Helen Merrill With Clifford Brown

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Merrill's first album also starred trumpeter Clifford Brown on these sessions made 18 months before his June 1956 death. The 24-year-old singer's breathy, extremely musical style is already fully formed here; in fact, at least one of these cuts, "You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To," stands as a signature take for her. This disc is a great way to discover the too-often overlooked Merrill. --Rickey Wright

Helen Merrill With Clifford Brown, Music, Helen Merrill with Clifford Brown, Cool, Jazz, Jazz Music, Jazz Vocals, Pop, Vocal Jazz

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Thank you Amazon Reviewers!

"It was this record that made Helen Merrill into a star."

An obscure classic

Absolutely Beautiful

First-class

Helen Merrill with Clifford Brown
Helen Merrill with Clifford Brown
Manufacturer: Polygram Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Bebop General | Bebop | Jazz | Styles | Music
Cool Jazz | Jazz | Styles | Music
General | Jazz | Styles | Music
Vocal Jazz General | Vocal Jazz | Jazz | Styles | Music
General | Vocal Pop | Pop | Styles | Music
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ASIN: B0000046ND
Release Date: 1990-10-25

Tracks:

Don't Explain
You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To
What's New
Falling In Love With Love
Yesterdays
Born To Be Blue
'S Wonderful

Amazon.com

Merrill's first album also starred trumpeter Clifford Brown on these sessions made 18 months before his June 1956 death. The 24-year-old singer's breathy, extremely musical style is already fully formed here; in fact, at least one of these cuts, "You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To," stands as a signature take for her. This disc is a great way to discover the too-often overlooked Merrill. --Rickey Wright

Customer Reviews:

Thank you Amazon Reviewers! .......2007-04-14

At the time I am writing this review there have been eight reviews and each one of them gives this perfect recording a five-star rating. Well, who am I to argue with perfection. After all, it was because of the great five-star reviews on Amazon that I decided to place my order for this CD. Amazon shipped it for free, and five days later it arrived in the mail in perfect condition.

The first time I played this CD I loved it. The second time I loved it even more. I think I have listened to this particular CD at least two dozen times... over and over again...and it still isn't getting old. Again, thank you to Amazon for recommending this to me and then for all of the insightful reviewers who encouraged me to make the purchase even though as much of a fan I am of Clifford Brown, I knew very little about Helen Merrill. Brownie is amazing as always as is the entire group - Danny Bank (sax, clarinet, flute), Jimmy Jones (piano), Barry Galbraith (guitar), Milt Hilton (bass), Osie Johnson (drums), and the legendary Quincy Jones as the conductor and arranger. However, this is really Helen Merrill's golden moment under the sun. The way she can go from softly vocalizing a sad song like Billie Holiday's "Dont Explain" and making you feel (along with Brownie's melancholy trumpet) like your heart is about to break to lilting in a fast tempo with swingin rythm to the very upbeat "s' Wonderful". Every song on this album is great. Also the sound quality of this digitally remastered CD (from Japan)is absolutely perfect.

"It was this record that made Helen Merrill into a star.".......2006-04-03

Originally recorded in December, 1954, when Helen Merrill was only twenty-five, this recording, now digitally remastered and re-released, was her professional breakthrough. With Clifford Brown on trumpet, arrangements by Quincy Jones, who was himself only twenty-one, and fantastic back-up (Jimmy Jones on piano is especially notable), Helen Merrill was free to unloose her jazz interpretations and her explore her dramatic talent with lyrics. With a lush voice which still retains the sweetness of youth, she offers new variations on familiar melodic lines, provides sensitive interpretations of sad songs, and happily jives to the upbeat.

Billy Holiday's "Don't Explain," one of the saddest songs ever written, is brilliantly interpreted by Merrill, as she reflects the innocence of the betrayed lover who still loves and needs the betrayer and therefore chooses to accept betrayal. When Merrill sings, "You're my joy--and pain," no listener can fail to be moved. Clifford Brown's solo, though more assertive in mood than Merrill, adds to the drama. Cole Porter's "You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To," more upbeat, is classic Merrill, the beautiful lyrics gaining the full romantic treatment, sometimes whispery, with Jimmy Jones's piano in the background and brushwork by drummer Osie Johnson before Brown enters for his solo.

"What's New" by Johnny Mercer receives a slower treatment than usual, Merrill singing in a pensive mood as she reminisces about the past and provides jazz variations to the melodic line. Brown's stellar solo is jazzier, more upbeat and full of improvisation. "Falling in Love With Love," another of Merrill's famous songs, also features a jazz cello by Oscar Pettiford, while the mournful "Yesterdays" is full of vocal variations and jazz improvisation by Brown. "'S Wonderful," the fastest paced, most upbeat song on the CD also features fascinating instrumentation, with lots of fast brushwork, a guitar solo, and Brown's trumpet exploring the full range of the instrument.

Youthful, with an innocent, honest sound, Merrill is no newcomer, having sung professionally since she was fifteen, but here she is at her early best-still having the freshness of youth while having achieved the skills to control her voice and set the pace and mood for the instrumentation in this fantastic album, which features Brown just eighteen months before his death. Those who are fans of Merrill may also enjoy hearing "Just Friends," an amazing CD she made with Stan Getz in 1990, when she was, unbelievably, sixty. n Mary Whipple

An obscure classic.......2006-02-24

Every once in a while, a jazz album has the right tunes, the right arrangments, the right players and the right mood to become a classic. This one is a classic all around, which unfortunately is not in the best sellers where it belongs. Everything is right in its place in this record. If you havent heard of this record before, dont worry, this is classic jazz at its best. Beware: you might fall in love in Helen after listening to that voice.

Clifford Brown just steals the show. Every solo is a masterpiece, this could be the most impressive record in Brownie's career. Of the top 3 at least. After listening to this record, I come to the conclusion that the only trumpeter in the same category as Clifford is Louis Armstrong himself. Amazing, must buy!

Absolutely Beautiful.......2004-09-10

I just can't stop buying this album...two for friends, one for my father, one for my ex, one for my favorite bartender, one for my car, one for my office....My God, has "You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To" ever been as inviting sung by any other vocalist? And how many of you night-club loving jazz afficionados claimed "Don't Explain" as a personal theme song? Born to Be Blue is spooky, a chills up the spine tingler that leaves you craving Helen Merrill's vocals, and I've played this CD hundreds of times without losing interest...this one fits right into your collection, no matter what else you listen to. Order a few, you'll be wanting to share.

First-class.......2003-04-16

This is a pretty astonishing debut for the young Merrill, and though she has recorded many fine albums (including her exceptional recent run for Verve/Gitanes) none quite touches this one. The arrangements are by Quincy Jones--hardly the calibre of Gil Evans, whom she brought in for her next album, but attractive nonetheless. Most importantly, Jones chose a light & spacious instrumentation that placed most of the emphasis on Clifford Brown's trumpet (who is the sole horn except for some discreet baritone & flute from Danny Banks), & he also was willing to grant Merrill the kind of achingly slow ballad tempos that can turn turgid & dull in the wrong hands but which are actually Merrill's forte. Only one track here--the last, "S'Wonderful"--is uptempo, & the rest ranges from medium ("You'd Be So Nice to Come Home to") to slow ("Born to Be Blue") to _really_ slow ("Yesterdays", "Don't Explain").

That sounds like a recipe for tedium (it would be with most singers), & yet the results are fascinating throughout, & sometimes have real raised-goosebumps power. Merrill's distinctive, almost vibratoless style--very breathy, somehow both guileless but smart, & without any distancing displays of virtuosity--is complemented by Clifford Brown's gentle but very precise (almost calligraphic) improvisations. These are some of the best of Brown's solos on record--the kind of thing that makes any aspiriing musician run to their instrument to start trying to lift it. Perhaps surprisingly, Brown's solo work here has the definite edge over his other notable recording with a vocalist, Sarah Vaughan.

Fans of this disc will want to search out Merrill's now out of print disc _Brownie_, in which she revisited much of the material from this disc, with an all-star trumpet ensemble playing arrangements of Brown's solos from this disc. It's a very affecting tribute, & is by no means a mere postscript to this disc. It's a pity, though, that while the later disc includes "Born to Be Blue", "You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To" & "Don't Explain", it doesn't include a version of "Yesterdays", which includes perhaps my favourite of Brown's features on the original recording (complete with its graceful allusions to "Parker's Mood").

Helen Merrill with Clifford Brown
Average customer rating:

Simply the best of beautiful Helen Merrill

Helen Merrill with Clifford Brown
Helen Merrill with Clifford Brown
Manufacturer: EmArcy
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Cool Jazz | Jazz | Styles | Music
General | Jazz | Styles | Music
Vocal Jazz General | Vocal Jazz | Jazz | Styles | Music
General | Vocal Pop | Pop | Styles | Music
ASIN: B00008KJU6
Release Date: 2003-05-05