with the sassy Moore on this wide range of blues. Moore sings with verve and even whistles with nifty understatement by Duvivier and Jones on the cooing “I Get A Feeling” and sassy “Come Home With Me”, with Sweets cheering her on. She oos and aahs through “Hallelujah I Love Him So” and agonizes a wisp on “Why Don’t You Do Right”? A hip Basie pulse gets her in a good mood on “Sent For You Yesterday” and “(I Know) My Baby Loves Me” and gets a gospel preaching feel on “Nothin’ But Trouble On My Mind”. Get this lady a room!
Sheila Guyse was a triple threat, making a career in film, Broadway and as a vocalist. This 1958 album has her backed by an orchestra directed by LeRoy Holmes. She has a highly polished sound, and uses her vibrato at will on most of the pieces such as “You Took Advantage Of Me” and “You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To” with her fluttering through the woodwinds on “I Cover The Waterfront”. The peppy brass works well as she swings and sways on “You Do Something To Me” and gives a come hither holler on “Make Love To Me”.
Joya Sherrill is probably the best known of these singers, starting her career in 1942 with Duke Ellington’s Orchestra and having a successful on and off relationship with the band and sidemen. This 1959 album has her with a Luther Henderson-conducted orchestra that features bopper Jerome Richardson on flute. The tunes are mostly jazzed and popped up nursery rhymes, creating a Basie beat on “Little Bo Peep” or joining with the clarinet section on “Old Lady In A Shoe”. While melodramatic on these tunes, things change dramatically on six songs on a hip 1957 session with guitar, piano, bass and drums as she seems well suited for a swooping “Baby Me”, a bouncy “Thou Swell” a languid “Easy Street” and a bopping “Between The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea”. She pulls out all the stops on “Lush Life,” making you wonder why there isn’t more of this side of Sherrill around. Check It out!