Jackie & Roy - Sing! Baby Sing!

My last post started a series devoted to recordings by the great vocal duo of Jackie Cain and Roy Kral. The response was excellent, so here is one of Jackie & Roy's records made for George Wein's Storyville label.

This LP came out in both 10-inch and 12-inch versions; my copy is of the larger format.

10-inch LP cover

The 10-incher comprised early 1955 recordings of a ensemble comprising Kral on piano, Barry Galbraith, guitar, Bill Crowe, bass, and Joe Morello, drums.The four additional tunes on the bigger format replace that group with Joe Rumoro, guitar, Mel Schmidt, bass, and Bob Tilles, drums.

By this time, Jackie & Roy had refined their act to a great degree, evident from the first song, a spirited version of "Sing Baby Sing" from the 1936 musical of the same name. Jackie follows this with a sensitive solo on George Handy's lugubrious "Forgetful," which David Allyn had introduced with Boyd Raeburn, I believe.

A real highlight of the album is the artists' version of "Season in the Sun." Jackie & Roy had begun championing the works of the then little-known writing team of Tommy Wolf and Fran Landesman as far back as 1952. J&R's other Storyville LP include "Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most," the composers' greatest hit, in what may have been its first recording. "Season in the Sun" is a much different kind of song, but hardly inferior in quality, and it shows off the singers' remarkable rapport to perfection.

The artists circa 1955

As was the case with the Charlie Ventura record below, Kral contributed several compositions of his own. I particularly enjoy "Hook, Line and Snare," which features drummer Morello, who was about to join Dave Brubeck at the time of this recording session. It also shows off the singers' bop roots. But all the songs on this one are delightful - and the sound is very good.

I also want to present Jackie & Roy's album of songs by Andre Previn and Dory Langdon, but that will be on another day.