LP-694

Lorez Alexandria - Deep Roots

Released 1962

Recording and Session Information

Lorez Alexandria
Lorez Alexandria, vocal; John Young, piano; Vernel Fournier, bass; George Eskridge, drums
Chicago, February 13, 14 1962

11493 Almost like being in love
11494 Spring will be a little late this year
11495 Softly, as in a morning sunrise
11496 I want to talk about you
11497 Trav'lin' light
11498 Detour ahead
11499 No moon at all
11500 It could happen to you
11501 Nature boy
11502 I was a fool

Track Listing

Nature Boy	Ahbez	February 13, 14 1962
I Was A Fool	Pate	February 13, 14 1962
No Moon At All	Mann, Evans	February 13, 14 1962
Spring Will Be A Little Late This Year	Loesser	February 13, 14 1962
Softly As In A Morning Sunrise	Hammerstein II, Romberg	February 13, 14 1962
Detour Ahead	Ellis, Frigo, Carter	February 13, 14 1962
It Could Happen To You	Van Heusen-Burke	February 13, 14 1962
Travlin Light	Mundy, Mercer, Young	February 13, 14 1962
Almost Like Being In Love	Lowe-Learner	February 13, 14 1962
I Want To Talk About You	Eckstine	February 13, 14 1962

Liner Notes

MY PREDECESSORS here, on the informative side of a Lorez Alexandria album jacket have been much more professionally qualified than I, in passing musical judgment on the engraven image within; and much more informative.

Both Miss Gardener and Mr. Gleason are known for their knowledgable critiques and essays on jazz and popular music. So, when Lorez asked me to write these notes just couple of weeks after I had met her, I hastened back to the enjoyable #663 and #682 in the Argo catalog to read the Gardener, Gleason enlightenment.

Then it became apparent that the one word I have thought and felt about Lorez singing these past six or scvcn recording years was the essence of Gs and Ralph Gs annotations. They both refer to the freshness and creativity of her singing. Perhaps, that's why I've enjoyed hearing her on record these past years, since I have yet to hear her in person. Perhaps her creativity, and surely her warm, articulate voice uncluttered by trickery, have contributed to my increasing enjoyment of her records.

Most of all, I enjoy Lorcz because she sings like Lorez.

I'm getting kind of sick Of the increasing flood of new albums by young girl vocalists — those plaster of Paris copies of the originals with all the warmth and expression of ice cubes.

In her uncomplicated way, Lorez moves from the slowest ballad to the brightest swinger with amazing facility. She seems to tailor the tones of her voice to fit the pace, mood, storyline, and especially the words of a song. It is here, in what I guess they call interpretation of a song, that I find my biggest kick in listening to Lorez, Take '"Travlin' Light." How many singers try to phrase it like Billie Holiday did? Now listen to Lorez sing it. Here, the opening and tag of the tune are as arrestingly refreshing as anything I've in a long, long time. For crying out softly, this is as plaintive a treatment as the Mundy classic can get. The mood of the other ballads in here cries just as tenderly. That fragile little lament "Spring" Lorez handles so gently, you get a feeling that she is scared, and it'll shatter if dropped. And in "Detour Ahead," she warns of it like you'd have to go clear back, through and around Upper Nowhere to get back on the main drag. The same clarity of voice and lyric interpretation prevails in Johnny Pate's "I Was A Fool" and Billy Eckstine's "I Want To Talk About You." Throughout these tracks, John Young's kind of crystalline piano seems as though it's every aim is to encrust Lorez's warm lovely voice with scatters of diamond chips. Israel Crosby's bass, Vernel Fournier's drums, and George Eskridge's guitar plumping up the velvet pillows to catch the gems. It's probably the way Lorez sings the words mood I'm in" in "Almost Like Being In Love" that prompted the above, but I don't care as she evokes odd little pictures like that when I hear these tracks. Luckily I don't write for a living, and radio is so evanescent, that you get away with random vagaries like that, now and then. There's a lot of fun ahead for you in the nice, easy, loose, up-tempo "Softly", "No At All", and "It Could Happen". There's a paucity of notes in her treatment of "Moon" and then she gets that playful, childlike gleam in her voice as she romps along with Howard McGhee in "It Coud Happen" - and it does. As for "Nature Boy", he's quite a changed personality since Nat covered him years ago.

Almost every time I've played one of Lorez's tracks over the past few years I've said that I hoped that someday she would get outr to the coast so we could hear her in person, never realizing when that someday would be. Well, it happened not long ago when Carmen McRae was at the Blackhawk in San Francisco. I'm a big Carmen McRae fan and she was a tremdous hit last year at the Monterey Jazz Festival. One recent night, Carmen introduced Loret from the stage, and after the set and the initial shock was over, I went up to Lorez and introduced myself. The following day she came over to KFRC for a twenty minute interview and those are the only times I've seen or talked to her.

About seven years ago I got her first album, listened, called the all-knowing Ralph Gleason at home, and launched into a small rave. All-knowingly, he said he knew how fine Lorez sang, that she was a REAL jazz singer, and she deserved more plays on the air than she was getting. I agreed. I still do. In our format of good sounds here on KFRC in San Francisco all of the guys dig Lorez, and so do our listeners. That's a nice combination.

Jimmy Lyons
KFRC
San Francisco