The 'Cool Canaries' Chirp with George Shearing

"Cool Canaries" is typical terminology from the 1950s. It lets us know that we're going to hear some singers, and they are cool, man.

And they are cool - Billy Eckstine, Teddi King and the Ray Charles Singers, the latter of whom has appeared here a few times recently.

That said, in the 1950s, "cool jazz" had a specific meaning, and none of these artists will remind you of, say, Chet Baker's balladry.

George Shearing

Even so, they are all talented musicians, appearing here in the company of George Shearing's Quintet, which had a well-defined sound by this time - piano and vibes in unison, often with the guitar along, supported by bass and drums, with frequent solos by the leader.

The recordings date from 1951-54. Let's discuss them by the vocalists involved.

Teddi King

Teddi King

A native of Boston, Teddi King (1929-77) began her recording career with Nat Pierce and His Orchestra in 1949. (I've added two of those songs to the set as a bonus.) She began touring with George Shearing in 1952, when the six songs on this LP were recorded.

The set is successful even though the first item we hear is her weakest performance. King's a singer I admire, but she did occasionally make a meal out of some meager rations. "The Love Nest" was written by Louis Hirsch and Otto Harbach for the 1920 musical Mary, but by the 1950s was best known as the theme of the Burns and Allen Show on television. King takes the opening stanza - "Just a love nest, cozy and warm / Like a dove nest down on the farm" very slowly and intensely, as if it contained some profound meaning. Most of the performance is like that.

Things improve for the other numbers. Next up is "I Wished on the Moon," a standard written by Ralph Rainger and Dorothy Parker for The Big Broadcast of 1936. Bing Crosby introduced it; the first recording was by Billie Holiday with Teddy Wilson. Teddi does not suffer in comparison.

Four of the King-Shearing songs were issued on EP in England

"Love (Your Spell Is Everywhere)" (often called "Love (Your Magic Spell Is Everywhere)") comes from the 1929 film The Trespasser, where Gloria Swanson made her talkie debut by singing. The music is by the versatile Edmund Goulding, also the film's director, working with Elsie Janis, who was just as multifaceted, being an actor and screenwriter as well as lyricist. The song is well suited to King's emotive way of singing.

"Moonlight in Vermont" was a relatively new song when Teddi and George recorded it. Margaret Whiting had a hit with it in 1944. It was far and away the best-known song written by Karl Suessdorf or John Blackburn.

The next selection is an obscure one, but still a song that King had in her repertoire for some time. "Midnight Belongs to You" is a song by Clark and Gentile, of whom I know nothing. It's worth hearing in this sincere rendition.

The final number from Teddi is another standard introduced by Bing - "It's Easy to Remember (and So Hard to Forget)." A Rodgers and Hart song, it comes from the 1935 film Mississippi.

The bonus items with Nat Pierce's orchestra are covered at the end of the post.

The Ray Charles Singers

What is notable about the Ray Charles Singers' selections is that they were all written by Shearing himself. Leading off the LP is the most famous song of the group - "Lullaby of Birdland." Shearing wrote the piece for New York's Birdland club to use as its signature instrumental. He recorded it as such in 1952. George David Weiss (under the name B.Y. Forster) wrote the lyrics thereafter, which were first recorded by Ella Fitzgerald in 1954. The song itself was based on Walter Donaldson's "Love Me or Leave Me." Regardless, it's a brilliant, infectious work even if Weiss/Forster's words aren't up to Shearing/Donaldson's music.

Ray Charles in 1975

A few months after Ella's session, Shearing and Charles got together for their recording date, adding three other songs to the schedule along with "Lullaby." The other items were all written by a lyricist I believe to be Bill Hegner. They are attractive numbers that should be better known - "Nothing New Under the Sun," "Slowly but Surely" and "Adieu."

The Charles troupe does not sound much like they do in the albums I have posted already, and while they are highly accomplished and great to hear, they were not a jazz group. For whatever reason, the vocals on all these numbers were buried in the mix, which didn't do justice to either the vocalists or the songs. I've raised the singers' level accordingly.

"Lullaby of Birdland" and "Adieu" were issued on singles, but as far as I can tell this LP was the only outing for the other songs.

Billy Eckstine

Billy Eckstine

Billy Eckstine was associated with the bop movement throughout his early career, leading a big band with luminaries of the new jazz. But on record, his biggest successes were as a balladeer, so when he moved to the M-G-M label in 1947, they recorded him primarily with plush backings provided by Hugo Winterhalter. A string of hits ensued.

In 1951, Eckstine met up with Shearing for what I believe to be their only recordings together. Billy is in sonorous voice for two standards. "Taking a Chance on Love" comes from the 1940 musical Cabin in the Sky. Ethel Waters introduced the Vernon Duke melody, with words by John Latouche and Ted Fetter.

English EP - the two did not sing together; the photo is a composite

Walter Donaldson returns with "You're Driving Me Crazy (What Did I Do?)," a 1930 song from Smiles, where it was performed by Adele Astaire and Eddie Foy, Jr. Here, too, Donaldson's work was the basis of a well-known jazz number: "Moten Swing."

Bonus Songs with Teddi King

Teddi King made several recordings with pianist Nat Pierce's short-lived big band in 1949 and 1950. Two of them are included as bonuses.

Nat Pierce

Pierce had organized a stentorian band in the mold of Kenton, with idiosyncratic arrangements reminiscent of George Handy's work with Boyd Raeburn. Surprisingly, this is less noticeable in the jazz piece - "Goodbye Mr. Chops" - than it is in the nominal ballad, Don Raye and Gene de Paul's "You Don't Know What Love Is."

King's vocals are in two different styles as well - Anita O'Day hip in "Goodbye Mr. Chops" and more straightforward, if somewhat mannered, in the ballad. Her approach was more settled when she recorded with Shearing a few years later.

These are nonetheless impressive performances, well recorded for the small Motif label. Internet Archive is the source of the two 78s. The Cool Canaries LP is from my collection.

LINK to Cool Canaries and Teddi King bonus tracks

New Transfer of Shearing's First American Recordings

This unusual cover adorned the LP version of George Shearing's 1947 sessions for the Savoy label - his first American recordings.

I transferred the album many years ago, but have never been happy with the sound. Now I've done a new version with much better sonics, if hardly modern or even good for the time.

This is Shearing before his familiar quintet sound, with only bass and piano backing.

LINK to previous post on Shearing's 1947 recordings

The Popular Lecuona

My recent post of a few Morton Gould recordings of the music of Ernesto Lecuona (1895-1963) led me to seek out recordings that would demonstrate how the Cuban composer’s music became popular in America during the 1930s into the 50s.

This post is the result. It compiles 24 versions of Lecuona’s most popular compositions, drawn from 78s and soundtrack recordings. These include different interpretations of the songs that Gould orchestrated: "Andalucía" ("The Breeze and I"), "Malagueña," "La Comparsa" and "Jungle Drums."

Alfredo Brito

Perhaps the first Lecuona melody to become popular in the U.S. was his 1929 composition "Siboney.” (Siboney is a town in Cuba, and by extension can be understood to refer to Cuba itself.) The song gained notice in 1931 via a record by Alfredo Brito and His Siboney Orchestra, the first item in our collection.

Many artists have since recorded “Siboney,” often with the English lyrics written by Dolly Morse that have nothing to do with Lecuona’s original words. Bing Crosby recorded the English version in 1945 with Xavier Cugat and his Waldorf-Astoria Orchestra. Cugat was prominent in America at the time and recorded many Latin songs, but nonetheless his was not considered an “authentic” Cuban band, even though he spent much of his youth in that country.

The young Cugat. He later grew hair.

Cugat in fact popularized the second Lecuona composition in the set, "Para Vigo Me Voy” (“I’m Going to Vigo,” a town in Spain), which became known as "Say Si, Si" after acquiring Al Stillman’s English lyrics. Cugat recorded it in 1935, the year of its composition. The English version became a hit in 1940, with the Andrews Sisters having the best-selling disc. The download includes both the Cugat and Andrews records.

The next song, “Jungle Drums,” was called “Canto Karabali” by Lecuona when he published it in 1933. I believe “Karabali” refers to African slaves brought to Cuba from a particular region of Africa. Both versions in the playlist come from 1939, the first by Artie Shaw and his band, the second from Cugie again, with an unlikely vocal by Dinah Shore, making one of her first appearances on record. Dinah presents the English lyrics written by Carmen Lombardo, of all people. “Jungle Drums” went on to become one of the theme songs of the exotica movement of the 50s.

“The Breeze and I” is one of Lecuona’s most recognizable and enduring melodies, originally published as “Andalucía” in 1928. With Al Stillman’s new English lyrics, the song became an American hit in 1940 through the single version by Jimmy Dorsey’s band, with a vocal by Bob Eberly. This is another Lecuona song that is still heard today.

Jimmy Dorsey and Bob Eberly

After “The Breeze and I” and “Say Si, Si” became hits, Lecuona wrote the title song for the 1942 film Always in My Heart, which starred Kay Francis and Walter Huston. The song was nominated for an Academy Award, losing to "White Christmas." Dorsey and Eberly, recognizing a good thing, recorded a version with Kim Gannon’s English lyrics, and it became a hit as well.

One of Lecuona’s most popular melodies, "Malagueña" (that is, a type of dance from Málaga, Spain), comes from his 1933 Suite Andalucía, to which he added lyrics in Spanish. Our first interpretation comes from Del Campo and His Orchestra, with a piano solo by arranger Jose Esteves. Luis Del Campo was a former Cugat singer who formed his own band in the 1940s, continuing until his death in 1950. This record, from about 1947, appeared on the short-lived Coda label.

Dorsey and Eberly struck again in 1942 with a vocal version of "Malagueña" called “At the Cross-Roads,” with English lyrics by Bob Russell.

It’s been said that Lecuona lifted the melody of "Malagueña" from a section of Louis Moreau Gottschalk’s 1851 composition Souvenirs d'Andalousie. I think it’s more likely that both Lecuona and Gottschalk were drawing upon the same indigenous melody.

Next we have a record by the Lecuona Cuban Boys, confusingly named because the group did not include Lecuona himself. He did, however, start the group in the early 1930s after seeing the success that Alfredo Brito was having with his music. The song “Panama” comes from a 1937 Columbia album by the group.

The Cuban Boys also contribute a rendition of one of Lecuona’s best-known melodies, “La Comparsa,” taken from their early Victor album Melodias Cubanas, with a piano solo by Armando Oréfiche, the group’s leader. I've also included a 1946 recording of "La Comparsa" from Camilo Lentini and His Latin-American Orchestra on the Pan-American label. Lentini was active in the Los Angeles area in the 1940s.

Hollywood called on Lecuona once more for a title song for the 1946 film One More Tomorrow, an Ann Sheridan-Dennis Morgan-Alexis Smith love triangle in which Morgan has to choose between his principles and his rich friends. (In other words, it has a plot you have seen a hundred times.) The version of the song in the playlist comes from Tex Beneke’s revived Glenn Miller Orchestra, with a sensitive vocal by Artie Malvin, who later became the king of the budget-label cover records.

Also in 1946, Lecuona provided the music for Carnival in Costa Rica, a musical starring Dick Haymes and Vera-Ellen. I am particularly fond of the music from this film, so I have included the main songs directly from the soundtrack and from Haymes’ Decca recordings.

Vera-Ellen’s singing voice was dubbed by Pat Friday, a superb vocalist who appeared on several radio shows, did some film dubbing and made a very few records, including a version of Carnival in Costa Rica's “Mi Vida." My other blog will soon have a post of the few 78s she made in 1946 for the small Enterprise label.

Dick Haymes and Vera-Ellen in Carnival in Costa Rica

In this collection, we have soundtrack versions of “I’ll Know It’s Love” (Friday solo and Haymes/Friday reprise), “Mi Vida” (Haymes/Friday duet) and “Another Night Like This” (Haymes solo). Also included are Haymes’ Decca 78s of “Another Night Like This” and “Mi Vida,” which have backing by Gordon Jenkins.

The Lecuona Cuban Boys return with a 1946 single on the Majestic label – “Rumba-Bomba,” with a Manyo Lopez vocal, and “Maracas,” vocal by Ernesto Ojea.

Lecuona’s music continued to be popular into the 1950s. The playlist concludes with two versions of “The Breeze and I” from that decade. The first is a Vic Damone vocal recording, which became a hit in 1952. Finally, there is a George Shearing instrumental from 1951 that demonstrates the influence of Shearing’s sound on the exotica bands that were soon to emerge.

The sound on these records ranges from good to excellent. Most were sourced from lossless needle-drops on Internet Archive.

George Shearing

George Shearing has been a favorite of mine for a long time, so I wanted to provide a brief tribute to him by presenting one of his earliest LPs.

I've had this particular album in mind for presentation here for quite some time - mainly because I love the unusual cover - but I've never been able to coax decent sound from the execrable early-50s Savoy pressing. Well, I tried again today, with some minor success, and the results are at least listenable.

Note (March 2025): This LP is now available in a new transfer with greatly improved sound.

What we have here is Shearing's first US recordings, made for Savoy in 1947. The artist had recorded in London previously, and after nine sides for Savoy (eight of them here), would move on to Discovery briefly, then fame with M-G-M and Capitol.

The Savoy recordings present Shearing before he adopted the "Shearing sound" - the highly influential combination of his piano in unison with guitar and vibes. Here, it's Shearing with drums and bass only - and in a bop mood, only bringing out his locked-hands approach for his take on "So Rare." Also notable is the way he suggests the genesis of "'Round Midnight" in the opening bars of "Sweet and Lovely."

Savoy's sound may have been crude, but its artwork was avant-garde for the time, a minimalist approach with Burt Goldblatt's photo, the artist's name and not even a mention of the label.

I enjoy all eras of Shearing's long career - even (heck, especially) the cocktail music he produced for Capitol. These early recordings show a side that was overshadowed by his later, more popular efforts.

LINK to new transfer (March 2025)