Etta Jones – Don’t Go To Strangers (1960/2014) [Qobuz FLAC 24bit/44,1kHz]

Etta Jones – Dont Go To Strangers (1960/2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 00:41:04 minutes | 427 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Master, Official Digital Download  – Source: Q0buz | @ Prestige Records/Concord Music Group

After paying dues for over 15 years, Etta Jones (1928-2001) became an overnight sensation with the release of this, her first Prestige album. While the title song was the catalyst that fueled the singer’s belated discovery, not to mention one of the few singles released by an independent jazz label of the period to attain gold record status, the remaining nine tracks give equal evidence of the spontaneous phrasing and deep emotional commitment that allowed Jones to excel with such rare consistency. Blending the influences of Billie Holiday and more blues-centered vocalists, and supported by an exceptional quintet featuring Frank Wess and Richard Wyands, Jones turned Don’t Go to Strangers into the cornerstone of a career that would see her produce six more Prestige albums in the Sixties, and that kept her among the jazz vocal elite for the next four decades.

„Don’t Go to Strangers was Etta Jones’ first album for the independent jazz label Prestige when it was released in 1960 (having been recorded in a single session on June 21 of that year), and although Jones had been releasing records since 1944, including a dozen sides for RCA in 1946 and an album for King Records in 1957, she was treated as an overnight sensation when the title tune from the album went gold, hitting the Top 40 on the pop charts and reaching number five on the R&B charts. An elegant ballad on an album that had several of them, including the masterful ‘If I Had You’ and a marvelous reading of ‘All the Way,’ a song usually identified with Frank Sinatra, ‘Don’t Go to Strangers’ featured Jones’ airy, bluesy phrasing and uncanny sense of spacing, and was very much a jazz performance, making its success on the pop charts all the more amazing. Listen to Jones’ restructuring of the melody to the opening track, the old chestnut ‘Yes Sir, That’s My Baby,’ to hear a gifted jazz singer sliding and shifting the tone center of a song like a veteran horn player, all the while leaving the melody still recognizable, but refreshing it until it stands revealed anew. Apparently there were no additional tracks cut at the session, since bonus material has never surfaced on any of the album’s subsequent reissues, although that’s hardly a problem, because as is, Don’t Go to Strangers is a perfect gem of a recording.“ -AllMusic Review by Steve Leggett

Tracklist:
1. Yes Sir That’s My Baby 04:23
2. Don’t Go To Strangers 03:52
3. I Love Paris 04:01
4. Fine And Mellow 05:53
5. Where Or When 03:42
6. If I Had You 03:52
7. On The Street Where You Live 03:46
8. Something to remember you by 03:46
9. Bye Bye Blackbird 03:17
10. All The Way 04:40

Personnel:
Etta Jones, vocals
Skeeter Best, guitar
Frank Wess, flute, tenor saxophone
Richard Wyands, piano
George Duvivier, upright bass
Roy Haynes,drums

Recorded: Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ; June 21, 1960
Remastered: 2006, Rudy Van Gelder, Van Gelder Studio

Download:

mqs.link_EttaJnesDntGTStrangers19602014Qbuz24441.rar