BEST OF 1961:Ray Charles "The Genius Sings the Blues" (1961)

The Genius Sings the Blues
release date: 1961
format: digital
[album rate: 4 / 5] [4,28]
producer: Ahmet Ertegün, Jerry Wexler
label: Atlantic Records - nationality: USA

Studio album by Ray Charles produced by Ahmet Ertegün and Jerry Wexler. The album was his last on Atlantic Records.

1961 Favourite releases: 1. Ray Charles The Genius Sings the Blues - 2. Dexter Gordon Dexter Calling... - 3. Elvis Presley Something for Everybody

Ella Fitzgerald "Hello, Love" (1959)

Hello, Love
release date: 1959
format: digital
[album rate: 3,5 / 5]

A 1950s studio album with Ella Fitzgerald with recordings made between 1957-1959. My cd edition is the 2004 remastered edition on the original label, Verve Records. I enjoy most albums with this great singer, although, I like her most when she sings vocal jazz only. But there's absolutely nothing wrong about her versions of the 'Great American Songbook' of standards, it's just that so many other good and great artists have made their versions, and it's sometimes hard to tell the big differences. And then again: singing the standards was what brought her fame! Several of the songs here, appear (in different versions) on previous albums including her two albums with Louis Armstrong, Ella & Louis (1956) and Ella & Louis Again (1957).

BEST OF 1965:Otis Redding "Otis Blue: Otis Redding Sings Soul" (1965)

Otis Blue: Otis Redding Sings Soul
release date: Sep. 15, 1965
format: cd
[album rate: 5 / 5]

Tracklist: 1. "Ole Man Trouble" - 2. "Respect" (5 / 5) - 3. "A Change Is Gonna Come" - 4. "Down in the Valley" - 5. "I've Been Loving You Too Long" (5 / 5) - 6. "Shake" (5 / 5) - 7. "My Girl" (5 / 5) - 8. "Wonderful World" (5 / 5) - 9. "Rock Me Baby" - 10. "Satisfaction" (5 / 5) - 11. "You Don't Miss Your Water"

3rd studio album by Otis Redding. Most of the songs here are cover-versions of famous r&b songs but here personalized into soul. Redding wrote three songs for the album himself (tracks #1, #2, and #5) and it soon became his best selling album reaching number #6 on the UK album charts. The album "is included in a number of best album lists, including Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, Time magazine's list of the "All-Time 100 Greatest Albums", and Robert Dimery's "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die". (from wikipedia). Another great soul singer, Sam Cooke, wrote three of the songs (tracks #3, #6, and #8), but as it is with all tracks on this album, Redding has a different approach, giving each song an emotional depth and feel that the original songs didn't have. Otis Redding is my all-time favourite soul artist and this album is one of his best.
[ allmusic.com, Rolling Stone, Record Collector, Virgin Encyclopedia 5 / 5 stars ]

1965 Favourite releases: 1. Otis Redding Otis Blue: Otis Redding Sings Soul - 2. The Beatles Help! - 3. Frank Sinatra September of My Years

Dexter Gordon "Go!" (1962)

Go!

release date: Aug. 27, 1962

format: digital (1999 remaster) / vinyl (2021 reissue)

[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,88]

producer: Alfred Lion

label: Blue Note / Ermitage (vinyl) - nationality: USA

Studio album by Dexter Gordon recorded by Rudy Van Gelder featuring Gordon on tenor sax with Sonny Clark on piano, Butch Warren on bass, and Billy Higgins on drums. The album is one of Gordon's most acclaimed albums.

2021 vinyl reissue

The Maytals "The Sensational Maytals" (1965)

org. vinyl release

The Sensational Maytals
release date: 1965
format: digital (1999 reissue)
[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,78]
producer: unknown
label: Jamaican Gold - nationality: Jamaica

Track highlights: 1. "It's You" (4 / 5) - 2. "Daddy" (4 / 5) - 7. "What's On Your Mind" (4 / 5)

2nd studio album by The Maytals originally released on BMN in Jamaica only and later that year in the UK by Doctor Bird Records, reissued by Jamaican Gold on extended cd edition as Sensational Ska Explosion in 1999.
The Maytals were formed in 1962 as a trio consisting of Nathaniel 'Jerry' Matthias, Henry 'Raleigh' Gordon, and Frederick Nathaniel 'Toots' Hibbert. All tracks here are credited the trio, but the band soon became famous as 'Toots & The Maytals' for his lead in the band, and he also wrote many of the trio's songs - later almost everything - and they then became Toots & The Maytals. In the early aftermath of this album, Hibbert spent 18 months in jail from '66 to '67, which explains an unwanted hiatus at a time when the band really was on top of music charts in Jamaica.
The production sound miss much in comparison with American and European releases from that time, but the music is simply golden. At this point reggae was not an "invented" genre but the music by Toots & The Maytals together with The Wailers and Peter Tosh, who all played Jaimaican ska in a combo with soul and r&b was fused into rocksteady, and later became known as reggae [from the 1968 single "Do the Reggay" by Toots and the Maytals].
'Toots' Hibbert has been compared to Otis Redding and this album really proves that analogy quite well. Hibbert doesn't have the same strength of vocal range but listening to this makes you wonder if Redding also listened to this and the debut by The Maytals to find inspiration. The album is stuffed with great tunes, and I have also found this much more inspiring than Bob Marley & The Wailers who experienced international fame in the 1970s when Toots & The Maytals were seen as 'just another' Jamaican band also playing reggae, when in fact they were among THE most important figures in shaping the genre.

1999 reissue

Jacques Brel "Au printemps" (1958)

Au printemps
release date: 1958
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5]

Track highlights: 2. "Au printemps" - 3. "Je ne sais pas" - 4. "Le colonel" - 8. "L'homme dans la cité?" - 9. "Litanies pour un retour"

3rd studio album by Jacques Brel originally released on Philips aka "Jacques Brel 3". This is another great album by Brel mostly consisting of his own compositions but also introducing 5 songs co-written with François Rauber who is also credited as orchestral conductor (tracks #2–3, #8–9, and #11–12) alongside André Popp (tracks #1, #4, #7, #10, and #13). The original lp contains tracks #1-10, with tracks #11-13 being bonus tracks on the 2003 remaster issued on Barclay Records as part of the 16-disc box set Boîte à Bonbons.

Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong "Ella and Louis" (1956)

Ella and Louis [debut]
release date: Oct. 1956
format: digital (2007 remaster)
[album rate: 4 / 5]

Tracklist: 1. "Can't We Be Friends?" - 2. "Isn't This a Lovely Day?" - 3. "Moonlight in Vermont" - 4. "They Can't Take That Away From Me" - 5. "Under a Blanket of Blue" - 6. "Tenderly" - 7. "A Foggy Day" - 8. "Stars Fell on Alabama" - 9. "Cheek to Cheek" - 10. "The Nearness of You" - 11. "April in Paris"

First collaboration album featuring Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong. My cd edition was remastered in 2007. This album is simply wonderful. I don't own a lot of music from the '50s but this is definitely one of the best of a decade. It's such a warm and positive album, and it just makes you wanna smile. I have several albums with Ella 'cause I simply love her fantastic voice but this is one of a few ones with Louis.

Ella Fitzgerald "Lullabies of Birdland" (1955)

Lullabies of Birdland

release date: 1955

format: vinyl (1960 reissue, DL 8149)

[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,92]

producer: various

label: Decca - nationality: USA

Early compilation album by Ella Fitzgerald with eleven tracks stemming from older recordings, which have all been previously issued for 78rpm singles during the late 1940s and early 1950s (track #11 is recorded in 1945, tracks #5 & #8 are from 1947, track #9 from 1949, tracks #2-4 & #10 from 1952, tracks #1 & #6 from 1954, and track #7 from 1955).

These recordings are a fine treat and despite some missing dynamics, mostly issues with vocal range, this compilation is remarkably good.

Chet Baker "Chet Is Back!" (1962)

Chet Is Back!
release date: Jan. 1962
format: digital
[album rate: 4 / 5]

Studio album by Chet Baker. It's one of his most well-renowned albums, and I think it's more than good, only, it's not the style that first comes to my mind when I'm thinking of Chet Baker. This is great jazz bop, which is a style much more in a field of John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Stan Getz, and Charlie Mingus. Here, Chet shows how he's more than capable of that style as well. And well, I guess all great jazz artists just had to play music according to that style at some point from the mid 50s to mid 60s. It also contains one or two tracks in his real trademark: cool jazz but no vocal jazz or that fine combo of easy listening and standards that I love when played by Chet. The album's title refers to the fact that Chet had spent almost a year and a half in prison in Italy because of possession of drugs.

Chet Baker

~ ~ ~

Chet Baker (birth name: Chesney Henry Baker; Dec. 23, 1929 - May 13, 1988), was born in Yale, Oklahoma, USA, and died in Amsterdam, The Netherlands some 58 years later. He's one of my absolute favorite jazz artists alongside Ella Fitzgerald, Etta James, Billie Holiday, Dexter Gordon, and Stan Getz. He had a highly original style, which was expressed in his brilliant soft and fragile singing voice and the tender melancholic beauty of his horn. Chet lived a hard life with alcohol and drug addiction which considerably shortened his life. He is a one the biggest jazz artists of the 1950s and 1960s, and is perhaps mostly known for his restrained playing style and influence on the foundation of cool jazz, as well as his fragile singing voice. In the 50s and 60s he was a male icon due to his photogenic looks. His trumpet career was boosted when he played with The Gerry Mulligan Quartet feat. Gerry Mulligan (baritone sax), Chet Baker (trumpet), Larry Bunker (drums), Carson Smith (bass). In the mid-50s he was promoted alongside Frank Sinatra and also had a film role in 1955 but refused to go further in an acting career. He spent many years travelling and playing in Europe in the '60s. In 1966 he was brutally beaten up in a drug related incident in San Francisco, and from the early 1970s he mostly played and lived in Europe. He ended his life after a fall from a window in Amsterdam - presumably as a result from taking both heroin and cocaine.

Chet Baker at the end of his career, and as a young photogenic star

~ ~ ~

Charles Mingus "Mingus Ah Um" (1959)

Mingus Ah Um
release date: Sep. 14, 1959
format: vinyl (1987 remaster) / digital (2009 reissue)
[album rate: 4 / 5]
producer: Teo Macero
label: CBS Records - nationality: USA

Studio album by Charles Mingus originally released on Columbia - here in the digitally remastered series 'CBS Jazz Masterpieces'.
The album is an essential part of any jazz collection.

[ allmusic.com, Rolling Stone 5 / 5, Popmatters 4,5 / 5 stars ]

Jacques Brel "Quand on n'a que l'amour" (1957)

Quand on n'a que l'amour
release date: 1957
format: cd (2003 remaster)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5]

Track highlights: 1. "Quand on n'a que l'amour" - 2. "Qu'avons-nous fait, bonnes gens?" - 3. "Les pieds dans le ruisseau" - 5. "La bourrée du célibataire" - 7. "Saint-Pierre" - 8. "J'en appelle"

2nd studio album by Jacques Brel originally released on Philips aka 'Jacques Brel 2'. As the debut, this consists of compositions written by Brel (except track #4 co-written with Jacques Vigouroux). And much like the debut, this hardly contains superfluous songs - and the album itself is quite remarkable. Orchestra conductors here are: André Popp on tracks #1 and #4-10, Michel Legrand on #2-3, and François Rauber is credited on track #11 (which is an alternate recording of track #1) on the 2003 remaster cd edition.

Jacques Brel "Jacques Brel et ses chansons" (1954)

Jacques Brel et ses chansons [debut]

release date: 1954

format: cd (2003 remaster)

[album rate: 3,5 / 5]

Tracks (org. album): 1. "La haine" - 2. "Grand Jacques (C'est trop facile)" - 3. "Il pleut (Les carreaux)" - 4. "Le diable (ça va)" - 5. "Il peut pleuvoir" - 6. "Il nous faut regarder" - 7. "Le fou du roi" - 8. "C'est comme ça" - 9. "Sur la place"

Studio album debut album by Jacques Brel aka 'Grand Jacques'. The tracks #1-9 represent the original vinyl lp recorded at Théâtre de L'Apollo, Feb. 15, 1954. The cd-version consists of 15 tracks, of which tracks #10-15 are bonus tracks on the 2003 remaster 'Velours Box Set', which is a part of the extensive 16-disc box set, Boîte à Bonbons. Aside Brel himself, the album also offers examples of the arrangements by André Grassis' (tracks #1-9). All compositions from the original album except two by Glen Powell are all credited Brel.

This first one out may not contain a long list of great classics but it still showcases Brel's gifts as songwriter, composer, and not least: singer.