The iPod Observer

Music Review - An Evening with George Shearing & Mel Torm�

• An Evening with George Shearing & Mel Torm�

  • 5 out of 5
  • Mel Torm� & George Shearing
  • Reviewed by Ricky Spero
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  • Of the three men who taught me how to sing, the last was Mel Torme. Apparently, Mel Torme is a joke to anyone more than a decade older than me, a living parody of a Vegas crooner. But I stumbled on this album, the first of four that he recorded with the brilliant pianist George Shearing, without any cultural baggage, and all I heard was the music.Torme is an instrumentalist's singer. A capable pianist and drummer in his own right, Torme could wring a ballad dry (as in "Might as Well Be Spring"), then spin around and scat as reckless a solo as any I've heard (I exhibit the Baroque-sounding groove he and Shearing strike up in "Lullaby of Birdland"). The album also sparkles with Shearing's swing-like-hell style at the keyboard, which helps produce some the happiest tracks ever recorded, including "Give Me the Simple Life" and "Manhattan Hoedown." - Ricky Spero

   

   

   

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A guest said: (hide)

Mon Jul 18, 2005 12:04 pm

I also love this album, but I cringe at your description of Mel, who is, alas, no longer with us. He is simply one of the all time greats. Writing "The Christmas Song" alone would have made him immortal, not to mention "Lullabye of Birdland." I became a fan when I saw him front the Gerry Mulligan band at a Boston Globe Jazz Festival. While ti's true that the vagaries of the record industry caused him to make some unfortunate song choices later in his career (and he was not alone in this), that does not change the fact that he was always one of the "coolest cats" around. His biography reveals that Marilyn Monroe turned to him for friendship and, um, solace, in some of her darkest hours. I put Mel right there with Ella for the best popular singers of the twentieth century.

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A guest said: (hide)

Sun Aug 13, 2006 8:46 pm

Solace, nice way of putting it.

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