Originally posted by naughty@Jun 19 2004, 08:11 PM
Headbang,
I have not heard of Blossom Dearie... Do tell.
Naughty
[post=243367]Quoted post[/post]
Well, naughtmistress, the first thing you need to know is that Blossom Dearie is her real name; her father was an American doctor of Scottish extraction, hence the surname Dearie. Blossom? Well, you know how cuel parents can be...
Oddly, though, the name really suits her pure, clear, almost child-like voice. When you take the girlishly innocent tone and put it to work on smoky ballads, it's very sexy. She can carry a torch, but it's a burden she carries lightly, and can toss away on a whim. Unique.
To escape a stiflng adolescence in upstate New York, she fled to Paris in the early 1950s, where she fell in with the jazz scene and recorded several albums of standards.
It Might as Well Be Spring comes from her first American album, an odd mixture of standards in English and French, with some originals. You can listen to a very, very lo-fi 60 seconds of the song at
the album's Amazon web page. Listening in lo-fi, you really don't sense the astonishing clarity and purity of her voice.
And, I dunno, am I alone in finding the cute horn rimmed glasses and the slighltly tousled blonde hair on the
cover kinda sexy? A little like Marilyn Monroe in
How to Marry a Millionaire. Maybe her slightly boyish charm in that pic betrays me as a fag?
I was first introduced to her when, as a teenage jazz fan, I went to see Stephane Grappelli in concert when he played the Adelaide Festival in 1976. Dearie was his support act, and she stole the show.
Apparently, I wasn't alone in thinking this.
At the time, she was just about at the peak of whatever mainstream celebrity she had, before settling back into a comfortable cult status. Personally, I think she became a bit of a parody of herself, concentrating on popular but silly novelty numbers.
My Attorney Bernie, I'm Hip, Rhode Island is Famous for You and perhaps her best known spoof
Pro Musiqua Antiqua. Lots more is told in
her discography.
When it comes to music for seduction, I don't use jazz very much, it's too cerebral and not passionate enough. But
It Might as Well Be Spring is a romantic favourite.
Hope I haven't bored you, naughty. But as you can tell, I'm a fan.
hb8