1946-1952

Beryl Booker | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 16, 2006)
• Original Release Date: 2006
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Classics France
• ASIN: B000E6GDZ6
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #429,396 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Low Ceiling

2. Oops! My Lady

3. I Only Have Eyes for You

4. Don't Blame Me

5. One for the Road

6. Easy to Love

7. You've Changed

8. I Can Dream, Can't I

9. Someone to Watch Over Me

10. That Old Black Magic

11. They Can't Take That Away from Me

12. I Wished on the Moon

13. What Have I to Live For

14. Man with a Horn

15. A Handful of Stars (Stairway to the Stars)

16. Moonlight Saving Time

17. Where Were You?

18. You Better Go Now

19. Let's Fall in Love

20. Darn That Dream

See all 26 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Beryl Booker, November 9, 2006

By 

Bomojaz (South Central PA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 1946-1952 (Audio CD)

This is the first of what will probably amount to two CDs by Beryl Booker in the Chronological Classics series of her complete works. The disc contains her first session for Victor from 1946, a couple of sessions for Sittin' in With from 1949, and two Mercury dates from 1952; all of them are trio sessions except for one of the Mercurys which adds Budd Johnson and Don Elliott to the proceedings. Booker was a fine piano player and a pretty good singer, too - a handful of vocal tracks are included; she sings with a pleasing smoky voice. She puts a bluesy spin in her vocals on both the Gershwin standards SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME and THEY CAN'T TAKE THAT AWAY FROM ME.

Most of the tunes here are ballads taken in slow tempo, and Booker plays in two distinct styles. One of them is similar to Erroll Garner's chordal approach (most evident on I ONLY HAVE EYES FOR YOU, THAT OLD BLACK MAGIC, and I WISHED ON THE MOON), while the other is more single-noted where she plays notes off each other in distinct patterns (best displayed on MAN WITH A HORN, DON'T BLAME ME, and BUT BEAUTIFUL). This latter approach is rather unique and very attractive. Booker fell off the jazz radar screen after 1954, but these early recordings are very nice indeed.