This Is Chris - Chris Connor

 

The Thrill Is Gone

This Is Chris

Chris Connor

Engineering: Tom Dowd

Photography and Cover Design: Burt Goldblatt

Bethlehem Records BCP-20

1955

Ralph Sharon - Piano

Milt Hinton - Bass

Osie Johnson - Drums

Joe Puma - Guitar

Herbie Mann - Flute

Kai Winding & J. J. Johnson - Trombone

From the back cover: Many singers who show promise of real ability must sacrifice a portion of artistry in order to enjoy a more commercial success. Therefore, we must go to the core of jazz to search out the honestly fine contemporary singers. Chris Connor is one of them. The fact that she rose, so to speak, out of the ranks and became a vocalist is a little remarkable. It was as hard for her as any of the others. That she achieved it seems to prove she's somebody special to begin with. But she is extraordinary even here among the special. This is her third recording effort. In the first one or two, she was being introduced... a singer with an unusual phrasing effect, a sensitive reader of lyrics, and possession of a deeply rich voice with just enough throaty quality to make it vibrant. In the third album she enjoyed further public response as an accepted vocalist. Like the fingers of the blind person so sensitive they seem to read more quickly than the eye, Miss Conor appears to be able to grasp the course of the melodic line almost before it is put before her. Now in this, her third album, she comes to the listener a vocalist of recognition and acceptance. She is established. Miss Connor has come through the strains of the first part of a career when she sang in bands, traveled on the road, worked in the small clubs and made a few stray records. She has come through the equally hard part of the early beginnings where she was learning she could succeeding, of then succeeding over all the others who wanted to be singers too, and happily, remaining the artist and still finding a public. Now she enjoys an impressive degree of success, and where she will go from here depends largely on you, her audience. Take out the record, turn on the phonograph, and listen to singing... like unalloyed gold... Miss Chris Connor. – Shirley Hoskins Collins

Blame It On My Youth

It's All Right With Me

Someone To Watch Over Me

Trouble Is A Man

All This And Heaven Too 

The Thrill Is Gone

I Concentrate On You

All Dressed Up With A Broken Heart

From This Moment On

Ridin' High