Wiley

Fourteen years after her last record, singer Lee Wiley came back for one final studio recording. Although she does a good job on "Indiana" and "I'm Coming, Virginia" and the backup band (which includes trumpeter Rusty Dedrick, clarinetist Johnny Mince, trombonist Buddy Morrow, and pianist Dick Hyman) is excellent, in general this is a disappointing LP. Wiley's voice was no longer in its prime and, although her distinctive phrasing was still intact, her earlier sessions are far superior while her final Carnegie Hall recording is much more emotional and historic. This album is only recommended to Lee Wiley completists. [The CD version released by Audiophile tacks on a 1965 demo session recorded with Joe Bushkin.]

Lee Wiley pioneered the "songbook" concept, for which a singer exclusively interpreted the work of one composer. Her Gershwin and Cole Porter projects of 1939-40 were major successes, as is the music on this Audiophile reissue. In a fairly straight but strangely sensuous manner, Wiley sings eight songs apiece by Rodgers & Hart and Harold Arlen while backed by a variety of all-star players associated with Eddie Condon, including pianist Joe Bushkin, trumpeters Max Kaminsky, Billy Butterfield and Bobb Hackett, tenor saxophonist Bud Freeman, and Ernie Caceres on baritone and clarinet. Although many of these songs have been interpreted countless times since, few singers have reached the emotional peaks that Lee Wiley scaled in her versions of "A Ship Without a Sail," "Let's Fall In Love," "I've Got the World On a String," "Down With Love" and especially "Glad to Be Unhappy." This set (along with the previous one) belongs in every serious jazz collection.