My Kind Of Swing - Ernestine Anderson

 

Moonlight In Vermont

My Kinda Swing

Ernestine Anderson

Emarcy Series - Mercury SR 60175

1961

From the back cover: Ernestine Anderson, at 32, has been singing for a living since she was 15, when she joined Russell Jacquet's band. A Texas from Houston, Ernestine has been in touch with music and life. She worked with the orchestras of Johnny Otis and Lionel Hampton. She has recorded with leading jazzman. She has toured abroad, working in Scandinavia is '56 with trumpeter Rolf Ericson's combo. Championed by jazz critic Ralph Gleason, she won national attention, from news magazines to trade journals to club engagements from coast to coast. Her recordings on Mercury, have been admired by the critics and public alike.

Leonard Feather, in his new Encyclopedia of Jazz notes: "Her style is swingingly assertive on rhythm songs, soulfully sensitive on ballads." His comment could serve as a capsule evaluation of this album; it is accurate. Another point well made within these grooves: you can tell a great deal about a singer from the songs she sings and the musicians she admires. In both areas, Ernestine is first-rate.

My Kinda Love, written in 1929 by Louis Alter and Jo Trent, is 1961-modern in Ernestine's hands; she sings it briskly, preserving its inherent power and adding some of her own. Trouble Is A Man is a touching Alec Wilder tune; Ernestine treats it with the respect it merits. See See Rider, a blues that is in the repertoire of many well-rooted jazz shouters, is belted brightly by Ernestine in as earthy a manner as one can hear outside the stomping of the rhythm-and-blues sphere. Moonlight In Vermont, an exquisitely cascading melody, is Ernestine at her balladic best. Land Of Dreams, composed by jazz pianist Eddie Heywood and Norman Gimbel, acquires a slightly Latin texture. Black Moonlight, written by Arthur Johnson and Sam Coslow for the 1933 film, Too Much Harmony, hardly seems 28 years old in Ernestines's soulful view.

All My Life, a rare Benny Davis-Harry Akst composition, is another splendidly balladic tour de force for Ernestine. Mound Bayou (written by the multi-talented Leonard Feather and Andy Razaf) provides her with the opportunity to herald the glories of Louisiana at a vigorously pulsating tempo. She's back on the ballad kick in exploring I'll Never Be The Same, a first-class lament. It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing) is more than a pertinent assertion in the words of Irving Mills and the music of Duke Ellington; Ernestine perks definitively. The 1954 Broadway production of Golden Apple, provided Lazy Afternoon, an incompatibly moody refrain by John Latouche and Jerome Moross, which Ernestine sighs subtly and effectively. Listen to her delightful version of They Didn't Believe Me, then contemplate the fact that Jerome Kern and Herbert Reynolds wrote it in 1914, for the Broadway musical, The Girl From Utah. It's a song that has managed to last, because of its basic, timeless appeal. Ernestine's singing style is perfectly suited to such revered material.

The musicians who share Ernestine's artistry with the fortunate recording engineer included some of the leading sidemen in jazz. Trumpeter Clark Terry has served as a stalwart in many bands. (Lionel Hampton, Charlie Barnet, Count Basie, Duke Ellington and Quincy Jones). His trumpet-comrade here is Ernie Royal, a reliable, inventive jazzman who worked with the bands of Hampton, Barnet, Basie and Ellington, served a stint with Woody Herman's Second Herd in the late '40's and has become one of the most valuable studio jazzmen in New York. Trombonist Frank Rehab, another veteran of big bands experience, is respected New York-based instrumentalist comfortably at home in many musical settings Yusef Lateef, heard on tenor sax, flute and oboe here, is a Tennessean who found success in Detroit in the early '50s and has been much in demand ever since. Bariton saxist Tate Houston is another ace improvisor summoned to this session. Pianist Hank Jones, guitarist Kenny Burrell, bassist Arthur Davis and drummer Charlie Persip comprise one of the most inspiring rhythm sections any singer has had on hand for recording purposes. Latin percussionist Willie Rodriguez and violinist Mac Ceppos make several noteworthy appearances, too.

Responsible for the arrangements – distinguished not by mere linking of devices, but by a sturdy sense of structure and mood – is Ernie Wilkins. In writing for an array of bands – Dizzy Gillespie, Tommy Dorsey, Count Basie and Harry James among them – and an assortment of vocalists of distinctly varied styles, Wilkens has emerged as one of the most perceptive arrangers on the contemporary music scene does not impose he musical will; rather, he creates sensible, flattering frameworks for the recording artists.

From Billboard - November 6, 1961: The thrush's tasteful, jazz-flavored style is nicely showcased here on a group of oldies and originals. Package has strong appeal for jazz deejays as well as hip pop spinners. Selections include "My Kinda Love," "See See Rider,""Moonlight In Vermont," "Lazy Afternoon" and "They Didn't Believe Me."

My Kinda Love

Trouble Is A Man

See See Rider

Moonlight In Vermont

Land Of Dreams

Black  Moonlight

All My Life

Mound Bayou

I'll Never Be The Same

It Doesn't Mean A Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing

Lazy Afternoon

They Didn't Believe Me