June Christy - Four Classic Albums

The Guardian 80

(Avid Jazz)

Of all the singers of the classic American generation, the generation of Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald, June Christy (1925-90) is perhaps the most scandalously neglected. She had a lovely, throaty voice, fine musicianship and an adventurous choice of material matched only by her contemporary, Peggy Lee. This double album contains Christy’s four most admired albums: Something Cool, The Misty Miss Christy, Gone for the Day, and Ballads for Night People. Recorded in Los Angeles between 1953 and 1959, at the now-legendary Capitol studios, everything about these 45 tracks exudes perfection. The orchestras contain some of the best musicians of the day; the orchestrations, by Pete Rugolo and Bob Cooper, are endlessly inventive, not to mention technically demanding, but the simple clarity of Christy’s phrasing and diction is always paramount.

Not all the songs of this period became standards; some were perhaps a little too sophisticated. Several of these appear here, by composers such as Alec Wilder, Kurt Weill and André Previn, with lyrics by, among others, Fran Landesman, Ira Gershwin and even Edna St Vincent Millay. Altogether, this set throws an unfamiliar light on the jazz-based popular music of the 1950s.