Lullabies of Birdland [Import] [Limited Edition] [Original recording remastered]

Editorial Reviews
Album Details
Japanese Version featuring a Limited LP Style Slipcase for Initial Pressing Only.

Tracks:

Lullaby Of Birdland
Rough Ridin'
Angel Eyes
Smooth Sailing
Oh, Lady Be Good!
Later
Ella Hums the Blues
How High the Moon?
Basin Street Blues
Air Mail Special
Flying Home

Don Shirley Plays Birdland Lullabies/Don Shirley Plays Show Tunes

Average customer rating:

Excellent

Don Shirley Plays Birdland Lullabies/Don Shirley Plays Show Tunes
Don Shirley
Manufacturer: Collectables
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Don Shirley Plays Love Songs/Don Shirley Trio
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Pianist Extraordinary/Piano Arrangements of Famous Spirituals

ASIN: B000055YSS
Release Date: 2001-01-16

Tracks:

Lullaby Of Birdland
Makin' Whoopee
Blues In B Flat
I Can't Give You Anything But Love
How High The Moon
Walkin' My Baby Back Home
Body And Soul
Honeysuckle Rose

Tracks:

My Funny Valentine
Love For Sale
Bewitched
September Song
Dancing On The Ceiling
New Faces: Medley: Love Is A Simple Thing/I'm In Love With Miss Logan/Monotonous/Bal Petit Bal...
And This Is My Beloved
Blue Moon

Customer Reviews:

Excellent.......2001-02-11

While there is some duplication on this CD set from other CDs issued in recent years by this label, those hungry for anything new or old from Don Shirley will be more than pleased to add this to their collections. I was particularly taken with the opening cut, "Lullaby of Birdland," which starts out with a classical music interpretation then eases into fabulous jazz. Dr. Shirley has an amazing and unique genius for music; he plays from the soul. No album ever issued on his work is less than outstanding, and this CD is no exception to that.

Lullabies of Birdland: A Musical Autobiography

Average customer rating:

"There Is No Greater Love Than What I Feel For You"

Lullabies of Birdland: A Musical Autobiography
George Shearing
Manufacturer: Concord Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Lullaby of Birdland: The Autobiography of George Shearing
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Grand Piano

ASIN: B0001EKGGS
Release Date: 2004-03-09

Tracks:

September In The Rain
Lullaby Of Birdland
Mambo Inn
Darn That Dream
Heart And Soul
For Every Man There's A Woman
Too Late Now
Love For Sale
Alone Together
Emily
It Might As Well Be Spring
I Cover The Waterfront

Tracks:

Easy To Love
I've Got You Under My Skin
Lullaby Of Birdland
My Silent Love
There Is No Greater Love
New York, New York Medley: For Me And My Gal, Mack The Knife, Birth Of The Blues, Send A Little Love My Way, How High The Moon, New York, New York
Lullaby Of Birdland
Lonely Moments
Body And Soul
Blue Monk
You're My Everything
How Beautiful Is Night
Fly Me To The Moon

Customer Reviews:

"There Is No Greater Love Than What I Feel For You".......2006-06-14

"How was it that a British-born blind pianist came to take the United States by storm with what became known as "The Shearing Sound?" ~ Alyn Shipton, Liner Notes ~

If you can appreciate the combined artistry and elegance of the legendary and notable jazz pianist, George Shearing, then you'll absolutely love this 2-CD-set featuring his musical autobiography. This is a showcase of his famous recordings most remarkably "September In The Rain," "Lullaby of Birdland," "You're My Everything," "Darn That Dream," "Easy To Love," "Too Late Now," "It Might As Well Be Spring" and "There Is No Greater Love." On some of the tracks, he is supported by some of the greatest jazz artists such as Wes Montgomery (guitar), Mel Torme, Joe Williams, Ernestine Anderson and Carmen McRae (vocals), Toots Thielemans (guitar), Marian McPartland (piano), Tito Fuente (percussion) and Ray Brown (bass), among many other jazz greats.

George Shearing has achieved a distinguished career in music and has proved himself to be a very creative piano player and arranger as well. His artistry is timeless and all of his recordings, performed solo or with partnership with other artists, are so innovative and musically significant.

My very favorite is a wonderful performance by The George Shearing Trio of a beautiful song "There Is No Greater Love" recorded in New York in May of 1987, featuring his jazz piano artistry, Ray Brown's bass and Marvin Smith's drums. You'll also enjoy the Latin-infused jazz arrangement of "Mambo Inn," and delight with "Heart and Soul," a composition by Hoagy Carmichael and Frank Loesser, with vocals by Joe Williams. "It Might As Well Be Spring" is another charmer with Mel Torme's vocals to add beauty to it.

Two classically-sounding tunes that beguiled my ears are "Emily" and "I've Got You Under My Skin." These are by far the most beautiful instrumental performances and Mr. Shearing does a great job in injecting that Debussy touch to his arrangements. In "Emily," the musical conversation between Mr. Shearing's piano and Jim Hall's guitar (two of my top favorite musical instruments), is just brilliantly mesmerizing. Same with "I've Got You Under My Skin," which features Barry Tuckwell on french horn.

"Lullaby Of Birdland" is also a stunner. It was recorded live at Kan-I Hoken Hall in Tokyo, Japan (November 1987) and features a duet with Neil Swainson on bass and was appreciatively received by a responsive audience. After this performance, the emcee said, "Mr. George Shearing - the BEST!" There are two other arrangements of this definitive George Shearing masterpiece.

One of my very highlights is a live recording of "New York, New York Medley" at Paul Masson Mountain Winery in Saratoga, California in August of 1987, with Mel Torme's interesting intro - here goes . . . (I'm transcribing as I listen). Mel Torme fans shouldn't miss this one.

Audience: Applause . . .

Mel Torme: "Thank you beautiful audience, thank you so much, we really appreciate it. And George, you've got a gorgeous apartment in New York City. And I love New York. So New York, candidly, is really on both of our minds. Would you, my fellow constituents, [laughter] would you please suspend . . . for just about four minutes and twelve seconds your natural California Chauvinism, okay? [laughter]. Won't you think about Liza Minnelli, won't you think about Robert De Niro, think about a certain movie they made together, then think about Sinatra - big hit record that he had - off of the title song of that movie. If you'll do that, nothing more - you'll have a rough idea of what we're going to do for you . . . right now. . . you know what we're going to do now, right? . . . Wrong!

And follows a bubbly and infectious medley of "For Me And My Gal," "Mack The Knife," "Birth Of The Blues," "Send A Little Love My Way" and "How High The Moon."

George Shearing: "Okay, Melvie, sing it already!"

Mel Torme now singing "New York, New York" . . . "Start spreading the news. . ."

Mr. Shearing has this to say about Mel Torme, "Both Mel and I felt that we were one musical mind contained in two separate bodies. He is the only person I've ever worked with where I always knew we could go on stage and do a show at the very highest level, without any rehearsal at all. It was a case of having ONE MUSICAL MIND."

This is a great collection of George Shearing's most remarkable hits of all-time. Very highly recommended!

Enjoy the music! ;)

Average customer rating:

Connor's interpretations still feel "modern."
Vintage Chris
This is some smoky, sizzlin' FIRE, fa'sho!
Freshman effort from Connor
A Jazzy Voice for the Ages

Sings Lullabies of Birdland
Chris Connor
Manufacturer: Rhino / Wea
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B00004WH7K
Release Date: 2000-09-19

Tracks:

Lullaby Of Birdland
What Is There To Say
Try A Little Tenderness
Spring Is Here
Why Shouldn't I
Ask Me
Blue Silhouette
Chiquita From Chi-Wah-Wah
A Cottage For Sale
How Long Has This Been Going On?
Stella By Starlight
Gone With The Wind
He's Coming Home
Goodbye
Why Shouldn't I (Alt. Take 2)

Customer Reviews:

Connor's interpretations still feel "modern.".......2005-08-26

Chris Connor is a consummate actress with a song, and her musicianship and vocal range give new meanings to some familiar tunes, which include selections by George Shearing, Rodgers and Hart, the Gershwins, and Gordon Jenkins. Though she sang with big bands early in her career, she eventually chose to leave them in order to sing in the more intimate confines of the jazz clubs. Her musical flexibility and her unique, personal interpretations found their home there, with much less backup. As a result, this collection is a refreshing change from the tried and true, showcasing interpretations with unusual chromatic jumps, quick changes of key, movements from high to very low register, and even a song in which she and her accompanists simultaneously work the song in different tempos. She never misses a note or a beat.

Swing is Connor's forte, but she avoids pyrotechnics and gives her songs new meaning by slowing down the pace and simplifying such standards as "Lullaby of Birdland," "What is There to Say," and the sweetly whispery "Try a Little Tenderness," all with Ellis Larkins's sensitive and simple piano accompaniments. "Spring is Here," sung with bluesy confidence, is one of the best songs on the album, and she hits every one of the difficult, chromatic low notes, spot-on. In "Why Shouldn't I," her acting, her sense of timing, and her ability to give her own interpretation without having a strong melodic line from the accompanying Ellis Larkin Trio are notable. "Ask Me," "Blue Silhouette," and the up-tempo "Chiquita from Chi-Wah-Wah" are sung with Sy Oliver's big band. The final six songs, with the Vinnie Burke Quartet, include the wonderful "Stella by Starlight" and a very dramatic and ineffably sad version of Gordon Jenkins's "Goodbye."

Connor is a musician, rather than "just" a singer, and the musicians who accompany her never "step on" her notes or intrude. She returns the compliment, allowing each of her accompanists to share the spotlight and the mood of the songs. One of the first singers to leave a successful Big Band career to create her own sound in the jazz clubs, Connor has created her own legend as a musician, her talents beautifully highlighted on this 1986 CD. Mary Whipple

Vintage Chris.......2003-08-14

First, let's get some history straight. This is not Chris' first album for Bethlehem, which also was titled "Lullabys (spelled wrong) of Birdland." That was a 10-incher with a black-and-white cover and a spoken introduction. It was followed by another 10-incher, "Lullabies for Lovers" and then the 12-inch "Chris." This album followed and it mixes tracks from the first two 10-inchers with some previously unreleased big band sessions. The cover on the C.D. issue is not the same as the cover on the original L.P.--it's an alternate shot. All that said, this is a splendid collection of early Chris, widely varied in material, moods, orchestrations and accompaniments and recording techniques. When she moved to Atlantic the aural difference was immediate--Atlantic was adept at catching the gradations of Chris' voice in a way Bethlehem never was. On Bethlehem she always sounded muted, on Atlantic she emerged crisp though still misty. This collection has stood the test of time and is well worth getting.

This is some smoky, sizzlin' FIRE, fa'sho!.......2003-04-06

I was perusin' through my local Border's Books an' Music, not strayin' far from the jazz section, an' I came across this. They had it on display so that you could listen to snippets of it on headphones, an' I gave it a spin. I was hooked instantly. The first number that grabbed me was her version'a 'Try a Little Tenderness', one'a the best songs ever, but then I moved on to 'Spring is Here' an' 'Why Shouldn't I?', then 'Ask Me' an' 'Cottage for Sale' an' the KILLER 'Stella by Starlight'. Oh, an' I can't forget 'Goodbye', prob'ly the best cut on this whole album. I had never heard a vocal version'a this song, an' now I don't wanna hear any other. This woman has got some pipes on her an' I fell in love right there in the store. I'm tellin' y'all, standards have rarely sounded so good.

Now I was only plannin' on buyin' one CD that day, as it was the end'a the month an' I only hadda lump sum'a cash that needed to be used for bills. But in my other hand I was firmly grippin' Johnny Hartman's 'Songs from the Heart' an' I wasn't about to let it go. After some middlin' in thought, I decided to jus' buy 'em both. It made it so I couldn't scrape by on my bills an' my power got cut off for a day, but y'know what? It was worth it. I hadda portable CD player an' I ran the batteries down listenin' to Chris Connor's jazzy, sultry croon while I sat in my darkened apartment.

Freshman effort from Connor.......2002-11-28

This was the first disc of Chris Connor's for Bethlehem, released in 1954. It's a collection of 3 different dates of rather different complexions. The first is a set of mostly very slow ballads performed with the Ellis Larkins Trio (no personnel info on the CD as to bassist & drummer). It's rather good, though marred a little by the odd recording quality: the singer is very clear & present but the trio sounds oddly recessed & faded--on the two stereo systems I played the CD on this was only a minor oddity on one of them, but on the other quite noticeably strange. Connor's already a very likeable vocalist, though to be honest she's not yet reached her prime & there's some callownesses & blemishes (in particular, her pitching isn't yet as secure as it was to become, & there's a recurring defect of pronunciation: a ghost "r" after a hard "c"; hence "crome", "becrause", &c). The material on these tracks is well-chosen mostly slow, tender ballads, including a lovely "Try a Little Tenderness". Given a choice between Sarah Vaughan's famous take on "Lullaby of Birdland" & Connor's, I might even plump for Connor's simply because she manages to make the atrociously bad lyrics that burden Shearing's great tune sound a little less ridiculous than Vaughan's grandly operatic manner can.

The next session is a pleasant if lightweight big band Sy Oliver session: two trifles ("Ask Me", "Chiquita from Chi-Wah-Wah") & one more atmospheric number, "Blue Silhouettes". Only the latter has much more going for it than period charm, but it's an OK session.

The rest of the material finds Connor backed by the Vinnie Burke Quartet. Or shouldn that be "Quintet"? (The credits on the CD are very unhelpful.) It's accordion(!), guitar, clarinet or flute, bass & drums. Despite the dreaded presence of the squeezebox (which actually functions more or less like an organ on this date) this is actually pretty good & swinging music, if rather smoothed-out & low-key. Not bad, & how often does one get to hear an accordion solo on "Stella by Starlight"?

Early days for Chris Connor: she was to turn in better work on her next two Bethlehem discs & above all on her Atlantic discs. This was the first release by Bethlehem, & it's burdened with an ugly cover image of Connor (general rule of thumb: singers do not look their best with their heads tilted back & their mouths opened like gigantic traps at the centre of a photo composition), & also the mispelling in the title ("Lullabys"?!?). Worth checking out, but it's not a classic.

A Jazzy Voice for the Ages.......2001-07-15

I first encountered Chris Connor when I was in my twenties. So here I am 40 years later and still in awe of the magnificent instrument that she owns. Whether it's upbeat like "How Long Has This Been Going On" or sultry like the title track "Lullaby of Birdland", this is a voice which never disappoints.

Tracks:

Lullaby of Birdland - Ella Fitzgerald, Sy Oliver's Orchestra
Rough Ridin' - Ray Charles Singers, Ella Fitzgerald
Angel Eyes - Ella Fitzgerald, Sy Oliver's Orchestra
Smooth Sailing - Ray Charles Singers, Ella Fitzgerald
Oh, Lady Be Good - Ella Fitzgerald, Bob Haggart Orchestra
Later - Ella Fitzgerald, Sy Oliver's Orchestra
Ella Hums the Blues - Ella Fitzgerald
How High the Moon - Ella Fitzgerald
Basin Street Blues - Ella Fitzgerald, Sy Oliver's Orchestra
Air Mail Special - Ray Charles Singers, Ella Fitzgerald
Flying Home - Ella Fitzgerald, Vic Schoen

Album Details

Japanese Version featuring a Limited LP Style Slipcase for Initial Pressing Only.

Average customer rating:

Connor's interpretations still feel "modern."

Sings Lullabies of Birdland
Chris Connor
Manufacturer: Bethlehem Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Cool Jazz | Jazz | Styles | Music

General | Jazz | Styles | Music

Traditional Jazz General | Traditional Jazz & Ragtime | Jazz | Styles | Music

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ASIN: B0000057GV
Release Date: 1993-10-20

Tracks:

Lullaby of Birdland - Chris Connor, Ellis Larkins Trio
What Is There to Say? - Chris Connor, Ellis Larkins Trio
Try a Little Tenderness - Chris Connor, Ellis Larkins Trio
Spring Is Here - Chris Connor, Ellis Larkins Trio
Why Shouldn't I? - Chris Connor, Ellis Larkins Trio
Ask Me - Chris Connor, Sy Oliver's Orchestra
Blue Silhouette - Chris Connor, Sy Oliver's Orchestra
Chiquita from Chi-Wah-Wah - Chris Connor, Sy Oliver's Orchestra
Cottage for Sale - Chris Connor, Art Mardigan,
How Long Has This Been Going On? - Chris Connor, Art Mardigan,
Stella by Starlight - Chris Connor, Art Mardigan,
Gone with the Wind - Chris Connor, Art Mardigan, Vinnie Burke Jazz String Quartet
He's Coming Home - Chris Connor, Art Mardigan,
Goodbye - Chris Connor, Art Mardigan, Vinnie Burke Jazz String Quartet
Why Shouldn't I? [Alternate Take 2] - Chris Connor, Art Mardigan,

Customer Reviews:

Connor's interpretations still feel "modern.".......2004-07-06

Chris Connor is a consummate actress who happens to sing, and her musicianship and vocal range give new meanings to some familiar tunes, which include selections by George Shearing, Rodgers and Hart, the Gershwins, and Gordon Jenkins. Though she sang with big bands early in her career, she eventually chose to leave them in order to sing in the more intimate confines of the jazz clubs. Her musical flexibility and her unique, personal interpretations found their home there, with much less backup. As a result, this collection is a refreshing change from the tried and true, showcasing interpretations with unusual chromatic jumps, quick changes of key, movements from high to very low register, and even a song in which she and her accompanists simultaneously work the song in different tempos. She never misses a note or a beat.

Swing is Connor's forte, but she avoids pyrotechnics and gives her songs new meaning by slowing down the pace and simplifying such standards as "Lullaby of Birdland," "What is There to Say," and the sweetly whispery "Try a Little Tenderness," all with Ellis Larkins's sensitive and simple piano accompaniments. "Spring is Here," sung with bluesy confidence, is one of the best songs on the album, and she hits every one of the difficult, chromatic low notes, spot-on. In "Why Shouldn't I," her acting, her sense of timing, and her ability to give her own interpretation without having a strong melodic line from the accompanying Ellis Larkin Trio are notable. "Ask Me," "Blue Silhouette," and the up-tempo "Chiquita from Chi-Wah-Wah" are sung with Sy Oliver's big band. The final six songs, with the Vinnie Burke Quartet, include the wonderful "Stella by Starlight" and a very dramatic and ineffably sad version of Gordon Jenkins's "Goodbye."