Nowadays, we take this style for granted, but back in the early 1950s, vocalists like Chris Connor set the world afire with an icy and restrained delivery of vocals, a little behind the beat and making you lean forward as she cooed softly into your ear. This 3 disc, 73 song collection includes material from her highly influential early albums as well as some singles. Her earliest singles include sort of pop novelties, but with a seductive flavor, such as “You’re The Cream In My Coffee”, “Sorta Kinda” and “And the Bull Walked Around, Olay”, but by the time of her album from 1954 she digs into pieces like “Lush Life” and “A Cottage For Sale” with a collection of long shadows. Her second album from that year has her in definitive form on an agonizingly restrained “What Is There To Say” and “Try A Little Tenderness” . With some bonafide boppers like Milt Hinton/b, Osie Johnson/dr, Ralph Sharon/p, Joe Puma/g, Herbie Mann/fl and JJ Johnson-Kai Winding/tb, Connor turns up the frozen heat on “I Concentrate On You” and “The Thrill Is Gone”. By the next year, she’s delving into material by Thelonious Monk (“’Round About Midnight”) and going into a deep dark alley on “Angel Eyes”.
These songs at the time were earth shaking in their intimate and 3-pack-a-day toned delivery. Sort of like a femme fatale from a film noir singing from the silver screen. Is this what Lizabeth Scott or Gloria Graham would sound like?