Customer Reviews

Art of Mabel Mercer

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At last, Miss Mercer's best work is on CD. Mabel Mercer is definitely an acquired taste like Billie Holiday (who was a Mercer devotee), and this disc contains all of her 10" Atlantic LPs. Put yourself in the pre-dawn world of an early 1950s NYC nightspot, and immerse yourself into Mabel's classic readings of both famous and rare songs.

This is the perfect disc to encouter Mabel Mercer for the first time. She's at her peak here: her intonation dead-on, her diction perfect and her musicianship as superb as it got. Many fine singers credit her for all they learned about singing from listening to her. These 1950s recordings show why. If you care about singing you won't be disappointed.

Mabel Mercer was definitely an acquired taste, but once she grabs a hold of you, you'll wonder how you did without her. Mabel's influence was broad, and stars like Frank Sinatra and Billie Holiday, all shared a common passion for her one-of-a-kind storytelling. She may not have had a "beautiful" voice, but her phrasing was unique and completely her own, and her diction was spot on, which allowed the listener to fully comprehend every single word she sang. On this wonderful collection, she works her magic and traverses through a bunch of well-known standards, and some obscure and forgotten gems as well. She wasn't a Jazz singer like Sarah Vaughan or Ella Fitzgerald, but she was quite possibly the finest Cabaret singer of her day. Eartha Kitt, Lena Horne, Josephine Baker, Maxine Sullivan, Della Reese, and the list goes on. Her influence was immense, and I pray to god that her legacy will not be forgotten in the years to come.