I've been spending a lot of time this year with the four-disc compilation The Verve Story: 1944-1994, which surveys the first fifty years of music released by the groundbreaking label by founder Norman Granz (encompassing pre-Verve work at his Clef and Norgran labels). Verve eventually broadened to include rock acts as wild as the Mothers of Invention, but this box focuses on jazz. Spanning vocal and instrumental jazz over the course of half a century and including heavyweights like Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, and many others, the box makes for a fine crash course in the American form. Verve was a monolithic label. As for my pick here, I have become bewitched by the voice of New York singer/pianist Blossom Dearie. Taken from her 1959 third LP Once Upon a Summertime, this version of the Rodgers & Hammerstein rollicker from Oklahoma! is turned under Dearie's command into a hushed, delicate love ballad.

noyoucmon 3 Jul 2015