Beverly Kenney Sings For Playboys

 

What Is There To Say

Beverly Kenney

Sings For Playboys

With Ellis Larkins at the Piano, Joe Benjamin, Bass

Decca Records DL 8743

1958

From the back cover: The adjective that suggests itself, above all others, as descriptive of Beverly Kenney's singing, is honest. There are no tricks to Beverly's style. She "does" nothing to the numbers she sings except the one thing that will endear her to the songwriters whose work she chooses to offer, and that is the presentation of a straight, earthy, brass-tacks rendition.

It is perhaps remarkable that, considering her adherence to melody lines, Beverly is still unmistakably commercial and a vocalist of the jazz school. Other very good singers (Patti Page, Dinah Shore, Margaret Whiting) also sing the melody, are also not square, and yet somehow do not qualify for admission to the jazz ranks. One is at something of a loss to put into words the certain ephemeral quality which distinguishes the work of the Beverly Kenney's from that of their more commercial contemporaries. Part of it is a two-in-the-morning feeling in the voice, a faintly Lee Wileyish breathiness and intimacy that bespeaks a relaxation and (would that there were another word) hipness.

Another factor undeniably is a sure and delicate sense of beat, and yet here again one is puzzled at explaining the difference between the method of accenting rhythm associated with an Ella Fitzgerald and that associated with, say, Teresa Brewer. Whatever that difference is, it marks Beverly as of the Fitzgerald genre. Like Ella she has a quality, too, of youthfulness. (Ella will still have it at sixty; it has nothing to do with age.) Beverly sounds girlish and tender and sensitive and yet just a little wordly-wise. (She may not be wordly-wise at all, and it doesn't matter; the potential would still seem to be there, as an accident of physical nature, in her sound.)

The girlish feeling is enhanced, too, by the manner of her attack which is, in general, accurate and almost vibratto-less. Occasionally, on the very last note of a line, Beverly will break off the note just a little earlier than your conditioning had led you to expect, and somehow instead of sounding like a fault, the running-out-of- breath contributes to the little-girl-standing-on-tiptoes quality. You can hear it happen particularly on "A LOVER LIKE YOU."

Of course you have to comment that no small part of the comfortable groove of this session has been scooped out by the sure hands of Ellis Larkins whose big, fat, soft, pretty, lush piano accompaniment seems to have been created almost specifically for voices like Beverly's.

One more point remains to be made about Beverly Kenney's singing and that is that it is intelligent. There are so many singers who don't seem to understand what the lyricist had in mind that it's a pleasure to hear a girl who gives an equal shake to the words and music. There are not only pleasant sounds going on in Beverly's head while she sings, there are also perceptive evaluations of the lyric, and the fact is evident to the listener who notices that when she sings he is interested in verbalized ideas as well as the melody's thread.

A word to Playboys: I would not recommend this album as Music to Make The Romantic Approach By. You're apt to get more interested in Beverly than the girl you're trying to impress. – Steve Allen

Do It Again

A Woman's Intuition

You're My Boy

Mama, Do I Gotta?

What Is There To Say

A Lover Like You

A Summer Romance

Life Can Be Beautiful

It's Magic

A – You're Adorable (The Alphabet Song)

Try A Little Tenderness

It's A Most Unusual Day