Lena Horne

Singer/actress Lena Horne's primary occupation was nightclub entertaining, a profession she pursued successfully around the world for more than 60 years, from the 1930s to the 1990s. In conjunction with her club work, she also maintained a recording career that stretched from 1936 to 2000 and brought her three Grammys, including a Lifetime Achievement Award in 1989; she appeared in 16 feature films and several shorts between 1938 and 1978; she performed occasionally on Broadway, including in her own Tony-winning one-woman show, Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music, in 1981-1982; and she sang and acted on radio and television.

This remastered rerelease presents recordings by the legendary Lena Horne in beautiful digital quality. Including standards such as I Got Rhythm, Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child, Mad About the Boy and many more, Horne's unmistakable voice shines in these performances with the likes of bandleaders Marty Paich, Phil Moore, and Lou Bring.

We'll Be Together Again is a 1994 album by Lena Horne. At the 1995 Grammy Awards, Horne was nominated for a Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Performance for this album. Lena Horne is nine years older than the 70-something Tony Bennett, and like him has lost a good bit of power and tone from her voice. Unlike Bennett, though, she doesn't try to bull her way through her vocal limits on We'll Be Together Again; she stays within those limits and fashions a striking testament to the subtleties of romance and friendship in one's autumnal years. Billy Strayhorn was one of Horne's very best off-stage friends, and seven of the 16 tracks here were written by Strayhorn and/or his partner Duke Ellington. Three more songs–"My Buddy," "Old Friend" and the title tune–are heartfelt remembrances of those once dearest to Horne and now gone–Strayhorn, her ex-husband, her son, her hairdresser and her wardrobe mistress.

Two days after her two triumphant sold-out Carnegie Hall concerts, Lena Horne took the same show into New York City's Supper Club to be videotaped for a special on the A&E Network.
Her quintet with Donald Harrison, Mike Renzi, and Rodney Jones was augmented by the Count Basie Orchestra for four songs. Ms. Horne was in great spirits and brilliant form, and this show turned out to be her last public perfromance. After one more studio album a year later, Lena Horne made good on her pledge to retire.

After a lengthy and successful run on RCA from 1955-1962, Lena Horne cut a few albums for the small Charter label. Picking up on the period craze for all things Latin - mambo, bossa nova, or otherwise - Horne recorded this 1963 collection of swinging, Latinized standards for the company. With husband and bandleader Lennie Hayton directing a crack group through some fine Shorty Rogers arrangements, Horne shows off her powerful and supple voice on both obscure fare ("Cuckoo in the Clock") and perennial classics from Tin Pan Alley ("My Blue Heaven"). And while some might balk at the Mancini-like lounge touches informing highlights like the fiercely delivered "From This Moment On" and a bravura reading of "Night and Day," one must ask what would be better to temper the driving rhythms, frenetic horn charts, and Horne's theatrical phrasing…