Black Coffee (Dig) [Original recording remastered]

Peggy Lee | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 26, 2004)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Label: Verve
• ASIN: B0002XNMCS
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #63,805 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

During the early '50s, Peggy Lee rode high on the strength of her own taste into stardom - she was a glamorous beacon whose sultry voice gave her performances a shimmering eroticism. Black Coffee may be the greatest album of her genuine "concept albums." Originally recorded in 1953, Lee turned Black Coffee into a jazz project - something no other mainstream pop singer had done up to that point. It was so successful that three years later, Decca asked her to expand it into the newer 12" format. Many years later, she named this album as her own favorite. The songs in this collection reveal Peggy Lee at her most captivating. Here she displays a versatility which matches her wonderful vitality, emphasizing the quality of her voice as well as the music.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Jazz Lady, May 5, 2006

By 

Samuel Chell (Kenosha,, WI United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Black Coffee (Dig) (Audio CD)

This is in some respects an unlikely assemblage of talents. When's the last time you heard a major popular singer accompanied not by an orchestra or big band, not by a rhythm section (piano, bass, drums), not even by a rhythm section plus tenor saxophone but by a rhythm section plus trumpet? The trumpet player, Pete Candoli (referred to as "Cootie Chesterfield" on the original LP), moreover provides just enough brightness and fire to offset the "cool," low-key approach of Peggy as well as to push this normally controlled, perfectionist performer into some uncharacteristically spontaneous, even surprising, readings of familiar material. Compared to her straight-laced, flawless but stiff and sterile "live" session with George Shearing's trio, this is great jazz singing, as worthy of the description as any recording by a Billie Holiday or Carmen McRae.

As for individual tracks, Peggy makes practically each of these songs the standard by which all other readings of the same tune can be compared (give "I've Got You Under My Skin" to Sinatra-Riddle, but the others I can scarcely "hear" any more when performed by anyone other than Lee). Besides the sultry, bluesy "Black Coffee," listen to her set fire to "Make Room for Daddy," register vulnerability and a hint of pain on the sublime "Easy Living," celebrate life as a "Grand" affair with her swinging anapests on "I Didn't Know What Time It Was," and make you succumb to her alternate gospel on "It Ain't Necessarily So." But for me the highlights are the meditative reading of "When the World Was Young," the whispery, ethereal "You're My Thrill," and the positively sinful "There a Small Hotel" (if a more seductive invitation has ever been offered in music, I have yet to hear it).

Unlike other "torch singers," there are few traces of angst, masochism, and "hard-knocks" in Peggy's storytelling, yet she makes each song stick indelibly. There's something utterly transparent about her approach to her material, a quality that makes you forget she's singing for you rather than conversing with you. She draws you into her intimate circle, making you her privileged confidant.

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Peggy's best album and one of the "ten greatest vocal jazz albums of all time.", August 10, 2006

By 

Mary Whipple (New England) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Black Coffee (Dig) (Audio CD)

Included on many lists as one of the ten greatest vocal jazz albums ever, "Black Coffee", recorded in 1953 and 1956, has always been Peggy Lee's own favorite album. Few listeners will be able to resist her ability to turn a standard into a magic moment in jazz history here, as Lee, a great actress with a song, sets up narrative intros of such drama that she seems to be telling personal stories. She varies the melodies, shifts from major to minor, experiments with phrasing, and totally commits herself to pure jazz.

When she sings "Black Coffee," for example, her changes from major to minor, with a single trumpet (Pete Candoli) echoing or wailing in the background, emphasize her anguish, and every listener will believe her agony, as she sings about being "low to the ground," with "not much heart to fight." "Easy Living," a song-poem celebrating being in love, is so intense it will make everyone wish to have a love like hers. "It Ain't Necessarily So," sung slower than usual, is sexy and suggestive, with a bass that resembles a heartbeat.

Two favorites (though it's hard to choose among all these winners) are "My Heart Belongs to Daddy," the song of a flirt who celebrates her love and wails, even while thinking of straying, and "When the World Was Young," a narrative song of Paris, which echoes the "Marseillaise" in its opening bars, as a woman reminisces about life in Paris, summer in Bordeaux, and the passage of time: "Where is the schoolgirl that used to be me?" Intensely emotional and very personal, Lee's interpretations reflect her confidence and her mature appreciation of lyrics, as, with perfect pitch, she plays with the melodies and soars.

Eight tracks from 1953 are recorded with Pete Candoli (trumpet), Jimmy Rowles (piano), Max Wayne (bass), and Ed Shaughnessy (drums). Four other songs, recorded in 1956, feature a whole different accompaniment--Stella Castellucci (harp), Lou Levy (piano), Bill Pitman (guitar), Buddy Clark (bass), and Larry Bunker on vibes, drums, and percussion. Though some listeners may prefer the trumpet-oriented jazz with Candoli to the harp, guitar, and vibes of the 1956 songs, Lee adapts equally well to both approaches, creating an album which has turned my respect for her talent and perfectionism into enthusiastic love for her spirit, imagination, and creativity. n Mary Whipple

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of Peggy Lee's very best., December 7, 2004

By 

I. Sondel "I. Sondel - lover of the arts" (Tallahassee, FL United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Black Coffee (Dig) (Audio CD)

This is another of my very favorite CDs. "I've Got You Under My Skin," "My Heart Belongs To Daddy," "I Didn't Know What Time It Was," "Love Me or Leave Me," "There's a Small Hotel" and, best of all, the title tune "Black Coffee." This CD is a treat from start to finish. If you love great singers performing American pop standards, you're not going to want to miss this.