It's been nearly 20 years since the death of jazz singer Jackie Paris (1924-2004), who didn't achieve the acclaim he deserved in his lifetime, and has not fared much better since.
That neglect is hard to understand. As Will Friedwald wrote before Paris' death, "He was and is an uncompromising jazz singer who happens to have an enormous - albeit unrealized - pop appeal ... Here is a musician saturated with the virtues of modern jazz - the harmonic sophistication, the cool attitude, the bright clean tone - who never sounds like he's doing anything way-out or complex."
One of the early posts on this blog 14 years ago was devoted to Paris' first LP, the 10-incher That "Paris" Mood on Coral. It was followed in 2010 by a selection of his early singles. Today, we greatly expand those offerings by combining all the songs on the 10-inch LP and its 12-inch successor, Skylark, with the bulk of the singles that Paris produced from 1947-55. All told, there are 33 selections in this set.
I hope to follow this post with another that will include Paris' EmArcy LP of 1955-56 with a few other songs issued by that company.
1947-55 Singles
Paris first became popular in jazz circles after the war while appearing on New York's 52nd Street. He had a trio at the time with pianist Deryck Sampson and bassist William Lalatte. Although they certainly were influenced by the King Cole Trio (and Sampson by George Shearing), they also were paying attention to the Page Cavanaugh Trio, as can be heard in the next M-G-M single, "I've Got a Way with Women," backed by the standard "I've Got a Crush on You."
Paris moved on in 1949 to National, which announced his arrival with the ad below for his debut single, coupling "The Old Master Painter" and a "surprise rendition" of "Goodbye Sue." I hope I am not spoiling things by telling you that the surprise is a spoken interlude in hipster lingo in which Paris tells Sue "I dig you the most!" among other entreaties for her to come back. Billboard dug this not, however, calling the spoken section "silly hip talking." (I think it's fun.)
During this same 1949 session, Paris cut the first vocal rendition of Thelonious Monk's bop anthem, "'Round Midnight," with Bernie Hanigan's lyrics. It eventually came out on EmArcy; I'll include it in the subsequent collection devoted to Paris' work for that label.
Friedwald tells us that Paris was the favorite singer of bassist-composer-bandleader Charles Mingus, who had worked with him in Lionel Hampton's band circa 1949. Mingus wrote several compositions for the vocalist in 1952, which were among the first things Mingus released on his Debut label.
Later in 1952, Paris did a one-off single for RCA Victor with a mannered singer named Tamara Hayes, who made some other records for RCA at the time. The record coupled the old R&B hit "I Miss You So" with "Chance of a Lifetime."
Paris moved on to Decca's Brunswick and Coral labels in 1953. A session for Coral with Norman Leyden produced a few singles that later appeared on the Skylark album below, along with an affecting revival of Harry Warren's beautiful "I Know Why (and So Do You)," written for Glenn Miller's film Sun Valley Serenade.
Paris' efforts for Brunswick are represented here by live versions with a Terry Gibbs combo of "You Go to My Head" and "Cool Blues." The former is one of Paris' best records. The latter is wonderful swinger, at least until Paris indulges in that reprehensible jazz custom, scat singing. Although these two tracks did appear on a single, I have transferred them from a various artists LP called Jazztime USA, Vol. 3.
Back on Coral, Paris recorded a few songs with clarinetist Tony Scott (not included here), then a solo on "When I Lost You," the beautiful and affecting Irving Berlin waltz, which is another of Jackie's finest records. It was backed by the lesser "Idle Gossip," which was included on the Skylark LP discussed below, as were most of the other songs he cut for Coral in 1953-54.
The final Coral single - and the last in this collection - was 1955's "Love Is a King" and "I Need Your Love." Not great songs, but graced by Paris' sincerity.
That "Paris" Mood/Skylark
Coral brought Paris into the studio in June 1954 to record his first album, That "Paris" Mood. It mainly consisted of standards, with the exception of two songs. "Detour Ahead" is a good ballad perfectly suited to Paris' style, with his emotions under control but near the surface. Bassist John Frigo wrote it in 1948 (with two bandmates co-credited). The best song is "Who Can I Turn To?", not the Anthony Newley piece but an elegant 1941 item from composer Alec Wilder and lyricist William Engvick.
Otherwise, the standouts are Johnny Green's great "You're Mine You," even though Jackie gets carried away by the "I own you!" line. He's so intense, it's a little frightening. Paris also does well with the Cahn-Style classic, "The Things We Did Last Summer."
The whole LP is beautifully done, but Charlie Shavers would not have been my first choice to play the trumpet obbligatos, which are at times intrusive, at other times off-mike.
By 1957, 10-inch albums had become passé, and many labels were expanding their inventory of little LPs into the 12-inch variety. Decca accordingly turned That "Paris" Mood into the 12-inch Skylark, in the process switching it from Coral to the Brunswick marque.
It wasn't a straight expansion, however. "The Things We Did Last Summer" was left off the Skylark bill of fare, while five songs were added. These all had previously been issued as singles: the second version of "Skylark," "Only Yesterday," "If Love Is Good to Me," "Idle Gossip" and "I Had a Talk with a Daisy." Today's collection includes all songs from both albums.
"Skylark" was a song dear to Paris, and the single had achieved some success, so it became the title song of the 12-inch LP. Also semi-successful as a single was "If Love Is Good to Me," which showed off Paris' talent for the near-miss. As the singer explained to Will Friedwald, "I introduced that song [on Brunswick] and my record had just started to sell. The next thing I know, Redd [Evans, the composer] told me, 'Listen, Nat Cole wants to do the song and I can't turn him down.' Cole had already made hits out of a half dozen Evans songs. So Nat recorded it, and though Cashbox picked mine over his. Nat's record became the biggest record in the country."
The cover displays Decca's penchant for dorky photographic assemblages. I don't know what kind of bird that is on the cover, but I don't believe it is a skylark. As far as I know they are colorless creatures that would not be as photogenic perched on a RCA 77-DX microphone.
Returning to the subject, it is a shame that Paris never achieved fame commensurate with his great gifts. The download includes a long 1996 interview with the singer in which he recounts his career.
Most of these records came from my collection, helpfully augmented by Internet Archive materials. The sound is generally vivid, except for some rustle on the 78s.
Coming up are a second Paris collection, plus posts devoted to two of my other favorite vocalists, David Allyn and Ronnie Deauville.
