Customer Reviews

Love Shout

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If the Almighty Creator could make a jazz singer more perfect than Billie Holiday, it would be Etta Jones. When I first heard this LP in the 60's, it came as a revelation. I had missed Lady Day in her prime, but the strength of Etta's voice, the distinctive phrasing, the unique interpretations of familiar material, and the engineering of jazz recording guru Rudy Van Gelder combined to produce, if not a timeless experience, an album for all time. Suddenly the old Columbia recordings of Billie, which had seemed to be approximations of what she must have sounded like in person, came fully alive in the very "present" voice of Etta Jones and the magic of high fidelity sound. Etta has a voice whose quality, placement, and delivery are as "natural," effortless, and unforced as the blossoming of a gardenia or the ripening of fruit on the vine. She's the only jazz singer I know who can take Rodgers and Hammerstein "schmaltz" ("If I Loved You," "Some Enchanted Evening") and deliver it so directly and believably that you're almost ashamed you once assumed it required the Ezio Pinza/Mary Martin faux operatic treatment.

As is the case with Sarah, Carmen, and Billie herself, Etta's voice underwent changes over the course of her career, making it all the more desireable to have a record of it at its very peak. "Love Shout" captures her at that exact moment, and should be considered no less indispensable than her other classic album from this era, "Don't Go to Strangers."