Legendary Lee Wiley: Collector's Item 1931-55

Lee Wiley | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 9, 1999)
• Original Release Date: March 2, 1999
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Baldwin Street Music
• ASIN: B00000I4ZO
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #332,616 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Time On My Hands [Take 1]

2. Leave These Reminders For You

3. A Hundred Years From Today [Take A]

4. Hands Across The Table [Take B]

5. You're So Indiff'rent

6. All I Remember Is You

7. Wherever There's Love

8. The Man I Love

9. Someone To Watch Over Me

10. (It's Only A) Paper Moon

11. Body And Soul

12. I Still Suits Me

13. Sugar

14. A Woman Alone With The Blues

15. Memories Of You

16. But Not For Me

17. When A Lady Meets A Gentleman Down South

18. Paradise

19. Careless Love

20. The Old Man Of The Mountain

See all 25 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews

CD features ee Wiley.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You Will Never Forget The "Feel" of Her Voice, July 3, 2000

By 

Harry Chandless (Hasbrouck Heights, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Legendary Lee Wiley: Collector's Item 1931-55 (Audio CD)

Get this CD. Here she is: the great Lee Wiley, who sings with such feeling and that exquisite breathy, earthy sound to her voice, that the jazz numbers she sings come to life and so does she. It is to her credit that she sang with the jazz greats such as Eddie Condon' s groups and it brought out the best in her deep feeling and understanding of the moods. Most jazz historians know that she began singing at 15 with Reisman's band on cut No.1. Here, the writer of the liner notes choses right off the bat to start his hatchet job by saying; "he knows" she was born in 1908 and not 1915. Who cares? Aren't we talking about music? Or is he? (Here comes a "no" vote from him probably, just as on my other review of her first CD.) As if getting ready to write a book, the writer goes on to take cheap shots at her throughout the liner notes, pretending to show such praise for her wonderful singing. Her greatest moments come from her singing with Eddie Condon's groups (which was a collection of the greatest jazz musicians of the day), on tracks 7, 8, 9, 22, and 23. The writer, obviously not a jazz devotee, disagrees. And he blames her spendthrift ways (as if the writer would know) for ruining Jess Stacy's band and her marriage to Jess Stacy. And later he refers to her as the "old warhorse" on tracks 17-20 in 1954. Her Cherokee Indian background would groan at that remark.

Critics know that pianist Jess Stacy's band (which the writer says Wiley talked him into setting up) was not great. You can hear it on tracks 10, 13, 14, 15, 16, 24 and 25. That band was an insipid, "elevator music" group, with no jazz instincts. Listen to the tracks mentioned. Wiley would never have inspired the formation of such a group. But she loved the guy and did the best she could. Only Wiley's majestic effort pulls the Stacy band through on those tracks. And note that Stacy had played piano with Eddie Condon's group, (or didn't the writer know? ) and did so beautifully behind Wiley on those numbers. With his own band it sounds like Stacy is playing with one finger. Tracks 1,2,3,7,8,9,22 and 23 are the ones you will never forget. Get the CD and set up those tracks.

Anyway, read the liner notes and then throw them away. But listen to Lee Wiley ---her sound will never leave you. There are those who know she was a beautiful lady, taken advantage of by many in the business because of her age. But no one can take away the beauty of her music.