AVID Jazz presents four classic Lee Wiley albums plus including original LP liner notes on a finely re-mastered and low priced double CD.
“Night In Manhattan”, “Lee Wiley Sings Vincent Youmans & Irving Berlin”, “West of the Moon” ,”A Touch of Blues” plus two tracks from “The Wide Wide World of Jazz”.
As one of the most notable vocalists in circulation Lee Wiley began her career at fifteen and was soon appearing on radio and co-starring with Paul Whiteman thus gaining unusually rapid public exposure without the touring and word of mouth normally required at the time. For “A Night in Manhattan” she is joined by Bobby Hackett, Stan Freeman, Joe Bushkin and Cy Walter. Our next selection does what it says on the album cover! “Lee Wiley Sings Vincent Youmans & Irving Berlin”, although Ms. Wiley does choose many songs that are perhaps not the most obvious by two such great composers. Ably accompanied by the piano duo of Stan Freeman and Cy Walter, Ms. Wiley shows what a magnificent song stylist she was, always “ digging as deeply as possible into the song and exploring the meaning of the lyrics and melody”. We travel “West of the Moon” in 1956 for our next meeting with Ms. Wiley. Along with her arranger and band leader Ralph Burns, Lee spent many hours selecting the songs for this date with one particular criteria in mind….”there would be nothing that Ms. Wiley had ever recorded before”. The range of songs meant three different bands were used, one “accenting strings, harp and a light rhythm”, another “swinging in the Red Norvo style” and the third “a tightly woven jazz band”. “A Touch of the Blues” from 1957 finds Ms. Wiley in the company of amongst others Billy Butterfield as leader and trumpet man, Al Cohn and Bill Finegan as arrangers, Moe Wechsler on piano, Mundell Lowe on guitar, Milt Hinton on bass and Don Lamond on drums.
All four albums plus have been digitally re-mastered
CD1
1-12: ‘Night In Manhattan’
1. Manhattan
2. I’ve Got A Crush On You
3. A Ghost Of A Chance
4. Oh! Look At Me Now
5. How Deep Is The Ocean
6. Time On My Hands
7. Street Of Dreams
8. A Woman’s Intuition
9. Sugar
10. Any Time, Any Day, Anywhere
11. Soft Lights And Sweet Music
12. More Than You Know
13-24: ‘Lee Wiley Sings Vincent Youmans & Irving Berlin’
13. Tea For Two
14. Sometimes I’m Happy
15. Rise ‘n’ Shine
16. Should I Be Sweet?
17. Keepin’ Myself For You
18. Why, Oh, Why?
19. Some Sunny Day
20. I Got Lost In His Arms
21. Heat Wave
22. Fools Fall In Love
23. How Many Times
24. Supper Time
25. Stars Fell On Alabama from The Wide, Wide World Of Jazz
26. Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans from The Wide, Wide World Of Jazz
CD2
1-12: ‘West Of The Moon’
1. You’re A Sweetheart
2. This Is New
3. You Must Have Been A Beautiful Baby
4. Who Can I Turn To Now?
5. My Ideal
6. Can’t Get Out Of This Mood
7. East Of The Sun (West Of The Moon)
8. I Left My Sugar Standing In The Rain
9. Moonstruck
10. Limehouse Blues
11. As Time Goes By
12. Keepin’ Out Of Mischief Now
13-24: ‘A Touch Of The Blues’
13. The Memphis Blues
14. From The Land Of The Sky Blue Water
15. The Ace In The Hole
16. Someday You’ll Be Sorry
17. My Melancholy Baby
18. A Hundred Years From Today
19. Blues In My Heart
20. Maybe You’ll Be There
21. Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea
22. I Don’t Want To Walk Without You
23. Make Believe
24. A Touch Of The Blues
