With Clifford Brown

Songs of our era done by an artist whom is true perfection !

A wonderful recording. Beautiful voice with one of the very best in Mr Brown.

Great singer, unfairly overlooked.

If you like Chet Baker, Diana Krall, Wanda DeSah -- you will love Helen Merrill.

This album is  Helen Merrill & Clifford Brown  plus a bonus track (Bye Bye Blackbird). The sound quality on both albums is about the same, so you may want to check that one out as well if you can live without the bonus track because there is a substantial cost difference between the two.I 'discovered' this album by accident while digging up every Clifford Brown track I could uncover. Clifford's parts on the album are as I expected: amazing. What I did not expect was to be so taken with Helen Merrill. Her voice, phrasing and attitude immediately made me a fan.My favorite tracks from the perspective of showcasing Clifford's playing are You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To, Don't Explain, and Falling in Love With Love. However, stepping back and listening to the album for the sake of amazing music, including Helen's vocals, I fell in love with Born To Be Blue.Naturally, I started digging up everything I could about Helen and this session and stumbled across a real gem: Marc Myers' interview of Helen on JazzWax provided even more insights into the session and into why she and Clifford (and the rest of the ensemble) clicked. She related that she and Clifford were both shy and nervous during the session, but when he picked up his horn he was in total command. That comes through on the album. She also gave Quincy Jones a lot of credit for selecting most of the musicians and his skills as a producer. That, too, comes through on the album. Her reasons, also stated in the aforementioned interview, were that both had enormous taste and that Ossie Johnson was a great singer as well as a drummer.The album itself was recorded in late December, 1954 and released in 1955. Other background info is it was arranged by Quincy Jones with Helen Merrill on vocals, Clifford Brown on trumpet, Milt Hinton on bass, Danny Bank on flute, bass clarinet and baritone sax, Ossie Johnson on drums, Barry Galbraith on guitar, and Hank and Jimmy Jones on piano. As a side note: Helen herself insisted on including Ossie Johnson and Barry Galbraith.I also recommend checking out  Clifford Brown & The Ladies of Jazz. Complete Recordings  that Helen's collaborations with Clifford, plus the Dinah Washington and Sara Vaughan albums made with him.

I love Helen Merrill and Clifford Brown, and I had a hard time finding an original pressing of this record so was happy to find it as a new copy. I love it.

Helen Merrill es una de las grandes desconocidas del jazz. lástima, porque es también una de las grandes. Esta reedición de su clásico con Clifford Brown, sin ser una maravilla de sonido, sí es una maravilla en cuanto a contenido. Buena presentación, eso sí, y buen prensado.No se puede pedir más por lo que cuesta, de hecho ofrece mucho más de lo que su precio puede dar a entender.

El título hace alusión al ropaje fabuloso del que está provisto este disco, cuyo contendio es excepcional, aunque no tanto el continente. Desde hace algún tiempo proliferan algunos sellos que ofrecen productos vistosos con el reclamo del peso milagroso para un vinilo, 180 gramos, amén de un sello con un críptico anagrama DMM para que el incauto pique. Y pica, sobre todo porque los precios son contenidos. Sin embargo, lo que hay en los negros surcos supone una decepción, pues hay que decir que, aunque generalmente los ruidos inherentes al vinilo están minimizados, cuasi ausentes, las fuentes utilizadas nunca son analógicas sino digitales, lo que hace que tengamos en una negra superficie lo mismo que en la plateada del CD. La recomendación es, pues, obvia, es preferible hacerse con el cd, generalmente más barato y si se quiere disfrutar de lo que nos provee un vinilo comme il faut, váyase a sellos que sí han recurrido a fuentes analógicas. La diferencia entonces se hará más que palmaria.

The packaging for shipment is good and LP conditions is acceptable as well.

What a great album