Artie Shaw What Is This Thing Called Love

This collection returns us to a time when the city of shanghai was a mecca of international sophistication and daring, and U.S. swing and jazz musicians of the classic era found a home amid the city's nightlife, which they shared with the best-known Chinese singers of the period. These discs mix great western musicians like Coleman Hawkins and Ella Fitzgerald (and some western artists like Sammy Kaye who were perhaps more popular than great) with Chinese cabaret singers who had crossover appeal for western ears.
Doris Day, Louis Armstrong, Artie Shaw, Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Billie Holiday, Count Basie and many others.

Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (a city that also saw the birth of another jazz piano great, Erroll Garner) Michael "Dodo" Marmarosa (1925-2002) counted among the most creative pianists of his generation, with a style that combined swing and bebop with innovative harmonies similar to those that characterized the playing of Lennie Tristano. Now mostly forgotten, Marmarosa played and recorded with such masters as Tommy Dorsey, Gene Krupa, Artie Shaw, Charlie Parker, Howard MacGhee, and Lester Young. This new 2CD Uptown label set, however, showcases him mostly in quartet (with Lucky Thompson on tenor sax), trio, and even solo formats. CD1 comprises various rarely head broadcasts, while CD2 is devoted to rare studio sides made for such obscure labels as Atomic and Down Beat.

Although the very attractive Lena Horne has never really been a jazz singer, her vocals are generally of interest to jazz listeners and she has occasionally recorded in jazz settings. This Bluebird CD is pretty definitive of the first half of her career. Horne sings a pair of ballads with Charlie Barnet's 1941 orchestra and two songs (including "Don't Take Your Love From Me") with a unique Artie Shaw-led all-star band that includes Benny Carter, Red Allen, and a string section. The remainder of the disc features Horne backed by studio orchestras, and the results are superior (if sometimes overly dramatic) renditions of standards as rendered by a top-notch cabaret singer. Highlights include "Stormy Weather," "Ill Wind," "Moanin' Low," "As Long As I Live," and "It's All Right With Me."