Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Shirley Horn - some new recordings

But Beautiful: The Best Of Shirley Horn

Album Length Compact Disc

release date 10/11/2005

This new collection celebrates one of the most beloved voices in jazz with songs taken from Horn’s outstanding Verve Records catalog. Three recently-recorded live tunes are also featured on the CD.
Shirley Horn has been part of the Verve Records family beginning with her 1988 release, Close Enough For Love. Her successful relationship with Verve so far has also produced such acclaimed recordings as Here’s To Life and Light Out Of Darkness. The songs collected on But Beautiful were taken from a selection of Horn’s Verve recordings, including these as well as You Won’t Forget Me, The Main Ingredient, I Thought About You, and Loads of Love/Shirley Horn with Horns (originally released on Mercury Records).

The tunes are:

I Just Found Out About Love
2. You Won't Forget Me
3. You Don't Know Me
4. The Great City
5. Fever
6. If You Love Me (Really Love Me)
7. A Time For Love
8. Come Dance With Me
9. Nice 'N' Easy
10. But Beautiful
11. Here's To Life
12. Jelly, Jelly
13. Loads Of Love
14. I Didn't Know What Time It Was

I think that no. 1 (for sure), 9, and 12 are the new tunes, recorded live at le jazz au bar, in the last week of 2004. There were plans for a complete album, but obviously only these tunes have made it to a compilation...

7 comments:

Michele said...

Hmmm, are you sure that those three tracks are the new ones?
Well, at least we know there are three!

There were several attempts to make a live album, but after several night recording her live, none at Verve, nor Shirley herself, were satisfied with the songs...

Daan Peters said...

Well, I'm not totally sure. I've checked with Shirley's discography, and with several reviews of her 2004 concerts, and I'm pretty confident that these are new (and, probably from the jazz au bar concerts, since they're described as "new, recently recorded, and live"):

1. I just found out about love (there is only an unreleased 1992 radio broadcast live version in her discography, but after listening to the version on the new cd at the VMG site, I conclude that she sounds more like 2004/5 than 1992)

11. Jelly, jelly (since I couldn't find any version of this one and I don't know the tune at all. I vaguely sense I've read something about in in a review of the jazz au bar concerts, though).

And then, what about the third one? You can hear at the vmg site that most tracks are taken from other albums (though I don't know all her albums).

It is strange, isn't it, that the Jazz au bar concerts were not good enough for a cd, but that 3 of them were so outstanding that they were issued on the best of Shirley...

How is she, by the way? Still very ill?

Daan Peters said...

... but after listening again carefully to the cd samples on the verve site, I'm not so sure any more... if I find it in a store shortly, I´ll check the booklet.

Michele said...

Well...I have her complete discography, on CD I mean...and I think all those songs come from old CDs...
Maybe jelly jelly...

Michele said...

Hi,
I tried to be gentle...people at Verve weren't satisfied with her voice and performance, not the quality of the recordings...

Michele said...

From songbirds Yahoo Group:
-->

> The Best Of Shirley Horn - Verve - Oct. 11. Are these live tracks
> from her recent recorded concert?
>
> 12. Jelly, Jelly - (live, bonus track)
> 13. Loads Of Love - (live, bonus track)
> 14. I Didn't Know What Time It Was - (live, bonus track)


Yes -- the tracks were recorded during her 2005 Jazz Au Bar engagement

<--

Miky

Daan Peters said...

Great!

OK, I got only one right, but never mind... it's the music that matters.

Daan