Customer Reviews

Lady Lonely

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I have just listened, as I have many, many times to an album called "Lady Lonely", by an incredible artist called Toni Harper. First of all Toni's voice is awesome. The quality of her tone and the depth of feeling in just the basic instrument itself, tells you it is coming from her soul. Then add to that her own emotional feelings, the songs and the charts and you have music to remember - I mean really remember!

I happen to know when this album is cut and I am totally amazed that it sounds as fresh and enjoyable today as the day it was made. Toni's style is timeless and certainly reaches a spot way down deep within you.

The selection of the material and the charts on the album are a joy to hear and certainly worthy of her artistry.

I was a singer and entertainment director at the Sands and New Frontiers hotels in Las Vegas for a number of years, and were I doing that job today I'd be looking for this lady to come out of retirement and thrill audiences as she has from the time she was 12 years old.

As others have remarked,Toni Harper's sound is timeless. She has a warm and lovely voice, at times reminiscent of Ella Fitzgerald's but somehow "darker". Marty Paich has surrounded her with lush strings, and they bring out a richness of tone that was not apparent on her small-group eponymous album on the Verve label which preceded this one. Several of the songs by novice songwriters on this album are very good indeed - my favourites are In the Dark of the Night and Nobody Home But the Blues - but there are also a couple that perhaps did not deserve the royal treatment Paich and Harper gave them. It's a tribute to both their talents, then, that the results are so transcendent.

Toni Harper retired from singing in the early 1960s when rock's ascendancy began in earnest,leaving only three albums and a guest appearance on a Verve various artists disc. A visit to her website shows that she has developed many other interests and that her music now comprises only a small part of a full, happy life. But how I wish there were more of it. Lady Lonely is a great place to begin discovering Toni Harper. I recommend both it and its successor, Night Mood, extremely highly.

Toni Harper was a child wonder--a girl singer with a fabulous instrument and understanding of music and lyrics beyond her years. She grew up to become a truly exceptional pop-jazz singer and this album is one of two she did for RCA which were absolutely outstanding. Here is an intelligent artist of great depth and feeling with a warm voice, perfect intonation and effective restraint. Miss Harper is so right about this album--it sounds as fresh today as when it first appeared.

We enjoy putting this CD in when we want or feel the need for substance. It is a disc that makes you yearn for a time past when words, the soul and a fine horn could fill up an entire room. Toni Harper has a voice that communicates both passion and intelligence. This really isn't a lady lonely...maybe just passionate and perhaps a bit wistful. If anyone is in the mood to treat themselves: step into the bubble-filled tub, add a glass of anything that tickles your nose, light a candle or two and slide back and listen to LADY LONELY.

This is all well and good, but nothing -- nothing -- compares to her first album, "Toni," recorded on Verve in the 50's and, thank God, re-released in 2006 and now available on iTunes. Not to mention that she was backed by Oscar Peterson, Herb Ellis, Ray Brown and Alvin Stoller. It is almost beyond praise. A simple, straightforward performance that rises to the best level of the art of music.