Customer Reviews

Jamaica/ Porgy and Bess

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

 

 

The welcome CD reissue of the famous album of highlights from PORGY AND BESS by Lena Horne and Harry Belafonte will make collectors happy. While not a "theatrical" or cast recording, it offers some exciting performances that have been long out-of-print.

JAMAICA, on the other hand, is a true original cast recording. The 1957 musical was originally written for Belafonte, but when he left the project Ricardo Montalban took on the role and the show was re-written to showcase Lena Horne.

RCA Victor's original cast recording has had a curious history. It was made just as the labels were transitioning from mono to stereo recording. At that time it was not possible to fit as much material on a stereo 12-inch LP as on its mono counterpart. RCA Victor issued JAMAICA in mono as LOC 1036 containing all the show's songs but leaving out the Overture and editing out the introductions to "Savannah's Wedding Day" and "What Good Does it Do?" A few months late a Living Stereo release came out as LSO 1036 and including the Overture but dropping 4 songs ("Pity the Sunset", "What Good Does it Do?", "For Every Fish" and "Savannah (Finale)") These issues were deleted in 1961. In 1965 RCA Victor re-released JAMAICA in mono and stereo as LOC/LSO 1103. Now, LOC 1103 was a direct reissue of LOC 1036. BUT...are you following all this? ... LSO 1103 had all the songs, includng the extended versions of "Savannah's Wedding Day" and "What Good Does it Do?" but like its mono counterpart, left off the Overture. The 1995 RCA Victor CD release had the complete song program and the Overture. That CD, sadly is now in cut-out limbo. THIS edition (paired with PORGY AND BESS) reissues the program as heard on the 1965 stereo LP edition (LSO 1103) and is missing the Overture.

With or without the Overture, the score of JAMAICA is quite enjoyable, even more so on disc where you don't have to deal with the show's book! This is one case where the songs work better out of context. Mostly, the numbers offer a chance for Lena to take the spotlight and belt out the great Harold Arlen numbers: "Pretty to Walk With", "Push De Button", "Cocoanut Sweet", "Napoleon" and especially "Ain't it de Truth." The last song was originally written for Lena to sing in the film version of CABIN IN THE SKY. It was cut from the final release prints of the film (Censors objected to the number being staged so that she sang it in a bubble bath!) so Arlen recycled it into JAMAICA. THAT'S the kind of patchwork show JAMAICA was and although it was a minor hit (557 performances) it will never be revived and you don't hear fans of the score clamouring for a revival. It was all about Lena Horne.

I have been waiting for the Horne/Belefonte version of "P&B" to come out on CD since CD's were invented!! And here it is! Of all the versions of "P&B" I own,this is the one I love the most.I have worn out about 5 of the LP's,since I bought the first one in '59,when I was 11,and now I will be able to listen to it forever. Harry and Lena's voices mesh together so perfectly,it's audio-heaven.Especially on "Bess,You is My Woman." What a gorgeous duet.The arrangements and orchestras are wonderful,too.If you love Gershwin;love Harry;love Lena,get this CD.
I have not listened to "Jamaica" yet,as I am so into listening to this "old friend" I found so many years ago.So this review is based only on "P&B." I will say that the audio quality is perfect,though.And if you love Lena and Ricardo,I'm sure you won't go wrong.

This great double-CD from the Collectables label includes two great cast albums: the original 1958 Broadway cast of JAMAICA and the 1959 studio cast of PORGY AND BESS, both starring the gorgeous Lena Horne.

In JAMAICA, one of the lovelier Broadway shows of the late 50s, Lena Horne stars as Savannah, and sings a gorgeous score written especially for her by Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg. The cast also includes Ricardo Montalban, Adelaide Hall, Josephine Premice and Ossie Davis.

I have absolutely fallen in love with this score, which features many beguiling numbers like "Cocoanut Sweet", "Pretty to Walk With", "Take it Slow, Joe", "Ain't it the Truth" (originally written for CABIN IN THE SKY), "Napoleon" and "Pity the Sunset".

PORGY AND BESS pairs Lena Horne with Harry Belafonte under the musical direction of Horne's husband Lennie Hayton. Horne is well-suited to the colorful score, and sings superb treatments of "I Wants to Stay Here" and "My Man's Gone Now". Harry Belafonte is wonderful singing "Oh, I Got Plenty of Nothin'" and "Bess, You is My Woman".

2 fabulous, long out-of-print cast albums, back and better than ever! Highly-recommended.

I've owned this Porgy & Bess record for many years and purchased the cd as soon as it came out. Harry's and Lena's voices on "Bess, You is My Woman Now" just sends chills up and down my spine. Their voices together are fabulous. I love to hear Lena sing "Summertime". This cd is 36 minutes 52 seconds long. Four songs are song by Lena, and four by Harry. The remainder are duets.

The second CD, Jamaica, was new to me. The CD length is 51:49. Six songs are sung by Lena, three songs are sung by Ricardo Montelban, 3 songs are duets with both Lena and Ricardo. The remainder of the songs are sung by Adelaide Hall, Josephine Premice, Ossie Davis and Augustine Rios. Some of these songs are duets. Lena, as usual, is wonderful. I particularly enjoyed "For Every Fish", sung by Adelaide Hall.

I thoroughly enjoyed both of these cd's. At listening volumes, the cd quality is very acceptable. If I turned up the volume a little louder than normal, I could hear a very tiny buzz. Still, I highly recommend these CDs to any fan of Lena Horne, Porgy & Bess, Harry Belafonte, show tunes...

This includes the classic Lena Horne/Harry Belafonte orgy and Bess. My mom had a record of it years ago, and was very excited to have the CD. It's beautiful, exactly what we expected. The other CD, Jamaica, we had never heard before, but it's lovely.

I used to play the record of Harry and Lena singing Porgy & Bess when I was a little kid and spent summers in the mountains with my aunts and cousins, so this was a trip back in time. I loved it then and I loved it again. My husband (a musician) who loves Lena Horne, also got into her version of Summertime and a few other songs. I really love the duet I Love You Porgy and Bess, You Is my Woman Now. Thanks!

"Jamaica" was largely a failure with the critics, but the show's poor reception was counterbalanced by the enthusiastic reviews Lena received. Perhaps too much was expected of the immortal Harold Arlen and Skip Harburg whereas audiences didn't know what to expect from the highly charged, mercurial, politicized Lena Horne, whose well-received cabaret act apparently was not enough to convince audiences that she could do the same as the star of a Broadway musical. But the panning of the Belafonte-Horne "Porgy and Bess" came from Lena herself, who did everything in her power to prevent release of the recording. Suppositions are wide-open, as the voices of Belafonte and Horne appear to mesh well, and Horne, especially, is as mellow as she is mellifluent. And perhaps therein lay the problem.

Lena was a performer who virtually insisted on personalizing all of her work with the stamp of the inimitable passionate and "stormy" Horne persona. Here she sounds too much like the composer's vehicle. Many "Porgy and Bess" recordings were in circulation, and some of them--Ella and Satchmo, Sammy Davis Jr. and Carmen McRae, Mel Torme and Frances Faye--achieved more musical distinction along with personal expression than the Belafonte/Horne offering. Rather than be relegated to an "alternative" offering, and a rather pale one (especially compared to Ella and Pops), Lena apparently preferred to surrender the field.