Obscure & Neglected Female Singers Of Jazz & Standards (1930s to 1960s)

As stated in the back, this cover is by the famous album designer Burt Goldblatt. Here is what he said about it (to Frances Faye's #1 fan, Tyler Alpern):

I got a phone call from a company based in Cincinnati. They said that they heard I did great covers and wanted to come up to my studio and see my work. They wanted a cover for a singer Jerri Winters. They played me the record and told me they wanted to call it "Winters Here." I thought about it, took a 12 1/4 white illustration board and put 3 or 4 little lines in the corner and 6 point type and that was it. They loved it, it got a lot of attention and sold 60,000 copies. Much later the Beatles gained a lot of attention with their "White Album" cover, but I had beat them to it by years.

For me, she is an acquired taste, too. I do not dislike her, mind you. But neither am I drawn to her interpretations.

My general impression is that her work benefits greatly from superior song choices and excellent musical accompaniment. Such smart choices help offset her intonation problems.

On the plus side, the hoarse quality of her voice commands my attention. Occasionally, though, as I go on listening, I get the feeling that she is going through a very bad cold ... and is about to cough up something very unpleasant!

She sounds best to me in the Bethlehem album (Somebody Loves Me). Its swinging arrangements and bright choral backings serve as good counterpoint to her vocal sound and too-hip approach. I'd put the album on Charlie Parker Records at the bottom.

I hope that nobody here will mind that we find her an acquired taste. Those are merely personal, individual reactions. (Truth be told, much worse has been said about her -- some of it by published music critics. There was even a Grammy-winning writer and producer who referred to her singing as inept and out of tune. That's a bit extreme to me. Although I can agree that she has her shortcomings, I don't think that she is a bad singer ... Maybe she would have benefitted from vocal training -- or from more of such training, if she had some).

Paradoxically, I find myself agreeing with both of these viewpoints. I might not be greatly drawn to her general approach, but, as I said before, the "throaty" quality of her voice is the one thing that calls my attention. As for Winters' Here, it includes a lot of good songs!

Insofar as all Kenton singers are considered to be cool, she is a cool singer. She is also cool in the more general sense of sounding hip in swingers and chill in ballads. (At least, that's how I hear her, and maybe how Nathan hears her, too.)

On the other hand, her singing relies too much on vibrato, a characteristic that significantly distances her from Anita, June, and most other vocalists from the cool school. Also, once she left Kenton and went solo, Jerri tended to sing "low," something which even Chris didn't really do until much later in her career.

For real low (and slow), Donna Fuller is the one to check out, though:



In tracks such as the one above, it's fairly apparent that Donna had been checking Chris Connor ... She had been listening too closely for her own good -- to the point of sounding like a copycat. (By the way, I would say the same of Carol Sloane's debut album, which all of you guys were praising recently. Granted, it makes for pleasant listening. Still, June Christy should have sued! Thanks heavens that Carol promptly evolved her own distinctive quality of sound.)

It may be, though, that record producers asked both Donna and Carol to channel the more established singers.

But I've gone on a tangent. Let's go back to sharing factual details about singers, and photos of them. Here's a nice magazine of cover of Jerri with Kenton, among other things!

 

Whenever someone says a singer is an "acquired taste", I check and find that I have already acquired that taste. I think the phrase is a high compliment. The singers that I have not acquired much taste for tend to be rap, heavy metal, punk and run-of-the-mill rock singers.

Remember, every singer in this world, whether pro or amateur, is someone else's favorite singer in the world - whether their mother, father, brother, sister, child or lover. Some singers have larger crowds of fans than others.

 

100% in agreement. When it comes to her albums, the ones that I play the most (and which strike me as her best, by far) are the trio that she made for the World Pacific label:



Great jazz musicians back her on each of these pieces (particularly the first two). She offers many fresh, exciting vocal interpretations.

Michael Cuscuna produced CD reissues of all three albums on the Capitol/Blue Note/EMI-Manhattan labels, with remastering from Ron MacMaster. Such Cuscuna reissues are the album versions that I would recommend to seek out. (As for the Avid boxed set, previously mentioned in this thread, I can not comment on it because I do not have it. Still, I would purchase stuff from that Public Domain label only if I were not able to find the official aforementioned CDs, or if copies were too expensive.)

For me, there is no better female vocal version of "You're Nearer" than June Christy's. Still, I do like Annie Ross' version, too -- and she sings the rare verse, which is a bonus. "I Don't Want to Cry Anymore" is finely performed. When it comes to Annie, though, my preference runs toward rhythmic or swinging stuff, rather than ballads.

I'm noticing that we have already posted tracks from Sing a Song with Mulligan and A Gasser, but nothing from Gypsy. Let's rectify that situation:



Finally, this OP should point out that we have talked about Annie before. Let me collect here, as I'm usually wont to do, previous messages about her:

 

I have no info on Caprice Chantal other than what's in the liner notes. Any help? I think she was a
supper club performer, RCA thought would have a future in recording. IMO, not a very good singer. this is from 1958. She specialized in Latin and Calypso tunes, and according to the notes, "Made Marilyn Monroe look like a boy scout".

 

Her cover photo seems to be saying, "Come and take a look!"

 

I have rently seen some 50s singers jazz albums on the reissue label Mode. Does anyone know anything about this label? Sources? Engineers?
Quality? Thanks

 

What artists/albums? Mode was an original label back then, and issued jazz instrumental and vocal.

 

I was in a rush. They were all really obscure singers . I didn't recognise any of them. I'll have to go back and check them out.

 

I've been catching up with the last few pages ... Here are some responses to posts that might not be 100% on-topic, but which are still very welcome.

As you can probably tell from the album's selections, Jazz Fanatic, Caprice is not a singer of jazz or American standards. Most of what she sang falls under the categories of folk, calypso, and European music. Promoted as "the calypso girl," RCA was probably hoping to latch onto the fad popularized by Harry Belafonte, and cash in.

Caprice was actually from Martinica, where she grew up after having born in France. It looks like she variously tried her luck in not only singing but also dancing and film (Italian, French, American ones). She does not appear to have achieved lasting success in any of these fields.

Not being familiar with them before, I just listened to their hits. In response to your question, my guess would be that their singles and albums "fell through the cracks" during the CD era, primarily because their discography is somewhat erratic. I mean: some of their work was recorded for very small labels, which might not be under the radar of reissue companies. The duo also recorded for major labels, but apparently did no more than one album from any of such labels. Furthermore, some of what they did in such major labels was fairly specialized (e.g., an album of Hawaiian songs for Reprise), a fact which might lessen the interest of reissue labels.

To you and to other fans of this duo, I would suggest contacting labels such as Jasmine and Sepia, asking them to finally bring the duo's work into the CD era. Calling the attention of reissue labels might well be all that is needed here ...

As I said before, it's fine to briefly discuss any singers on this thread. (When the thread was starting out, I was more restrictive, and less inclined to allow tangential discussion, chiefly because I wanted the thread to take a clear shape, rather that letting it go off the rails.)

Since quite a few fellow members clearly visit the thread regularly, it seems a good idea to mention any singer of interest here, where other folks might pay attention.

That having been said, non-qualifying singers should not be discussed at length. IF there are threads already dedicated to them, or if more attention would be paid to them in other threads, we would be making them a disservice by lumping them here, where
their mention could get lost amidst the discussion of the many other qualifying singers.

In the case of Brenda Lee, there are 10 threads exclusively dedicated to her here. I agree that it would be great if her fans were to use the thread that John B Good has already established for her: Talkin' about Brenda Lee .

Doubtlessly, there are big fans of her in this forum -- big fans who might not visit the present thread. Maybe, if the interesting Brenda messages which you guys posted here were to be re-posted in her thread, those big fans would see them and add to the discussion? (This does NOT mean that I'm chastising anyone for the posts about Brenda. Discussion of her was suitable here, since the topic being covered was her recording of standards. All I'm saying is that posting on her own thread could result in a better pay off.)

Jeanne Lee, Carol Sloane, Marlene Verplank: these are all singers that qualify for the present thread because they started out their recording careers in the 1960s or late 1950s. However, the bulk of their recordings, by far, belongs to the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, as well as this century. To me, it would be better to cover them in the companion thread: Singers of Jazz & Standards (1970-2020) ... Let me experiment; I'll copy and past the Carol Sloane messages there, and we'll see if they bring out more responses or interest. (And welcome to the thread, ezbud).

 

Except Jeanne Lee was no longer a singer "of jazz and standards" as this thread has it in the 70s and 80s.
Besides, it's my understanding of forum life that threads take on their own shapes and movements whatever their OP's intentions might have been. It's not like there's much you can do to prevent out in any case !

 

Stu, you must explore this label! It's really up your alley. If there ever was one label primarily dedicated to cool jazz, it was this one, filled as it was with the work of great West Coast jazz players. It was an all-around great label, I would say. Everything, from its sound quality and repertoire choices to the distinctive cover artwork and the well-written liner notes, was noteworthy.

musical director - Marty Paich
artwork photographer - Dave Pell (yes, the musician)
artwork designer - Eva Diana Luke (a Czech painter and Buzza Cardoza greeting card designer)
engineer - the well-known Bones Howe (a few titles by Thorne Nogar)
recording studio - Radio Recorders, for the most part
management duties - Red Clyde (formerly of Bethlehem) & Joe Quinn (who wrote most of the liner notes)

Sadly, Mode did not last long -- about half a year (1957). Within that short life span, they released nearly 30 albums. Fortunately, a lot of the catalogue has remained available over the years, first on LP reissues (including the V.O.S.P. label) and then on CD (primarily but not exclusively from Japan).

(I almost forgot to point out: over the years, there have been various labels that went by the name of Mode. I'm assuming that this is the Mode label to which you were referring.)

I don't think that there were too many singers amidst the Mode/V.S.O.P. bunch, though? Here are the ones of which I'm aware; we have actually mentioned a couple of them before.



All five are strong outings. I'd like to put in a good work for Laurie Allyn, in particular, because her album was the one that suffered the worst fate. Mode closed shop about a week after she went into the recording studio. As a result, this album had to wait half a century to be issued, and Laurie never released anything else. Here is the titular track; that's the cover of the American CD:



Throughout the album, she is backed by Pete Candoli, Red Mitchell, Marty Paich and Al Viola.

There were a few other albums on the Mode label that could give the impression of containing vocals, but are instrumentalist pieces instead: those by Clora Bryant, Joanne Greer, Bobby Troup. Frank Rosolino also has a Mode album; initially, the plan was for it to be a vocal LP, but that plan was scrapped.

 

All are excellent! Some are also on Fresh Sounds

 

Don't forget that Joy Bryan was on Mode Records for her debut recording. Most if not all LPs on Mode seem immediately recognizable by the cover art by Eva Diana Luke. That's what first caught my attention with Joy Bryan's LP in the thrift store bin.

 

They really have a good sound. I bet Hef had all of them in his vault.

 

She sings a bit in my favorite Martin/Lewis movie...The Stooge!

 

I always thought that, if singer started in 50's or 60's and has at least one album that qualifies here, and then continued in 70's or later, people can discuss such singers where they feel comfortable (and even in both threads at the same time).

And the point is:
People change with time, and our singers too. When they started out so young, so innocent, so cute they carried all of that in their voices and we love them as they were back then. Many of them interrupted their careers because of marriage or because of the start of Rock era... When they reappeared they were different persons, other singers with a different style and even voice.
Some of them we may still love, but some of them we can only love as young.

Why should I go to the "70's and up" thread to talk about them, if I like them only Young and Beautiful and I don't want see them old even on youtube...?

 

Agree. This is the thread that readers look at. The other gets little attention. As many will say "It is about the music"

 

Thank you very much, Toilet Doctor, for adding Fran Warren to the discussion. Her absence from the first 37 pages of this thread ranks as a glaring omission. Frank is a neglected singer who recorded quite a few numbers, and yet we had been ignoring her, in favor of many other (worthwhile) singers who, in comparison, recorded a tiny fraction.

Since you have already posted a biography and also given your CD recommendations, I would like to go next into the subject of her original albums. I'd also like to take a comprehensive approach to Fran's CDs.

First and foremost, let's mention the best of her original albums. From 1957:




Originally released on Tops, this LP was reissued domestically and internationally on several other budget labels, such as Venise (with a different album cover), Gala, Popular, Tiara, and Stardust (the last two in truncated versions).





On CD, it has also been reissued several times, including once by Fresh Sound Records, quite a while ago. Here is a more recent CD reissue (2008), with a different album cover:



There is also the CD version on Flare Records that Toilet Doctor mentioned, and which contains many bonus tracks (though none from this album's sessions).

However, if you do not yet own this album, your best option is the following one:





Released by Simitar Records, the CD above (and below) was remastered directly from the master tapes. Its liner notes feature commentary from Fran herself.

Hey There! Here's Fran Warren is definitely a "cool school" album, though one that is heavily ballad-oriented. Here is one of the more rhythmic tracks:







If you check the personnel and production details on the back cover of this Simitar CD, and if you have read this thread's previous messages about the Mode label, you will realize that Hey There! Here's Fran Warren is essentially a Mode album, despite the fact that it was released on another label.

Yes, indeed. Joy's album was among those in my mind when I started writing the post you quoted. But, by the time that I began to list the vocal albums on the label, I had become distracted ... Not being a fan of Joy's voice (to be completely honest), it's no wonder that she was the one who I forgot, rather than any of the other five. I'll also blame it on Laurie Allyn and her "Paradise," which I kept playing on a loop!

My earlier post did mention Eva Diana Luke; I agree with you, Eric, that her work for Mode is distinctive, and instantly attractive to the eye. Upon first sight, one knows, right away, that it is a Mode album, without having to look for the label's name. Btw, Eva's greeting card work is also fairly distinctive. In that world, she became known for her colorful drawings of flowers and girls.

I hope that the post of mine to which you are responding didn't give the impression that I was requesting or demanding to restrict the discussion of such singers to the other thread. I was merely voicing my preference to discuss them within the period in which they did the bulk of their work. But everybody should feel free to discuss them on either thread -- or on both of them!

That can certainly be true.

The opposite can also prove true, at least for me: some of them I can only love as "old," for any number of reasons. I might find that, in their younger years, their interpretative skills and vocal tonality sound too underdeveloped or uninteresting to my ears. Etc.

Back now to the young and beautiful Fran Warren.

Or rather ... Well, since I've already reached the five-maximum-picture quota per post, I will mention Fran's other albums in a later message.

 

Fran Warren's marijuana story, essentially fake charges that ruined her career for many years, had an interesting back story, as reported in the NYTimes in 1979:

"Fran Warren received $500,000 from New York early this year in settlement of a suit she had brought against the city for abuse of judicial process and malicious prosecution. The suit, instituted in 1964, finally came to trial in January 1978, and a jury awarded Miss Warren compensatory damages.

The basis for her suit occurred on an afternoon in October 1964, when she was waiting in a car on the Upper East Side, while her husband, Herman (Woody) Witt, whom she had met only a few months earlier, was in a bank making a withdrawal. Three men jumped in the car, pointed a gun at her and said: “Keep your mouth shut! We're the police. We're going to Brooklyn. Shut up!”

She was taken to the 84th Police Precinct in Brooklyn where, according to Judge Norman C. Ryp's summation after the trial, she “was denied the right to counsel or to a telephone call, then placed in and moved to various rooms for several hours.” She was questioned about her husband's alleged criminal record and his connection with an alleged check‐forging and cash swindle involving May's Department Store. Miss Warren denied any knowledge of this.

After five hours in custody, repeated questioning and a request to sign a statement incriminating her husband, which she refused, she was told that the police were going to search her house on Riverside Drive, where her nineyear‐old daughter lived with a governess. She asked permission to call her house in advance of the police visit. The request was denied unless she signed the statement incriminating her husband. Again she refused. Two hours later, the police returned from her house and told her that unless she signed the statement incriminating her husband she would be charged with possession of marijuana.

According to Judge Ryp's summation, Miss Warren “became hysterical, screaming she wanted counsel” and “was allegedly told to just sign the statement and the police would “get rid of the marijuana”. She was finally booked and fingerprinted in Brooklyn, taken to Manhattan Criminal Court where she was stripped and searched and, 19 hours after the three men had leaped into her car, she was released on her own recognizance. Two months later the complaint was dismissed.

But that was not the end for Miss Warren. As a member of the American Guild of Variety Artists, her performing contracts included a “morality clause” which permitted termination of the contract if she should “commit any act or become involved in any situation...tending to reflect unfavorably on the performer.” In the mid1960's, a marijuana arrest tended to “reflect unfavorably” and, according to Miss Warren, she suffered cancellations of engagements so that her professional income which had been $85,000 to $100,000 from 1962 to 1964, dropped to $8,000 in 1965 and 1966 and to $2,000 from 1967 to 1978.

After her arrest, her husband pleaded guilty to attempted grand larceny and served two years in Danamora Prison. When he was released, Miss Warren moved with him to California where, as she says, he changed his life style and got a job as a supplier of office equipment.

“I'm enjoying this life style better than the other one,” Mr. Witt says. “There's less anxiety”

In California, however. Miss Warren found there was little for her to do professionally.

In November 1977, Joe Cabot, who had been her conductor since 1959, urged her to come to New York for a one‐week date at Hopper's to fill in for Margaret Whiting. Because it meant an opportunity to see her two daughters, who live in New York, Miss Warren took the engagement, her first in New York since she had played the Riverboat 13 years before. While she was at Hopper's, her case finally came to trial, primarily because a young lawyer who had just joined the firm handling the case suggested changing the charge from the original false arrest, which involved uncertainties of interpretation, to malicious prosecution.

When the jury voted five to one in her favor in January 1978, Miss Warren and her husband moved back to New York where they now live in a sunny West Side apartment filled with plants.

The money they have been awarded means financial security to Miss Warren and her husband, both of whom are 53.

“One of the problems of singers,” she said, “is lack of money for scores, for musicians, for transportation. Now there is no lack. Now I can sing for fun. I can enjoy myself. I'm going to have my Party.”

Her “party” could be a concert at Carnegie Hall or Lincoln Center “with huge orchestra — strings, French horns and a jazz rhythm section.” Or it mold be a Broadway show.

But mostly her “party” is being back in New York. She recalls getting into a cab after coming back from California. “You're Fran Warren,” the driver said. “When I think of Fran Warren, I think of Joe DiMaggio.”

Miss Warren beamed at the memory. “Only in New York does that happen to me,” she explained.

 

Thank you, guys, for interesting info and sad story about Fran Warren - lovely, but neglected Lady of our thread.

 

When I did a radio special on her a few years ago, I found an old newspaper article that she had been arrested and charged with dealing marijuana. I had no information about the above true story, though I did not broadcast that false story. I think she deserved far more than $500,000. The police ruined her career when she was just 38 years old. People get framed all the time.

 

Continuing with the topic of Fran Warren's original albums ... Following Hey There! It's Fran Warren (1957), we have the unfortunately titled



It's from 1960, on Warwick Records, and featuring the work of two great arrangers, Ralphs Burns and Al Cohn. Fresh Sound Records reissued it on LP in 1989, on CD in 1990. (Bearing catalogue number 101, it might be one of the label's earliest CD releases; maybe the earliest.) I do not know of any other CD reissues.

This is one case in which I would recommend to search for the original LP on Warwick Records, which sounds pretty good -- warm and "full." Not the CD. (The earliest CDs released by Fresh Sound tend to have flat sound. By "earliest," I mean from the early 1990s. The CDs that they have released this century sound pretty good.)

In my previous post, I referred to Hey There! It's Fran Warren as her best album. On second thought, I would say that two albums are in contention for that title, this Warwick LP being the other one. Your preference of one over the other might depend on whether you want to listen to well-known standards or less well-known songs by great songwriters. The latter is the category into which this LP falls. It features mostly great showtunes -- two from each of the songwriters listed on the front cover.

The singer's two other original albums are lesser pieces, released by Audio Fidelity in 1968 and 1969. Something's Coming From Fran Warren was succeeded by Come Into My World:



The remaining title in a country outing. I actually haven't listened to this one:




There are two other Fran Warren LPs that you are likely to see if you are looking for her stuff. Neither one is an original album, however. Here is one of them:





This is a compilation of singles that Fran did while she was under contract with MGM. It's available not only on LP (1956) but also on Japanese CD. Nowadays, you can find all these tracks, along with many of Fran's other 1940s singles, on the various Public Domain CDs that I will list in my third and last Fran Warren post.





As the front cover suggests, The Girls (1958) is a various-artists compilation on RKO/Unique Records. Each woman is featured on four tracks. They are now available on one of the compilation CDs to be discussed next.

I haven't really checked, but I am assuming that the selections in The Girls are songs taken from RKO movies. (My assumption is based on the fact that RKO is the releasing label.) Here is one of Fran's four, a somewhat loud and raucous comedy number (from the movie The First Traveling Saleslady, in which it was sung by Carol Channing):

 

Finally, let's talk about Fran Warren's singles and compilations.

Her career goes back to the big band era, and she sang with several bands. Her earliest vocals on record were done with Charlie Barnet in 1945, for Decca. She was 19 years old at the time. Fame knocked at her door during her next canary stint, with Claude Thornhill, thanks to their hit recording of "A Sunday Kind of Love." As already mentioned by Toilet Doctor, there is a fine CD that contains her entire output with Thornhill, all of which was originally recorded for Columbia:





After the Thornhill/Columbia stint, Warren went solo, signing with RCA Victor (1948). Twenty-five of the songs that she did for RCA can be found in this Vocalion CD:





After several years with RCA, Warren moved on to MGM (1952). She recorded lots of singles for those two labels. That's the material which has been mined by the British Public Domain label Flare Records, on the following CDs:




Before delving into Fran's RCA and MGM years, the first of these three Flare CDs also offers six of her 14 vocals with Thornhill. The second CD is all RCA and MGM.

The third CD includes some RCA & MGM singles, but moves beyond those periods. It spotlights the aforementioned 1957 Tops album Hey There! Here's Fran Warren. It also includes a 1961 single on Keynote, plus the four tracks from the 1958 RKO LP The Girls.

As with most other vocalists who recorded prolifically, the odd track by Fran Warren can also turn up unexpectedly here and there. You can find Fran material that I have not mentioned above in at least two various-artists albums. In both cases, the material was taken from TV.

Lastly, here is a TV appearance of hers:

 

The Fran Warren story is the story not only of a ruined career, but also a story of missed opportunities. From the very beginning she struggled to sing Jazz and good songs, and everywhere they wanted her to sing something... not serious, especially on TV. While every good song she sang was a treasure. And to this day they have not collected this treasure in a complete remastered set.
Here is the first Japanese edition 1998 'Mood Indigo':



Second edition came in 2007, but I think it's just a reprint. Another 10 years have passed - I'm still waiting for a new remaster, as this is a very nice set of singles:

 

That happened to nearly all of the talented singers in the days when contracts, both with record companies and performance venues, essentially required singers to follow orders as to what to sing and the types of arrangements and instrumentation, even the tempo. It even happened to the biggest giants in the business. Add to this, these business people decided when you could sing and when you could not.

This is what Bob Dylan revolutionized, but even since Dylan relatively few musicians have had total control over their careers.