Lena Song

When writer-producer David Hajdu was growing up, he was drawn to a mystical book on his mother’s shelf entitled Lives of the Saints. This was a collection of tales of Catholic saints and their heroic martyrdom. Later in life, Hajdu began to collect his own stories of ordinary individuals who, through their deeds, attained exalted status in his mind, essentially created his own canon of secular saints.

Great American Songbook: Ladies of Song is a budget-priced, three-disc sampler devoted to romantic ballads and relaxing background music from popular vocalists of the '40s. These 66 tracks feature several tracks apiece by Peggy Lee, June Christy, Doris Day, and Ella Fitzgerald, along with second-tier vocalists including Kathryn Grayson, Margaret Whiting, and Vera Lynn. While the packaging is drab, the music successfully highlights the best female singers of the era.

5CD Box set. American Popular Song: Six Decades Of Songwriters And Singers, a Various Artists Compilation. Released in 1984 on Smithsonian Collection.

Mezzo-soprano Lena Belkina’s first album garnered high praise: “She sings Desdemona’s ‘Willow Song’ from Rossini’s Otello with lyrical intensity… Nacqui all’affanno e al pianto” from La Cenerentola is sharp-witted and brilliant”, opined Das Opernglas, while WAZ (Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung) wrote: “The coloratura is splendidly placed whether she’s mobilizing Tudor fury (in Anna Bolena), questioning her heart in the Barber of Seville or letting the soul of ‘Tanti affetti’ (La donna del lago) overflow with elegant beauty.”

Unfortunately, the diversity of Swiss symphonic music from the late 18th to the early 20th century is hardly known to concertgoers today. Swiss classical and romantic composers still lead a shadowy existence, even in Switzerland. This is precisely where the Swiss Orchestra, founded in 2018, comes in: it aims to bring forgotten Swiss symphonists back onto the concert stage and onto recordings and thus into the consciousness of music lovers.

Lena Horne was a multi-talented singer, dancer, actor and civil rights activist, who by the age of 16 was performing in the Cotton Club Revue in New York and soon became big band singer, and appeared in her first movies during the 1930s. Eventually enjoying a career which spanned seven decades, she became a highly-respected entertainer, famed for her sultry and sophisticated way with a song. This 48-track 2-CD set addresses the first fairly brief era of her recording career, when she established her reputation and had the first of her hits. It comprises most of her releases from these years on the Decca, Bluebird, Victor, Black & White and MGM labels, plus one V-Disc recording, and includes her hits with the Great American Songbook classics “Stormy Weather”, “One For My Baby (And One More For The Road)” and “Deed I Do”. It features performances with the orchestras of Noble Sissle, Charlie Barnet, The Dixieland Group of Basin Street, Artie Shaw, Teddy Wilson, Lou Bring, Phil Moore and Luther Henderson. She was one of the finest interpreters of popular song of her era, and this collection brings together her early versions of songs by the great writers of the day, providing a fine showcase for her highly distinctive talents.

Heavily influenced by art, literature and fashion, Lena’s musical interests growing up included Elvis, The Cure, David Bowie and other stellar U.K. rockers. Her songs evoke a rhythmic trance and otherworldly intense emotional connection, as Lena’s music is possessed of melodic, rich vocals throughout the LP journey from an emotional growth from life’s losses.

Lena Horne served three separate tours of duty with RCA Victor Records, from 1941 to 1945, from 1955 to 1963, and from 1975 to 1976, making the label the largest repository for her recordings. While RCA has never reissued her work in any comprehensive manner, periodically the label assembles a single-disc compilation, and The Classic Lena Horne, part of its "100 Years of Music" centenary series, is yet another one.