Lee Wiley - Sings The Songs Of Rodgers & Hart And Harold Arlen (1980)

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. ~Scott Yanow