Personnel:
Carmen McRae (vcl), Norman Simmons (p), Victor Sproles (b), Stu Martin (d)
Reference: ST 2008
Bar code: 8427328449083
"Carmen McRae sang with remarkable rhythmic ease and her deft turns-of-phrase helped to conceal a relatively limited range, while her ballad singing revealed enormous emotional depths. Her repertoire included many popular items from the Great American Songbook, but her jazz background ensured that she rarely strayed outside the idiom. Relaxed and unpretentious in performance and dedicated to her craft, McRae secured a place of honour in the history of jazz singing. This album is a labour of love. Carmen McRae loves San Francisco and Sugar Hill. Sugar Hill and San Francisco love Carmen McRae, and as your ears will tell you- the obvious place to record her was in Sugar Hill."
Carmen McRae
As opposed to the album reviewer, I never thought Carmen had a limited range. In fact, her range was impressive and she used it sparingly, with impeccable taste. She did not engage in vocal gymnastics to impress, but rather sang with feeling and great intonation and diction. She was great!
