VINTAGE STARR: Quality AND quantity!
Jim Brooks | Aberdeen, Scotland | 05/12/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"With Jasmine's fantastic bargain double CD set, all Kay Starr's Capitol albums are now available complete on CD, and not before time. Shame on you, EMI and Capitol!
The tracks on the three albums in question were recorded between 1947 and 1954, the duration of Kay's first Capitol contract. With the exception of 8 tracks for "In a blue Mood" from Kay's final sessions with Capitol in November 1564 they were originally issued as singles. The original albums "Songs by Kay Starr" (1950), "The Kay Starr Style" (1953) and "In a blue mood" (1955) were released in 10" format, then 4 tracks were later added to each and the albums reissued in 12" albums.
"Songs by Kay Starr" is an attractive and wide-ranging collection of blues and ballads, reminding the listener that Kay was perhaps the only vocalist who could, indeed sing anything, from dreamy, lovelorn ballads like "A faded summer love" to out-and-out blues like "Mercy, mercy, mercy" (also known as "Inflation blues") and "Steady, daddy" - a surprisingly racy, innuendo-laden number for 1947. Billie Holiday said that Kay was the only white girl singer who knew how to sing the blues, and these tracks prove her right.
"The Kay Starr Style" is a more up-beat album, although Kay's powerful, torchy ballad style is in evidence in "It's the talk of the town" and "I just couldn't take it baby". How easily she can lighten those potent, burnished tones to encompass bouncy numbers like her famous version of "Side by side" with its innovate and catchy multi-tracking and "Too busy". This album contrives to be remarkably undated yet very much of its time - those glory years when Kay was never out of the charts.
The tone is sombre for "In a blue mood", a sort of album-noir if you like. But no one does unrequited, lost and hopeless love better, and this album is a triumph for Kay, who holds the mood and the listener's attention throughout. The slow tempi allow Kay lots of freedom, and she seizes the opportunity to present a heady mix of dramatic, bluesy, jazz phrasing in a way that it totally her own.
This generous selection is completed with 14 singles tracks from 1955 and 1956, when Kay joined RCA. They're all catchy, chart-angled numbers showing the influence of rock and roll in the arrangements and more reverberant, brash recordings than with Capitol.
If the Capitol tracks show how great Kay is with good material, the RCA tracks show equally well how much she brings to less worthy material, making it sound so much better than it is.
Jasmine appears to have brightened up the Capitol sound and added a discrete amount of reverb. "Songs by Kay Starr" is now a little over-bright, but that can easily be tamed; "The Kay Starr Style" and especially "In a Blue Mood" have never sounded better. Congratulations to Jasmine, whose quality presentation - including a cover portrait which is one of Kay's personal favourites does full justice to Miss Starr. Don't think twice - go for it. This album is what one-click ordering was invented for!
"
Another fantastic cd
dreamer | las vegas | 05/10/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"this cd and "ultimate starr"cd finally capitol is releasing all her songs...it's about time....what a fabulous cd..thanks capitol"
Track Listings (28) - Disc #1