Personnel:
Marge Dodson (vcl), accompanied and arranged by Michael Colicchio and Coleridge T. Perkinson, Jr.
Reference: FSRCD 785
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A youthful Marge Dodson made her recording debut with these two albums for Columbia, In the Still of the Night, in 1959, and New Voice in Town, in 1960. On them she revealed a warm, sultry voice, and a distinctively personal, jazz-inflected style marked by an honest consideration for the lyrical content of the song, enabling her to switch from moody ballads to swingers with facility. On top of these artistic qualities, in her live presentations she had a combination of glamour, taste and humor that connected with audiences and saw her hailed as a great new singing find.
Her repertoire on these albums covered most of the better standards, and the tasteful arrangements by Michael Colicchio and her husband Coleridge Perkinson provided an engaging framework.
"In the Still of the Night is Marge Dodson's initial effort for Columbia and neither she nor the label's A&R man, the indefatigable Mitch Miller, were taking no chances. All the tunes on the program are major entries in the Great American Songbook, with a full half of them from the pens of the Gershwin brothers or the team of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. Dodson delivers them all competently with a pleasant, clear voice with good diction, medium range and virtually no vibrato, sounding like a blend of Dinah Shore and June Christy. But she brings nothing distinctive to the vocal table on this album, except for an unusual rendition of "Little Girl Blue." Here she uses a quirky beat pattern giving a different interpretation than one usually hears. To her credit, she also does a respectable, mid-tempo version of "But Not for Me." She is accompanied on all but one of the tracks by an assortment of small groups led by Michael Colicchio. On "Little Girl Blue," her husband Coleridge Perkinson does the honors. However, there is one constant on each track, her principal support is supplied by a bass player, never identified. The other instruments play subsidiary roles. Dodson was to cut another album for Columbia and one for Decca then seems to have disappeared not even remembered by a footnote in any of the standard works on vocal jazz."
Dave Nathan -All Music Guide
