Customer Reviews

Foggy Day

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After some deviation from their normally prompt service, I received this CD from Amazon as a gift for a family member, which did arrive a bit late for the birthday celebration for which it was intended.
In time for the 10th anniversary of the passing of the Velvet Fog, I pay homage to the smooth style of the jazz musician, and to a delightful CD featuring 20 numbers which take us through the sublime to the swingin'.
We start off with Torme's gentle vocal(backed by the Mel Tones) on "Try A Little Tenderness", then we audit the crooning of Bing Crosby on "Day By Day", then Mel returns to do the vocals on Rodgers' and Hammerstein's "I Got the Sun in the Morning" from "Annie Get Your Gun" , and on a fast-paced and lively Irving Berlin number, "There's No Business Like Show Business", and "It's the Same Old Dream".
Afterwards, he performs the CD's title song, "A Foggy Day", with a sunniness absent from Sinatra's version, then a melancholy sounding" Gone With the Wind", which has the same melody as the Glenn Miller instrumental, "Adios", then we hear "The Best Things in Life Are Free", which he sang in the 1947 film, "Good News", then a smooth and velvety version of "Blue Moon", followed by a spry version of the 1949 song, "Careless Hands" that was tailor made for jitterbuggers of the day, counterbalanced by an initially slow but pleasant version of "Oh You Beautiful Doll" that eventually picks up, giving prominence to the band's brass section.
A light pounding of bongos and female vocalization lend a certain exoticism to the wistful sounding narrative of "The Four Winds and the Seven Seas", then there is the light and lazy, "You're Getting to be a Habit With Me", the Rodgers and Hart classic, "Bewitched Bothered and Bewildered", after which Mel is joined by Peggy Lee on "The Old Master Painter".
We then hear his rendition of "Again", which also features bongo accompaniment, then a light number of a tune known by practically every piano student of the past seven decades, "Heart and Soul"--performed with a customary slight bounce, followed by the conventionally jazzy "All of You, and we end with Cole Porter's "Get Out of Town", to which the string and woodwind sections add much drama.
I was glad to know the designated listeners of this CD enjoyed it, and I highly recommend this album as an example of well performed American classics of the 20th century.