Customer Reviews

Porgy & Bess

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Ray Charles left his own music behind to sing Gershwin with one of the most brilliant songstress of all time, Cleo Laine. The result was one of the most magical duet albums ever recorded! Beware! This is not one of your typically light opera versions of Porgy and Bess. This is the artistic interpretation of two accomplished artists who turn Gershwin's music into an unusual mix of spectacle and soul! Not since Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong has any artist attempted to put hot and raw jazz back into this magnificent array of songs. Cleo Laine's fine vocals with Ray Charles' raw soul is a perfect match!

Each song arrangement was perfectly matched to the artist by Frank DeVol with a 78-piece orchestra. Great instrumental artists like Joe Sample, Lee Ritenour, Joe Pass and Ernie Watts are just some of the many gifted in the orchestra. Many of the arrangements are so hot that they can stand on their own.

The opening number "Summertime" swells into a gorgeously rich duet. Cleo Laine's finale in "My Man's Gone Now" is a vocal high. "I Got Plenty O' Nuttin'" is a cooking duet between Ray & Cleo. "Bess, You Is My Woman" is rich with tenderness and longing from both singers. Cleo Laine hits angelic gospelly highs in "Oh, Doctor Jesus". "It Ain't Necessarily So" is one of the funkiest duets in the album. It scorches beyond belief! "I Love You, Porgy" is a sweeping tour-de-force for Cleo Laine. Ray Charles' earthy soul is full force in his version of "Oh, Bess, Oh Where's My Bess". The finale "Oh, Lord, I'm On My Way" hits the heavens with Ray's gospel vocal.

The lp was originally recorded in 1976 and the cd was digitally remastered in 1988. The vocals are marvelously recorded. You'd swear you were in the recording studio! The only downside of this cd is its limited release yet well worth the search.

One of the very best performances, and as one can realize by the prize as well, a very rare CD. My first encounter was with the LP.

I think it's one of the best CDs of Par Charles' Perfomance.

This is one of the more famous orphaned CD's. For whatever reason, legal or otherwise, the CD is no longer offered new, thereby ceding its economic value to the used CD sellers, who ask astronomical prices. Sometime earlier this year, the album was available for mp3 download for about $9.95. Now that's disappeared! I can kick myself. Does anyone know what's going on here? Don't the rights owner(s) see how much demand there is for this album? It seems they're happy to let someone else make money off it, or perhaps they are encouraging fans to find illegal downloads. Ridiculous!

When Norman Granz got the American jazz-blues giant Ray Charles. and the British songster Cleo Laine (now Dame Cleo Laine) together to record George Gershwin's immortal "Porgy and Bess," they made an album fit for the musical gods. It was nothing but the best from the start; their voices are supported by orchestra or jazz band, as needed; the record was arranged and conducted by Frank De Vol.

Charles delivers swinging versions of "A Woman is a Sometime Thing," "I Got Plenty of Nuttin'," and "It Ain't Necessarily So. He's soulful on "Bess You Is My Woman," "Oh Bess, Oh Where's My Bess," and "Oh Lord, I'm on My Way." And on the brief, rarely heard peddlers' cries, "Crab Man," and "Here Come De Honey Man,"well, he's Ray Charles. It's no surprise that Laine delivers beautiful renditions of "Summertime,""My Man's Gone Now," and "I Loves You Porgy," but wait til you hear her on the brief, rarely-heard peddler's cry "Strawberry Woman;" just meltingly beautiful. I was lucky enough to hear her in a prime a few times, and that was Laine's voice.

This is an album worth seaching high and low for.

This is simply an incredible recording. Turns your living room into an intimate jazz club -- it feels like Ray Charles and Cleo Laine are in the room singing to you.

Crazy legal licensing issues make it unavailable in the US, but if you can get a credit card that works at overseas iTunes stores, you can purchase the album there. I got mine from the Australian iTunes Store.

This is music made in HEAVEN. Absolutely my favorite take on the Gershwin's classic piece. Ray Charles at his (soulfull) best with Cleo Laine as a perfect match and the jazzy instrumentals filling the rest like a charm. Words are not enough to express the magnificence of this recording.
Any Ray Charles and Gershwin fan has to hear it. Forget the cd version, get a good copy of the 1976 vinyl edition. It rocks like HELL.