Bouquet Of Blues - Dinah Shore

Bouquet Of Blues

Bouquet Of Blues
Dinah Shore
Orchestras: Harry Zimmerman, Henri Rene and Frank DeVol
RCA Victor LPM 1214
1956

From the back cover: She (Dinah Shore) was born in Winchester, Tennessee, and went to college in Nashville (she has a degree in sociology), which meant that she spent her formative years in a section of the country where the strains of the blues are a part of the background. The song with which she first made her local reputation around Nashville and which provided her with her stage name (back in Winchester she had been Frances Rose Shore) was Dinah. The origins of the latter, professional Shore style can be found in the way she sang Dinah then – her model was the great blues singer who first introduced the song, Ethel Waters.

Her first big hit on records, Yes, My Darling Daughter, provided an exhibition of Dinah's swinging facility with a rhythm novelty, but it was her subsequent and ever greater hit, Blues In The Night, which settled her in her most rewarding groove – richly expressed but relaxed renditions of songs with a minor, slightly mournful air. She has sung them all as they have come along – from Duke Ellington's plaintive I Got It Bad And That Ain't Good, the colorful Johnny Mercer-Harold Arlen contribution to "St. Louis Woman," Any Place I Hang My Hat Is Home, and Mel Torme's haunting Born To Be Blue, right up to the more recent Bouquet Of Blues. She dig back for the older ones, too – the two great blues by W. C. Handy, the sweet and sour blend of beat and content in What Can I Say After I Say I'm Sorry, and the earthy strains of Moanin' Low which can still light up the memories of an aging generation of theatergoers with tingling recollections of Libby Holman in a tight red gown and the sinus dancing of Clifton Webb.

It is one of the great charms of Dinah Shore that her sad songs are somehow more soothing than sad, more alive and vital than depressing. But it is only natural that they should come out like this. Her vitality cannot be turned off or covered up. Her well-adjusted existence, capped by her long and happy marriage to George Montgomery, comes shining irresistibly through. Her blues are artful blues – soft, pastel vignettes to be gathered into this appealing bouquet. – John S. Wilson

From Billboard - December 1, 1956: RCA Victor has selected this second Shore LP of the year as its November Save-on-Records special, a fact which should assure a lot of retail activity. Aside from that, it could make the grade on its own superior merits. The thrush is at her very best with these moody minor key blues efforts with distinctive and high quality backings in turn by Harry Zimmerman, Henri Rene and Frank DeVol. This one could go a long way to getting the gal back into the disk scene prominently with the likely strong jockey reaction. Tunes include "Bouquet Of Blues," Born To Be Blue," "Blues In The Night," etc.

Bouquet Of Blues
Good-For-Nothin' Joe
Born To Be Blue
Blues In The Night
Lonesome Gal
Moanin' Low
Any Place I Hang My Hat Is Home
St. Louis Blues
I Got It Bad And That Ain't Good
Warm Hearted Woman
Memphis Blues
What Can I Say After I Say I'm Sorry