Customer Reviews

Mrs. Swing

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All I can say is that I bought this box, listened to it more than any other collection of music I've ever owned, and then started buying all 9 CDs in the Chronological Classics of Mildred Bailey series. Never since I first discovered the recordings of Lee Wiley and Ethel Waters did a voice stun and touch me like hers. Her voice has been described as light and sweet, which it is, but that belies the amazing complexity and emotionally wrenching quality of her best performances (of which there are many). Witness her version of "Rockin' Chair", easily the best version of the song I have ever heard. All I can say is, if you think you enjoy vocal jazz and don't know Mildred, you've got a lot of listening to do.
Buy this set for a cheap introduction to Mildred Bailey, although you may find yourself wanting more as I did.
(Let me also recommend the music of Ethel Waters, Anita O'Day, Connee Boswell, Annette Hanshaw and Lee Wiley, other superlative, jazz singers who are not heard nearly enough today.)

Mildred Bailey was not just the first real Jazz band singer. She was one of the earliest real jazz singers and she continued to have a jazz based strain to her singing throughout her career unlike some singers with her success who might have gone more pop. She was fun. She was fun. She was fun. She jived, she joked, she played.

She is just so good you can't just have dribs and drops and drabs, you need the Box Set. Oh Mildred we miss you soooo bad!

You are going to smile when you hear Mildred and know she is really serious when she is serious. She could bring out the jazz in the most wooden of accompaniest, but usually she had great musicians, white, black or otherwise playing behind her, because Mildred is fun.

In an age before television, Bailey continued to have fans white and Black who did not know she was white. This remains true even recently when I have loaned tapes of Mildred to other African Americans without any liner notes or anything and had them ask why they had never heard of this great Black singer.

However, I do find it distressing that Mildred Bailey seems to be so forgotten. She was the first prominent female band singer in Jazz. She was and is fun to listen to and a great voice. Mildred was actually able to swing and swing hard even with Paul Whiteman. She produced masterpieces using some of the same small groups as Billie Holday for HER Columbia recordings, although Bailey semed to prefer Herschal Evans to Lester Young. Bailey was also pretty out front for the time as a white female singer performing with an all black combo--"Mildred Baily and Her Oxford Browns." Mildred was simply magnificent in the small combos her husband Red Novro organized, She had a sense of humor about her performances and a bit of salaciousness that you won't find in Billie's recordings.

I don't think it was just out of sentimentality, but in tribute to her artistry, that Sinatra and Bing Crosby (who owed his career to Bailey's bringing him in contact with Whiteman)spent thousands of dollars helping her out in the last years of her life when health problems and the end of her career led her to very hard times.

Mildred was a great singer, a great jazz pioneer, and a lot of fun. How does anyone get along without the joy her music has brought to my life. There have been times when my life was worse than it is now when I was depressed and just thinking about one of Mildred's tracks on this CD started to turn my life around!

Mildred Bailey, initially heavily influenced by Bessie Smith and Ethel Waters, chose not to follow either the blues style or the melodic ballad method they each had made their own. In fact, when Mildred recorded her first songs in 1929, she could claim to be the first successful white female jazz vocalist, having taken a similar route as Billie Holiday who she admired. However, their voices were dissimilar, with Mildred's having a high bell-like quality enabled by perfect diction, and the ability to interpret lyrics in a believable way which heightened any song's sentiments. Both she and Billie had careers which were beset with personal problems and resulted in their early deaths - in Mildred's case at age 48. Compared with Billie, Mildred's recording career has received less attention, and this four CD set containing 100 tracks from the initial 1929 recording session follows through the years until 1942. Fortunately, Mildred was usually backed by the very best musicians and she recorded with husband Red Norvo's Orchestra, as well as under her own name when they recorded for different record companies. There were also odd sessions with the Dorsey Brothers and Benny Goodman. Apart from featuring songs of the day which did not become standards, there are those which did like HEAT WAVE, PLEASE BE KIND, and PRISONER OF LOVE. She also had her own popular hits, ROCKIN' CHAIR, LAZY BONES and SMALL FRY for which she is particularly remembered. What is clear is the sheer variety of material Mildred recorded, with all songs stamped with her individual style and effort. This collection, together with its excellent career over-view and discography, is certainly one which should help bring her name back into popularity, ensuring she finds her place as one of the great early vocalists

Mildred Bailey sang beautifully--and when they say her voice was as clear as a bell, they mean it! This terrific four CD set gives us many tracks from the years when Mildred was truly a star.

The first of the four CDs is entitled Squeeze Me. "Heat Wave" features Mildred's vocals squarely in the spotlight; there's some surface noise but she sings this so well you can forgive it. After a musical intro Mildred comes in--and man, how this number takes flight! I love the jazzy arrangement, too. Mildred's excellent diction bolsters her performance even further. In addition, "I'd Love To Take Orders From You" is a peppy little jazzy tune that features Mildred singing about the type of romance she wants with her man. Mildred sings this campy number without a flaw and this impresses me very much. Listen also for "Honeysuckle Rose;" Mildred sings this without a superfluous note and I like how she sings that opening verse!

The second CD is entitled Rockin' Chair. "I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm" keeps Mildred's vocals right up front with a great musical arrangement to support her. Mildred sings this flawlessly with panache and sensitivity. "Rockin' Chair" begins with a great horn solo; and Mildred sings this with great feeling. Mildred never misses a note. "Thanks For The Memory" gets the royal treatment from Mildred as she sings this as well as any male crooner ever could. "Our Love Is Here To Stay" again has a beautiful horn solo at the beginning and the somewhat jazzy interpretation lets Mildred put her own stamp on this very famous number. "Our Love Is Here To Stay" makes great use of the percussion, too.

The next CD, Born To Swing, continues the hits. "The Weekend Of A Private Secretary" gets a lovely Latin arrangement to make this number shine. Mildred never sounded better! "My Melancholy Baby" is another highlight of this album; the arrangement for the piano is very well done and Mildred performs "My Melancholy Baby" like the pro that she always was! Listen also for "Love Is Where You Find It;" this number starts with the brass and Mildred comes in to deliver this to perfection. I predict that you will like "Love Is Where You Find It" very much.

The last CD is "There'll Never Be Another You." "St. Louis Blues" sounds so good when Mildred sings it; she never misses a beat and her voice conveys every emotion of every word in the lyrics. "Begin The Beguine" shines like gold when Mildred sings this jazzy number so well; and listen for "Arthur Murray Taught Me Dancing In A Hurry." Mildred sings this cute little number very well.

The four CD set comes with a huge booklet. We get excellent, informative essays about each of the four CDs; and I really like the photos that they use, too.

Mildred Bailey deserves to be remembered more than she is remembered. Hopefully people will notice this great box set of her work and buy it to experience her singularly beautiful style of singing.

Let's be clear from the start---Mildred Bailey was a white jazz singer whose career streched from the mid-1920s through the WWII era. Mildred Bailey was also the first female jazz singer to front a band, and she was arguably the greatest female jazz singer whoever lived. No qualification necessary here. Again, Mildred was white, and I emphasize this point only becaue Ken Burns and other white jazz historians seem to think that they're doing the African American community some favor by pretending that only blacks in jazz really mattered. Bailey sang jazz just as Bix Beiderbecke (who was also white) played jazz and few, if any---black or white---did it better. Bailey sang with such a clear, bell-like tone, impeccable phrasing, and a natural swinging syncopation that every subsequent female jazz singer from Connee Boswell and Billie Holiday to Ella Fitzgerald and Peggy Lee were simply variations on the Bailey model. It has become rather annoying that every time an accolade is written about a great white jazz singer or jazz musician the author feels compelled to "qualify" his praise of that artist by mentioning that he or she was indeed "white." The implication being that he or she was great only as far as white jazz artists are concerned. There is no need for such mushy left wing, politically correct, vacuous apologetics. There has been an unjustifiable neglect of a long, rich white jazz tradition that stretches as far back as the 1880s in cities like New Orleans, and to admit this is not taking anything away from a similarly long and great black jazz tradition. It is simply that the dawn of jazz was as populated by great Italian-Americans, Jewish-Americans and other ethnic Americans as it was by African Americans. There were great black jazz artists and there were great white jazz artists. The first great jazz band to actually record a jazz record was The Original New Orleans Jazz Band which was headed by Nick La Rocca (who was white), and he composed that first popular jazz recording, "Tiger Rag." Somehow Mr. Burns seemed to miss that rather substantial slice of jazz history in his documentary. No one need qualify that the greatest coronet player in Jazz history is Bix Beiderbecke, who was white. Similarly, the greatest trumpet player in all of jazz was Louis Armstrong, who was black. Who could argue with that?Among the greatest jazz drummers are Louis Belson and Buddy Rich, who were white, but also Elvin Jones and Cozy Cole, who were black. The greatest jazz violinist was Joe Venuti, who was white. The greatest jazz guitarists included Charlie Christian and Wes Montgomery, who were black, but also Django Reinhardt and Eddie Lang who were white. The greatest jazz pianist-composer was Fats Waller, who was black. The point is, black Americans don't own jazz anymore than Woody Guthrie owns folk music. This is the same ignorance that allows nitwits to proclaim that Elvis Presley was the King of Rock and Roll when Little Richard, Joe Turner, Wynonie Harris, Carl Perkins, and Chuck Berry were doing it far earlier and far better. Whether it is simply a genuine ignorance of jazz history or a misplaced allegiance to the social disease known as political correctness (probably both), it is about time that both white and black jazz artists get their fair recognition. It is a sad but true fact that past racial discrimination against African-Americans was rampant, immoral, and abominable. For years the great early black jazz performers like King Oliver were cruely underappreciated, if not totally neglected. But pretending that all of Jazz was solely a black cultural phenomena and that all documentaries on the history of Jazz must focus exclusively on black artists in order to compensate for past discrimination is as deranged and as delusional as white racism was horrific. In the case of Mildred Bailey, enough is enough. Bailey was a great singer, plain and simple. She happened to be quite overweight and so she never attracted a popular following similar to that of a young Billie Holliday, Lena Horne, Peggy Lee or Doris Day, all of whom were attractive. But singers should be evaluated not by their bust, waist, and hip measurements but rather by their voices. Music critics realized this, and they recognized the brilliance of Baily's unique vocalizing. Bailey was around in the 1920s, long before Holliday or Fitzgerlad. She had a sweeter and much less warbly voice than Holliday. (Some fans find Holliday's warble appealing, I don't. That's a matter of taste). In fact, Bailey had perfect pitch and intonation. To my mind, both Bailey and Fitzgerald were superior jazz vocalists to Holliday (and note, Bailey is white, Fitzgerald black). Mildred introduced so many classics it would take pages to list them, but among them are "Ghost of A Chance," "I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm," "Georgia On My Mind," and "Rock'n Chair." Whether an uptempo swing tune or a smokey ballad, Mildred put a song over with musical brilliance. Obese, ill, and impoverished, Mildred Bailey died in relative obscuirty in 1951 and has since been largely forgotten. No movies or books about her life. Jazz collections advertised on TV invariably exclude her. Just as Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey helped pioneer female blues singing back in the 1920s, Mildred Bailey did the same for jazz. She should be remembered and this collection is a step in rekindling her memory for true lovers of jazz---of all races, colors, and creeds. We need to replace political correctness with historical correctness.

Actually, she was Bing Crosby's sister-in-law (though it was Frank Sinatra who, unknown to the public, came to her rescue when she was seriously ill and deeply in debt toward the end of her career). But like Bing, Mildred Bailey was, above all, attracted to a new form of American music--jazz--and its most celebrated and capable exponent, Louis Armstrong. Like Bing, she could sing standards out of the Great American Songbook (she was, in fact, an important contributor to its creation), and she could sing with infectious emotion and a unique "sweetness" that sets her apart from numerous singers who favored a "cooler" sound and more "hip" style of delivery. Nevertheless, there's never a doubt about the authenticity of the emotion, of her close attachment to and understanding of her material, whether folk and blues forms close to much African-American music of the day or the songs of Gershwin, Jerome Kern and Cole Porter. In fact, like Bing Crosby her affinity for jazz enabled her to "personalize" the great songs of Broadway musicals, singing them in a more "natural," colloquial, believable style that would ensure their continuing importance beyond the stage or film musicals in which they originally appeared.

For many years, Mildred Bailey was merely a familiar name to me, but after listening to a number of her recordings, I'm inclined to agree with those who claim that she has been unjustly neglected. In fact, it may be no exaggeration to say that she deserves mention in the same breath with Billie Holiday. Lady Day is often credited as the first female vocalist to "personalize" the songs of Arlen, Rodgers, Gershwin, Ellington, etc., leading to their status as "standards." But she had help, and chief among her contemporaries was Mildred Bailey. What she lacked in glamour (her physical attractiveness and weight were always a sore point with her), she made up for in ebullient, high-spirited, high-energy performances (even as she came to be known as the "Rocking Chair Lady," after one of her hit records). It's that energy and relish that leads me to compare her with Louis more than her contemporaries among female vocalists. But she could also tug at heart strings with a quiet, meditative ballad--perhaps not communicating some of the pain of Lady Day's moving ballads but making you feel the hurt all the same.

Listener's responses to her singing are bound to vary (I know listeners these days who simply don't "get" Billie Holiday), but I'd have to disagree with some reviewers who find the material in this copious collection (a hundred songs) to be lightweight and inferior. 80% of the songs are familiar classic fare ("More Than You Know," "All the Things You Are," etc.)-and a few of the novelty numbers have an impressive pedigree, coming from Cole Porter and equally respected giants. You'll find no "Doggie in the Window" or "Fishies Who Swam Over the Dam" here. A number of the "standards"--"Honeysuckle Rose," "Someday Sweetheart"--may at first seem unfamiliar only because of Mildred's reinventing of the melodies (or, in the case of the latter song, making the verse integral with the chorus). She will deliberately limit the range of numerous songs not because of any vocal limitation but to attain a firmer grasp of its rhythmic character, ensuring that the result is no less swinging than the "hottest" instrumentalist on the date. A number of the so-called "novelty tunes" are supremely delightful only because of the interpreter (catch the trumpet-like little shake along with the sweetness in her voice). "I'm Going to Give that Junkman a broken heart, along with a loaded 32" for example, is simply singular, even were it a standard, because of the way Mildred makes humor out of the homicidal (and arguably a better blues than Billie's "Fine and Mellow"). "I'd Love to Take Orders from You" and "I Would Rather Listen to Your Eyes"--period music, perhaps, but try to imagine anyone but Mildred make them work--she's anything but obsequious. Rather, she's seductive, eliciting inspired responses from the musicians who follow with swinging solos established by the initial siren-song statement.

Then there are those "problematic" songs that are right out of the "race record" tradition and "minstrelsy," beginning with "What Kind of Man Is You?" Today, performers such as Crosby, Jolson, and Bailey have, on occasion, provoked instant condemnation for calling to mind "trigger words" connoting racial superiority or inferiority. One of Crosby's biggest hits and best performances, "Shine," has suddenly become forbidden territory--due to ignorance as much as informed understanding of the circumstances of the music and its context. What's important to remember is that for performers like Bing Crosby and Mildred Bailey, there was no "distance" between them and the music that excited them most. The identification between the performer and the material was complete, sincere, and in one sense color-blind. They knew the roots of the music (perhaps more consciously than Elvis, when he first sang blues in the 1950s), but to their mind it was a vibrant and vital, original and new music that, every bit as much as the music of the European music hall or operetta stage, deserved to be heard--and by the widest possible audience in the country of its birth.

It can be argued that Mildred Bailey blazed the trail for female jazz singers. Others to emerge at around the same time or not long afterwards include Lee Wiley, the Boswell sisters, Ivie Anderson and Helen Ward, soon to be followed by legendary names such as Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald. Mildred's repertoire embraced popular songs associated with white singers (where she applied jazz interpretations to Broadway songs) as well as jazz and blues songs generally associated with jazz and blues singers. In an era when music was far less integrated than it is now, this was significant.

Born Mildred Rinker in 1903, her marriage to Mr Bailey was short-lived, but she kept the name for professional purposes, even though she was still just a teenager then. She married her second husband, Benny Stafford, when she was just seventeen, this marriage lasting about ten years. For much of the twenties, Mildred built her career in small venues along the American and Canadian west coast, basing herself in Los Angeles. During that time, she helped Bing Crosby get his big break and he eventually returned the compliment. For a brief period, Bing and Mildred were both members of Paul Whiteman's band. Mildred recorded some songs with Paul in 1931, but they aren't included here. The writer of the liner notes suggests that they aren't as good as her later music, but as I haven't heard them, I can't confirm or deny his claim. Red Norvo became Mildred's third and last husband. It was third time lucky for Mildred although even this marriage ultimately failed. While they were happy together, they recorded plenty of high-quality music.

This boxed set opens with a 1929 recording with the Dorsey brothers, then continues with most of the music that Mildred recorded between 1933 and 1942, presented in chronological order. Early influences included Ethel Waters and Bessie Smith, but Mildred listened to many different singers, evolving her own style and absorbing other influences such as Billie Holiday along the way. As with all Proper boxed sets, a booklet is included with extensive information with plenty of recording details. Notable by its omission is any reference to Mildred's first hit, Georgia on my mind (yes, the very song that Ray Charles made his own some thirty years later), which was recorded on the Victor label with the Matt Malneck orchestra. Like the Paul Whiteman recordings, I haven't heard it but I would at least expect it to be mentioned.

Aside from Georgia on my mind, all of Mildred's hits under her own name are included up to her 1939 hit Moon love, with the exception of Right or wrong (from the movie Something to sing about); this song isn't mentioned either. Lazy bones, For sentimental reasons, More than you know, Trust in me, My last affair, Where are you?, Never in a million years, Rockin' chair, It's the natural thing to do, Bob White whatcha gonna swing tonight, Thanks for the memory, Don't be that way, I let a song go out of my heart, Small fry, So help me, My reverie, Blame it on my last affair and Moon love - all made the top twenty and all can be found here. Of these, So help me (a number two hit) was the biggest hit, but Rockin' chair (a re-recording of a song that Mildred previously recorded with Paul Whiteman's sidemen) was Mildred's theme song.

Mildred's recordings with Red Norvo and his orchestra are also featured. These included two number one hits (Please be kind, Says my heart) as well as I've got my love to keep me warm, Slumming on Park Avenue, Weekend of a private secretary, Garden of the moon and Have you forgotten too soon. Also here are Heat wave (a 1933 top ten hit with Glen Gray and his orchestra) and Ol' Pappy (a 1934 top ten hit with Benny Goodman).

After Mildred left Columbia, she recorded for Decca and another label, but declining health took its toll and she died just a couple of weeks before Christmas 1951, aged just 48. Meanwhile, this collection of Mildred's music shows what a magnificent legacy she left us. Notwithstanding the omissions already mentioned, this is an outstanding collection of music by a singer who deserves to be better remembered than she is.

The previous five reviews about said it all. This proper box of Mildred Bailey is a treasure trove of great pop music and what a wonderful singer she was...is, and every bit as cool as Billie Holiday. Another great bargain from the folks at Proper. Now if only they would do sets for the Andrews and Boswell sisters.

This has to be the definitive Mildred Bailey collection, on four CD's, and Mildred Bailey was a very talented lady. Oddly, the one song for which she is most famous, "Manhattan," a true classic, is not here. But no matter.

The problem is the material. Apparently Ms. Bailey did not have either the good taste or (more likely) the leverage to turn down even really dumb songs. And there is a very high quotient of those on these disks. I don't just mean dated, which would be understandable in recordings 50 years old and more. I'm talking about numbers that had to be dumb even at the time. (Example: a song the theme of which is "I can make a cake, but I can't make a man.")

Good as she was, Ms. Bailey did not have the ability a certain few other singers had (Billie Holliday and Chris Connor, for example) to take weak material and turn it into something special. The result is that -- to my ear -- these disks are very hard to listen to. Unless you are a diehard fan, a Greatest Hits album would be a better investment, and would do this talented lady more justice.