Two styles of Kay
Barry Plaxen | Bloomingburg, NY United States | 01/28/2001
(5 out of 5 stars)
""I Cry By Night" is an example of Kay's pop-influenced jazz singing. "Losers Weepers" is the ultimate jazz-influenced pop singing album made during Kay's prime, the late 50s and early 60s, a few years after her top-of-the-charts career. "Into Each Life Some Rain Murt Fall" is the perfect example of her rhythmic approach to standards and "When I Lost You" is the most moving version of this Irving Berlin masterpiece I have ever heard. Each and every one of the standards on this half of the disc range from excellent to brilliant. I own every recording ever made by Kay, and Loser's Weepers is my favorite."
Starr at her starriest
Barry Plaxen | 06/09/1999
(5 out of 5 stars)
"A great hitmaker, blues shouter and jazz singer, Kay Starr is also a superlative ballad singer, and these two albums are her best as a serious interpreter of songs and love, the sad variety. With great arrangements in support, she approaches these songs with tremendous insight, aided by her great feeling for melody. For someone who could come on a Las Vegas stage and take it by storm, it's amazing that given a sympathetic setting she could be the thoughful, affecting artist Capitol Records always believed to her to be. The songs here range from standards to seldom-heard, all interpreted unforgettably by this great singer."
"I Cry By Night" is the difinitive Kay Starr ballad album...
06/07/2000
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Her last LP for Capital Records, in the early 60's was "I Cry By Night," Jazz sax player Ben Webster gets plenty of solo space to improvise along with Kay Starr's bluesy and truly jazz tinged vocals(she sings the blues the Jimmy Rushing way, not the Doris Day way). Starr who started out as a jazz singer, and who sold out to commercial successes like "Wheel A Fortune" because she couldn't make money, as a jazz singer. However even in her commercial hit songs Starr is a jazz singer. Starr must have been delighted to do an album like "Cry By Night," where she could genuinely be a "jazz singer" again, accompanied by a jazz combo featurning Ben Webster. Starr reprises some fine old chestnuts like "Baby Won't You Please Come Home," and "Whispering Grass." "I Cry By Night" is truly a difinitive jazz oriented session by a great and under-rated jazz singer. "Losers Weepers" which was also recorded for Capital in the late 50's, wasn't as jazzy, it features lush string arrangements, and mostly ballads, but is still very enjoyable, but a little more middle of the road. An essential CD with two classic Kay Starr sessions. Highly recommeded."
Track Listings (24) - Disc #1
