Vic Carmen Sonne

Sublime early work from Carmen McRae - done with backing from pianist Ray Bryant in a small group setting. Carmen's singing in a beautifully fragile mode - with only Ray's piano and a bit of bass and drums to back her up - and it's a real treat to her the McRae vocal approach in such an unfettered format, because even at this earlier age, Carmen had a sense of control, poise, and grace that shines through immediately.

The idea behind Carmen Stefanescu's latest double album starts with the piano. The Voice of Piano focuses primarily on the vocal qualities of the instrument. But it is also about the diverse interrelationships between the singing voice, between orchestral or piano song and the piano. This new double CD contains the artist's favorite pieces, almost exclusively song transcriptions of works by composers such as Mahler, Rachmaninoff, Sibelius and Strauss.

If you are making a shortlist of the best jazz singers, Carmen McRae had better be right at the top. She had a distinctive voice, able to do heartbreaking and lighthearted equally as thrillingly. She had an unerring sense of melody and her phrasing is a thing of beauty. This collection covers her work in the mid-'50s for Decca both with small groups and larger orchestras. She shines on swinging tracks like "Comes Love," "Falling in Love With Love," and "I'm Putting All My Eggs in One Basket" and won't leave a dry eye in the house with her deeply emotional ballad singing.