Lorez Alexandria - Lorez Alexandria on King 1957-1959 - Plus Her 1954-1956 Blue Lake & Chess Recordings (2019)

In 1953, Lorez Alexandria (1929-2001) was already a young veteran of church singing in Chicago. But when she decided to start her professional career, it was as a jazz and R&B singer with the King Fleming Four, an instrumental quartet that would become one of the favorite groups of the Midwest soon after Lorez joined them.

By the end of 1956, in addition to her work with Fleming’s quartet, she began a career as a single, billed as “Angel Voice.” This was an important step for her, as in 1957 it led to the start of her recording career on the King label. For her first album—”This Is Lorez”—she sang with a musical line-up that brought in a different sort of sophistication to the record, shading tunes with moody colors on flute and oboe that perfectly support the singer’s soulful sensitivity and expressive way with the lyrics.

The critics received her with open arms, which in turn led the label to produce, that same year, a second album—”Lorez Sings Prez,” featuring only songs which Lester Young had recorded. She managed to find the essence in each song, its soul, and where there were no lyrics, Lorez scatted, with perfect understanding of what Lester had to say.

In 1959, she recorded two more albums for King, but the label, instead of hiring an arranger and musicians for the sessions, used pre-recorded instrumental backgrounds for Lorez to overdub her voice. She did a wonderful job interacting with them, in some of the finest work by this much forgotten jazz legend. It is no wonder that throughout her career, some eminent jazz critics compared her with Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughan or Carmen McRae.