VA - Great Vocalists of Jazz & Entertainment [2004] Vol. 16-20 of 20

 

In this collection by the German "History" label, you get nearly 40 hours of digitally remastered original 78s and 45s. The sound quality is truly amazing - the remastering process removes hiss, clicks & pops; optimizes the equalization, and synthesizes stereo. The forty discs in this set are grouped into twenty 2-disc volumes which are dedicated to a vocalist or pair or vocalists.

Volume 16. Peggy Lee — Everything I Love
Volume 17. Anita O’Day / June Christy — Easy Street
Volume 18. Jo Stafford — Fools Rush In
Volume 19. Frank Sinatra / Ivy Anderson — It Don’t Mean A Thing
Volume 20. Billie Holiday / Jimmy Rushing —   Blue Skies

Peggy Lee - The Singles Collection (4 CD, 2002) [FLAC]

 Peggy Lee was a renaissance woman, a multi-talented singer and composer who achieved popular as well as critical success. Short of a complete recordings box set, The Singles Collection is the best Peggy Lee career anthology yet, and a big improvement over the oddly compiled and sequenced 1998 box set Miss Peggy Lee. The Singles Collection isn't complete -- Lee released hundreds of singles -- and it doesn't come close to compiling all of her hits (in fact, it doesn't even compile all of her Top Ten hits), but it does offer a chronological journey through her catalog from her early days with Benny Goodman and Bob Crosby all the way up to the '70s when she recorded for A&M. Although Capitol Records produced the box set, the selections include cuts from other labels, including Lee's Decca Records period. Nearly half of the box's 110 tracks are new to CD, and collectors will appreciate the glimpse into the studio afforded by a handful of bonus tracks that include false starts and studio chatter. Lee may have enjoyed commercial success with "ethnic" novelties ("Mañana" being the foremost example) and upbeat pop songs, but it is her interpretations of serious jazz and pop tunes that have made her a contender for the title of Best Vocalist of the 20th Century. The Singles Collection follows her artistic growth and demonstrates the breadth of her interpretive abilities, which gives a better picture of Lee's artistry than any single album or inferior anthology could do.

Peggy Lee - The Centenary Albums Collection 1948-62 (4 CD, 2020/FLAC)

May 26th 2020 marks the centenary of the birth of the great jazz and pop singer Peggy Lee, and Acrobat is celebrating the occasion with two special releases, this collections of album tracks and an anthology of selected A and B sides from her singles The Centenary Singles Collection 1945-62 (ACQCD7146). Peggy Lee was one of the finest interpreters of popular songs, whether performing in the big band idiom, in small group jazz environments or with solo piano accompaniment, or in the sophisticated pop style which brought her many chart hits. Her repertoire ranged effortlessly from Great American Songbook classics to the latest pop songs, and included many of her own fine compositions.

 This great-value 109-track 4-CD set comprises selected titles from 25 of her albums released on Capitol and Decca during this era - My Best To You, Rendezvous with Peggy Lee, Lover, Black Coffee, Songs In An Intimate Style, Songs from Pete Kelly's Blues, Dream Street, Songs from Walt Disney's ""Lady and the Tramp, Sea Shells, Miss Wonderful, The Fabulous Peggy Lee, The Man I Love, Jump For Joy, Things Are Swingin', I Like Men! ,Beauty and the Beat!, Latin ala Lee!, All Aglow Again!, Pretty Eyes, Christmas Carousel, Olé ala Lee, Basin Street East Proudly Presents Miss Peggy Lee, If You Go, Blues Cross Country and Sugar 'N' Spice. It features performances with Nelson Riddle, Billy May, George Shearing, Quincy Jones, Frank Sinatra, Dave Barbour, Benny Carter, Gordon Jenkins, Hal Mooney, Victor Young, Sy Oliver, Joseph Lilley and Jack Marshall. Its a marvellous showcase for her talent and versatility working across a range of musical styles and concepts.

Peggy Lee & June Christy - The Complete Peggy Lee & June Christy Capitol Transcription Sessions (5 CD, 1998/FLAC)

Mosaic, the Rolls-Royce of record companies, has produced another of its limited-edition gems (5,000 copies and no more). This five-CD boxed set highlights the early work of two of the more famous vocal graduates of the swing era -- Peggy Lee and June Christy. Recently signed by Capitol, they were the company's attempt to break into the transcription business. Transcriptions were records provided to radio stations to fill a constant need for music that regular commercial releases were unable to meet. Most of the songs on this album, cuts from 1945 through 1949, were never before or since recorded by Lee and Christy, so they are a nice addition to their respective discographies. Of the two, Peggy Lee's style is clearly the most advanced. She had a successful tenure with Benny Goodman in the early '40s. After completing a hiatus as a homemaker for her husband, Dave Barbour, who accompanies her on several of these cuts, she started recording with Capitol in 1946. Her languid, laid-back approach that was to characterize her singing for the next 50-plus years was pretty well-developed by this time. In contrast, June Christy, who had just joined the Stan Kenton band, was still searching for her singing personality. The early cuts reveal she was still very much bound to Billie Holiday's style. But, by the time of the 1946 sessions on this album, the voice that was to become one of the most recognized by popular song fans, with Kenton and, later, with Pete Rugolo, Lou Levy, and others began to unfold. One surprise on the Christy sides is the valve-trombone work by Gene Roland. Noted more for his arranging skills than his soloing, his trombone work glistens on such cuts as "How High the Moon." Like all Mosaic releases, this album comes with complete annotations and an informative booklet.