[Dixielandjazz] Re: Re:Mildred Bailey remembered

[Stan Brager]

Bill;

To me, "Weekend..." is the perfect example of "telling a story". Mildred is
not merely singing the words, she's giving the impression that she's singing
about an event which actually happened to her.

I agree that many of the Deccas of the 1941-42 period do not show Mildred to
her advantage but the ones which she's accompanied by Herman Chittison
brings out the best in Mildred. Of further interest, is a V-disc version of
"Down-Hearted Blues" - Mildred re-joins Red Norvo and a small group which he
had about that time (1944). This is actually on a Red Norvo CD. There are
also a body of recordings she made for the Savoy label in 1946 and 1947. Her
last recordings in the 1950's were marred by arrangements which seemed to
overpower her somewhat petite voice.

In general, her treatments of Alec Winder tunes is what got me interested in
his music. She nailed them all.

Stan
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bill Haesler" <bhaesler at bigpond.net.au>
To: "Stan Brager" <sbrager at socal.rr.com>; "dixieland jazz mail list"
<dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Thursday, May 12, 2005 10:14 PM
Subject: Re:Mildred Bailey remembered


> Dear Stan,
> I can't fault your Mildred selection, except that I've never been all that
> keen on "Weekend Of A Private Secretary".
> I fact, I had to play it again to remind myself of it.
> (Then left the rest of the CD run, of course.)
> Nor have I ever cared much for the commercial Deccas made in 1941-42, with
> several exceptions.
> Although I believe that I have everything that Mildred bailey did from Oct
> 1929 up to Feb 1942, her wartime material and later sides are
> under-represented in my collection. Most are rare and scattered across a
> mess of obscure records.
> Kind regards,
> Bill.
>
>
>
>