Customer Reviews

Cocktail Hour: Josephine Baker

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have read the two reviews for this CD and wish to say that they both are terribly misleading. Yes, perhaps Josephine Baker is not everyone's cup of tea, but this two-disc collection is a lot of fun to listen to and enjoy. The sound quality is not at all raspy, slurry or fuzzy, although you can tell that these are vintage recordings which have been re-mastered onto CD. They are probably from 78 rpm records or maybe even old film soundtracks. I found the sound quality to be very clear and good considering the source materials available! Columbia River Entertainment Group has done a nice job packaging these "Cocktail Hour" sets, of which I own five and plan to buy more in the future. Please, if you plan to buy this lovely Josephine Baker CD, ignore the bad reviews and don't be influenced by them at all. Thanks for reading my review, direct all comments to BrideOfCyrano@aol.com

The songs on this album are great songs, but the sound quality is DIPLORABLE!!! What a DISAPPOINTMENT. I really like Josephine's style and voice, but you can barely make out the words on this muffled slurred CD. It's like looking at a beautiful piece of art thats blurry. I am assuming that all the records in the "Cocktail Hour" series are just as bad judging from the reviews I've seen. Too bad I didn't do my research before making this purchase. My advice to other customers...look for the same songs elsewhere. Don't waste your money on this.

Nasty quality, slurry, blurry, harsh and poorly remastered. Truly sounds like a series of well-worn 78's. If that's your thing, you'll enjoy this recording. But, if you're interested in actually being able to HEAR Josephine's remarkable voice, then there's little little reason to waste your money on this 3rd rate effort, given the broad choice of much better remasterings available.

It's not everybody's taste. Some people are not going to like it no matter what you say or do. The vert? Creme glacee? Oh, no! Take it away.

Maybe its because I began by listening to phonographs before they were electrified. I used to love to climb on a stool and wind them up. The smell! Mahagony, dust and sewing machine oil. It makes a difference in how you percieve sound, and singing. Why do people like to listen to Ethel Merman? Individuality, I guess. A love of the unique.

What people have either forgotten, or perhaps never known, is that when LE JAZZ HOT first hit Paris, the Parisians heard it from America's great clarinettist Sidney Bechet, who played in the New Orleans Creole style. It was all new, then. New! If you want to understand la Baker's phrasing, put on some Bechet and you'll see that she's only doing with her voice what Bechet does with his reed.

Joy! It takes over your body. Me, I just go nuts when Josephine sings. You can't sit down. Only got to see/hear her twice, in the 50s, in her Black Pearl period. But I've seen her movies and just loved the sound of her records; loved her 'Voh, do de oh, dohs.' Here, it sounds as if the first few of these songs were recorded in performance halls, as she stood on stage before an old-time floor mike, singing and watching the director below. She follows his beat just as though she were singing and dansing on stage in a review, with dansers and other singers all around. Dis Moi Josephone? isn't bad, and My Fate Is In Your Hands, which could as well have been sung by Helen Morgan, Ruth Etting or any other of her contemporaries. But by the time she gets to Si j'Etas Blanche she's up to speed, and the director's following her, for a much better result. Disc #2 is of a pretty uniform quality. Besame Mucho is good, and Aux Iles Hawaii. But, listen to I've Got You Under My Skin: [Vous etes parti de moi] Why, its like Astaire; a song you dance to, or a dance you sing to. And the rest of them, except for Peg o' My Heart, swing. But Peg, like Melancholy Baby, is to quiet the drunks.

Is it a Nightclub album? I don't think so. At least not the way I think of nightclubs, since I was old enough to get inside one. But there's a lot of music written in the early 30s, when the intimate nightclub style was being formed because of the economic collaose of '29. Transition stuff. Entertainment became cheaper and more intimate in the new small clubs and speakeasies, as Broadway Show-Tunes and Minstrelry gave way to boite or cabaret entertainment, like The Little Review, or Cole Porter or Noel Coward songs. All I know is, when I hear that music I want to put on a tux, jump in a cab, put my eldow up on a mahagony bar and have myself an icy-cold Martini.

Let me hear it now!

"J'ai deux amours,
Mon pays et Paris.
Et pour toujours,
Mon coeur est ravi.
Ah! Demain, c'est belle,
Il etait dans la nier.
Mais aujourd'hui
Il est Paris,
Paris tout entiere.
Le noir en jours,
Mes beaux reves jolie...
J'ai deux amours,
Mon pays et Paris."

Sing forever, Josephine, from your mouth to God's ear.

Ignore the previous ill-informed and sour reviews, these 2 discs are a brilliant collection of Josephine Baker's early years and the remastering is remarkable given the source material. The singing is clean and clear and the instrumentation pops out with a natural nostalgic sheen. Any significant pops and clicks have been removed with minimal loss of sound quality and this disc can stand beside any remastered recording of it's era. This bargain set beautifully highlights her early years in a collection apparently culled from primarily 78's and direct to disc sources in the 20's and 30's. I say apparently because there are no liner notes, which aside from the generic graphics are really this CD's only flaws.

Stand outs on the 2 disc set are a smoky "Besame Mucho" (in English) and a French/English version of "I"ve got You Under My Skin", and for me, the definitive version of "Brazil."

If you want better, more modern recordings try the RCA Living Stereo collection from the 1950's, though you will find her voice had grown darker and huskier by then.

Take these previous reviews with a grain of salt (or a lump) as I'm sure the historical and artistic significance of Josephine Baker escapes the parochial tastes of the previous reviewers. Or, to be generous maybe they listened to an entirely different CD.

I too have to disagree with the negative reviews of this collection. When I first heard it, the scratchy 78rpm quality was distracting. But the fact of hearing all these super-fabulous original numbers wins out. Her version of "Brazil" (which is an old standard recently re-popularized by Pink Martini) totally out-rocks their version. When she sings 'I've Got You Under My Skin" and "You're Driving Me Crazy" - well she shows how it should be done. My personal favorite is "Aux Iles Hawaii" which is an over-the-top, almost jibberish expression of Jazz Age joy. And she goes from French to English to Spanish with ease and grace. An American black woman French speaking superstar of her time . . . even Viennese architect Adolf Loos designed her a house in Paris (1927). Her talent is as timeless as people then knew it would be.