Invitation
I Wish It So
Yours Sincerely
Imagination
Find The Way
How Will I Remember You
Why Shouldn't I
More Than You Know
You Started Something
It Never Entered My Mind
If I Forget You
Someone To Watch Over Me
Rules Of The Road
Just One Of Those Things
All Alone
Black Coffee
Baby The Ball Is Over
Man That Got Away
I Gotta Right To Sing The Blues
Miss Otis Regrets
Thanks For Nothing (At All)
Rosemary Clooney with orchestra
rec. 1961
The Leopard Lounge might
be a gauche name – as in "The Leopard
Lounge Presents" – but under Warner Jazz’s
imprint Rhino has been doing some excellent
retrieval work. I’ll forgive them the leopard
skin artwork running along the top of the
booklet. Retro cheese is not always a bad
thing especially when it produces the goods,
as here.
What we have is the contents
of two LPs recorded by Rosemary Clooney in
1961. Love was arranged by the man
she was then involved with, Nelson Riddle
and Thanks for Nothing was the work
of arranger Bob Thompson. Both are among the
highest peaks of Clooney’s recorded output
– the Himalayas of her work on disc.
Riddle produces a warm string
cushion for Clooney and encourages form her
sympathetic intimacy. The discreet wash of
his orchestration can perhaps best be appreciated
in Imagination. Clooney stretches out
in the jazzier surroundings of Why Shouldn't
I with its brass and flute obbligatos.
The way she sings More Than You Know-
with a reservoir of unspoken feelings – must
surely have been an influence on one of today’s
premier singers, Stacey Kent. There’s a brief
but strong tenor saxophone solo in You
Started Something – Plas Johnson? But
the sheer consistency and excellence of the
date is the thing. One should also note the
big all-star string section Riddle had at
his disposal. The print is miniscule for the
band – the only demerit I can detect in this
release – but with microscope and the use
of an assistant and scribe I can tell you
it included Israel Baker, Lou Raderman, Louis
Kievman, Virginia Majewski and George Neikrug
amongst many, many others.
The other date is sassier
but rather less subtle. Thompson tends to
use the kind of orchestration for a Sinatra
and this isn’t always quite so appropriate
for Clooney. He’s far less reliant on string
cushion than Riddle and mines walking bass,
and show band extroversion. But there’s a
dramatic cello solo in Black Coffee. Thompson’s
big band affiliations are further cemented
by the bass and vibes focus in I Gotta
Right To Sing The Blues and his extroversion
brings out a great sense of dynamism from
Clooney as well as an intoxicating sense of
character.
Clooney admirers will find
this a ravishing feast. I go more for the
Riddle tracks but both albums are magnificent.
Jonathan Woolf
Clooney admirers will find
this a ravishing feast. I go more for the
Riddle tracks but both albums are magnificent.
... see Full Review
CD Reviews
RHINO 8122748762 [71:31]
