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'Uptown Lounge' Spotlights Classic Vocalists

03/26/1999

(4 out of 5 stars)

"`UPTOWN LOUNGE' COMPILATION SPOTLIGHTS ROLE OF CLASSIC AFRICAN-AMERICAN BLUES & JAZZ VOCALISTS WOODLAND HILLS, Calif. - TheUptown Lounge compilation album, scheduled for street date on April 20 on The Right Stuff label, celebrates the evolution of the lounge music scene from the point of view of a Harlem nightclub. The album features such world class singers as Nina Simone, Lena Horne, Lou Rawls, Nancy Wilson, Nat King Cole, Joe Williams, Sarah Vaughan, Arthur Prysock, Dinah Washington, Carmen McRae, Louis Armstrong, Esther Phillips and Sammy Davis, Jr., and more. Setting the mood for this heady procession, annotator Richard Torres (contributor to New Yorker, Newsday and XXL) writes, "You know behind that drape is a stage where only the best entertainers dare to tread. Performers who sing the finest Broadway, Hollywood and Tin Pan Alley can offer. Singers who spill their life experience into each lyric. Vocalists who embody cool yet give it all up to thrill an appreciative crowd." Among the classics contained here are Nina Simone's "My Baby Just Cares About Me," infused with the singer's ability to, as Torres writes, "warm or chill a listener to the bone." Della Reese interprets "The Lady is A Tramp" in a worthy nod to her nightclub days. Lena Horne's reading of "Stormy Weather" ably mines the heartache and pathos of the original. Lou Rawls delivers a soulful "You're The One," while Nancy Wilson turns emotions to fever pitch with "Sufferin' With The Blues." Nat King Cole contributes "Walkin' My baby Back Home," topped with the signature saxophone of Billy May, while Count Basie alumnus Joe Williams shows his blues prowess in "Confessing The Blues." Sarah Vaughan swings on the torchy "You Stepped Out Of A Dream." Arthur Prysock steers his legendary bartitone into "The Very Thought Of You." Billy Eckstine's "Taking A Chance On Love" captures the be-bop balladeer at his vocal peak, as does Dinah Washington's reading of Nat King Cole's "Unforgettable." Carmen McRae was a leading interpreter of lyrics, illustrated by her "Exectly Like You." Louis Armstrong's "A Kiss To Build A Dream On," made the charts in 1993, thanks to its appearance in "Sleepless In Seattle." Bobby Short gives a sophisticated and heartfelt treatment to Rogers & Hart's "Manhatten," and Esther Phillips - whose career spanned blues to disco - turned in a tasty "Girl From Ipanema." That leaves Sammy Davis Jr., who with his rendition of "Lush Life," according to Torres, "sings from the heart and stops the show.""