Customer Reviews

A Vintage Year

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Another master CD on vocal performance and piano playing. One of the live dates by Tormé and Shearing for Concord Records. Please don't count on anyone serious to choose only one of these CDs. Buy all. This CD specially offers a sensational medley based on "New York, New York" where all songs are played backed by the same rhythm bars which opens "New York ...". Great, Intelligent, Creative.

Many artists display their reliance on studio tricks and re-dubs when they venture out to a live performance, but not these two giants! An old jazz history professor turned me on to the Velvet Fog years ago and I can't believe I overlooked this album before now. A classic example of two geniuses playing off of each other and the crowd with wit, admiration and musicality. Want humor? Listen to all the song references they manage to intertwine into their New York, New York medley. Moonlight Serenade riffs to New York, New York? Are you kidding me? You have to add this CD to your collection!!

Wow...what a find!
Torme's remarkable vioce and Shearing's elegant piano are a combination not to be trifled with. Torme's deceptively easy delivery can sometimes belie his skills, but in this effort they are perfectly mated with Shearing's understated work. The result is that rare unexplainable gem when the sum is infinitely greater than the parts.

This concert is so delightful and unobstrusive it can be played as background music or listened to very intently to the musical nuances of color, tone and harmonies that thesetwo musical super-stars can do so well!

When Mel Torme and George Shearing, friends who recorded together often, performed at the Paul Masson Mountain Winery in 1987, each was at his peak. Torme was then sixty-two years old, but he had never smoked (unusual in this industry), and his voice, mellower and more mature, was even better at sixty-two than it was at thirty-two. Shearing, at age sixty-eight, having signed with Concord Records in 1979, was enjoying a renaissance as a jazz pianist, making stunning recordings with Carmen McRae, Peggy Lee, and Mel Torme, among others.

In this vibrant live performance, both Torme and Shearing are relaxed, more interested in communicating with the audience and each other than in special effects and pyrotechnics. This approach is epitomized in the final track, "Little Man You've Had a Busy Day," an unabashedly sentimental song which could not be farther from the typical wild, grand finale for live CDs--a song presented softly, quietly, and slowly. Intimacy is the watchword here, with Torme and Shearing concentrating on mood, atmosphere, and creative interpretation, rather than on showmanship.

This is not to say that the CD lacks showmanship! "Out of this World" begins with a haunting piano solo by Shearing and gains power when Torme enters and sings in dissonance to the piano, more slowly than normal, lush in sound and totally controlled. Shearing solos on "Someday I'll find You," an unusual, funky track, cheerful and upbeat (and written, surprisingly, by Noel Coward)--and in "Anyone Can Whistle/A Tune for Humming," filled with subtle changes in melody and mood. Torme and Shearing engage in delightful, humorous banter in a medley of six songs in "New York, New York," in which Torme leads the audience to expect a Sinatra-style extravaganza through the familiar, repeating honky-tonk intro, then switches to "Me and My Gal," in the same tempo and key.

With a wonderful balance of songs--slow, moody tracks alternating with upbeat, sprightly melodies--the CD is full of creative jazz interpretations and remarkably little scat. "Since I Fell For You," presented as a funky blues song, and the upbeat, syncopated "The Way You Look Tonight," one of the few songs with scat, are standouts. With Torme's beautiful sound and sensitive interpretations (reminiscent of his earlier recordings as a crooner, on CDs such as "The London Sessions"), this album is an intimate live performance in which two of the greats make some of their most beautiful music together, and do it in jazz. Mary Whipple

I preface this with the notion that I have an excellent 6.1 system that is seldom provided recorded material
to totally dazzle a listener.Pounce on this for total enjoyment.

Max Young
Richmond VA

No one can deny that Mel Torme and George Shearing have, in their solo status brought the sound of jazz to millions of people over the years. But this concert album proves that when put together, George Shearing and Mel Torme are greater than their individual parts. This recording contains standards such as "The Midnight Sun" which is given a Latin twist. You'll also find rare tunes like Noel Coward's "Someday I'll Find You" which George turns into a funky waltz. There are generous bows to Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker and Mel's tender "Little Man You've Had A Busy Day" gives us another side of the man. There is humor amid the nostalgia in the medley "New York, New York" -- makes me wish I were at this concert. My favorites were "Folks Who Live On the Hill" (lots of singers have done this chestnut, but not the way Torme gives it to us--as a family love song to keep in our hearts). The opening song "Whisper Not/Love Me or Leave Me" has by now become a standard for others but it is Mel's rendition that is BEST. There is real emotion and something akin to healing born out of this album. This album was produced at the Paul Masson Winery in Saratoga, California on a Sunday afternoon, an ideal outdoor setting for their music. Torme and Shearing banter back and forth with the audience and make the listening of this CD and alliance and passion for a day and moment gone by. Torme and Shearing bring with them the relaxed humor that is infectuous. I recommend this CD with a 5 star rating. And because George Shearing and Mel Torme belong together in a California concert afternoon.

When Mel Torme and George Shearing, friends who recorded together often, performed at the Paul Masson Mountain Winery in 1987, each was at his peak. Torme was then sixty-two years old, but he had never smoked (unusual in this industry), and his voice, mellower and more mature, was even better at sixty-two than it was at thirty-two. Shearing, at age sixty-eight, having signed with Concord Records in 1979, was enjoying a renaissance as a jazz pianist, making stunning recordings with Carmen McRae, Peggy Lee, and Mel Torme, among others.

In this vibrant live performance, both Torme and Shearing are relaxed, more interested in communicating with the audience and each other than in special effects and pyrotechnics. This approach is epitomized in the final track, "Little Man You've Had a Busy Day," an unabashedly sentimental song which could not be farther from the typical wild, grand finale for live CDs--a song presented softly, quietly, and slowly. Intimacy is the watchword here, with Torme and Shearing concentrating on mood, atmosphere, and creative interpretation, rather than on showmanship.

This is not to say that the CD lacks showmanship! "Out of this World" begins with a haunting piano solo by Shearing and gains power when Torme enters and sings in dissonance to the piano, more slowly than normal, lush in sound and totally controlled. Shearing solos on "Someday I'll find You," an unusual, funky track, cheerful and upbeat (and written, surprisingly, by Noel Coward)--and in "Anyone Can Whistle/A Tune for Humming," filled with subtle changes in melody and mood. Torme and Shearing engage in delightful, humorous banter in a medley of six songs in "New York, New York," in which Torme leads the audience to expect a Sinatra-style extravaganza through the familiar, repeating honky-tonk intro, then switches to "Me and My Gal," in the same tempo and key.

With a wonderful balance of songs--slow, moody tracks alternating with upbeat, sprightly melodies--the CD is full of creative jazz interpretations and remarkably little scat. "Since I Fell For You," presented as a funky blues song, and the upbeat, syncopated "The Way You Look Tonight," one of the few songs with scat, are standouts. With Torme's beautiful sound and sensitive interpretations (reminiscent of his earlier recordings as a crooner, on CDs such as "The London Sessions"), this album is an intimate live performance in which two of the greats make some of their most beautiful music together, and do it in jazz. n Mary Whipple

This concert is so delightful and unobstrusive it can be played as background music or listened to very intently to the musical nuances of color, tone and harmonies that thesetwo musical super-stars can do so well!

This recording made in 1987 showcases the talents of two men who defined the swinging world of another era of cool jazz. What is amazing is that it all seems so effortless, and anyone wanting a taste of what was the benchmark of of 40's and 50's jazz perfection should give this a listen.