Helen Slater Betrayal Dove

Helen Shapiro is remembered today by younger pop culture buffs as the slightly awkward actress/singer in Richard Lester's 1962 debut feature film, It's Trad, Dad. From 1961 until 1963, however, Shapiro was England's teenage pop music queen, at one point selling 40,000 copies daily of her biggest single, "Walking Back to Happiness," during a 19-week chart run. A deceptively young 14 when she was discovered, Shapiro had a rich, expressive voice properly sounding like the property of someone twice as old, and she matured into a seasoned professional very quickly.

This second installment in the excellent Classics Helen Humes chronology covers the exciting material she recorded for the Philo (soon to become Aladdin), Black & White, and Mercury labels, first with her All-Stars in Los Angeles during 1945-1946 and then with Buck Clayton's band in New York in 1946 and 1947. Alternating between ballads, blues, and boogie-woogie, the singer exudes a wonderful passionate glow that sometimes borders on the sensual. The front lines of her West Coast bands were richly staffed with excellent players in trumpeter Snooky Young and saxophonists Willie Smith, Tom Archia, Corky Corcoran, Maxwell Davis, Wild Bill Moore, and - fresh out of the Army - Lester Young…

In 1956, a year before Miles Ahead, singer Helen Merrill hired the nearly forgotten arranger Gil Evans to write charts for a dozen songs on one of her record dates. In 1987, they had a reunion, and 11 of the 12 numbers (with "Summertime" taking the place of "You're Lucky to Me") were recorded again. Rather than just a re-creation album, this project found Evans writing fresh arrangements, utilizing three very different ten-pieces: one with a woodwind quintet, another with six horns, and a third that included five strings. This inspired outing, one of the most rewarding sets of Helen Merrill's later years, was also one of Evans' last great dates and one of his few post-1972 classics. 57 at the time, Merrill is in superb form on such numbers as "Where Flamingos Fly," "A New Town Is a Blue Town," "By Myself" and "Anyplace I Hang My Hat Is Home."

Wonderful Mozart songs with Ann-Helen Moen and Liv Glaser! Written for performance in private contexts - by and with music-loving friends. The sound of the time-typical hammer piano forms the framework for a beautiful musical experience with two of our foremost Mozart interpreters.

A gaping hole in the flute repertoire opened during the first half of the nineteenth century. It was not until the genial Theobald Boehm carried through his technical improvements on the transverse flute, formerly imperfect but now endowed with radiant sound, that this instrument once again was able to interest composers. The FlautoPiano Duo with Helen Dabringhaus and Fil Liotis surprises us with a program brimming with wit and virtuoso lightness and featuring none other than Ludwig van Beethoven.

Helen Humes had not recorded as a leader in seven years when she made the first of three albums for Contemporary, all of which have been reissued on CD via the OJC imprint. Humes, 45 at the time, was at the peak of her powers, although she never really made a bad record. Accompanied by Benny Carter (on trumpet), trombonist Frank Rosolino, tenor saxophonist Teddy Edwards, pianist Andrew Previn, bassist Leroy Vinnegar, and either Shelly Manne or Mel Lewis on drums, the singer is typically enthusiastic, exuberant, and highly appealing on such numbers as "You Can Depend on Me," "When I Grow Too Old to Dream," and "''Tain't Nobody's Bizness If I Do." She even sings credible versions of "Bill Bailey" and "When the Saints Go Marching In" on this easily recommended CD.