LP-720

Lorez Alexandria - For Swingers Only

Released 1963

Recording and Session Information

Lorez Alexandria, vocal; Ronald Wilson tenor saxophone, flute; John Young, piano; George Eskridge, guitar; Jimmy Garrison, bass; Philip Thomas, drums
Ter Mar, Chicago, January 2-3 1963

12097 Love look away
12098 The end of a love affair
12099 All or nothing at all
12100 Traveling down a lonely road
12101 That old devil called love
12102 Little girl blue
12103 Baltimore oriole
12104 Mother earth

Track Listing

Baltimore Oriole	Hoagy Carmichael-Paul F. Webster	January 2-3 1963
Little Girl Blue	R. Rodgers-L. Hart	January 2-3 1963
All Or Nothing At All	Jack Lawrence-A. Altman	January 2-3 1963
Traveling Down A Lonely Road	M. Galdieri-N. Rota-D. Raye	January 2-3 1963
Mother Earth	P. Chatman	January 2-3 1963
Love Look Away	Rodgers-Hammerstein	January 2-3 1963
The End Of A Love Affair	Edward C. Redding	January 2-3 1963
That Old Devil Called Love	Allan Roberts-Doris Fisher	January 2-3 1963

Liner Notes

LOREZ ALEXANDRIA is a poised, vital, articulate girl who, singing or talking, makes it clear at all times that she is a person of strong convictions and has the courage to express them. These are important personality traits for any real individualist; when you add to them the virtues of attractive timbre, a natural sense of style and phrasing, the elusive element sometimes known as soul, and top them all off with an instrumental accompaniment. you can be reasonably sure results that are going to be out of the ordinary.

This is precisely what happens on For Swingers Only. In many respects I feel this is Lorez' best album to date. For one thing, her always admirable taste in selection of material is reflected here in a particularly impressive repertoire. Secondly, there are eight tracks instead of her previously customary ten; this enables her to stretch out comfortably on all of them and to add occasional variety in the form of instrumental passages. Third and most important, I believe every intelligent singer matures, learns from the study of previous efforts on records and improves with the passage of time.

Lorez, as most listeners presumably know by now, is a Chicago girl whose background is rooted in music. Her experience has ranged from early church singing to big band work (with King Fleming's orchestra) as well as vocal group work on both semi-classical and pop-music levels. Since early 1962 she has been living in Los Angeles with her husband, publicist Dave Nelson; however, these sides were taped in Chicago and are notable for the inclusion of a promising local musician, flutist Ronald Wilson, whose obligatos lend rich color to the backgrounds.

Any album titled For Swingers Only would do its name less than justice if it came up with a less than remarkable rhythm section. A glance at the personnel makes it clear that business was well taken care of in this department. Pianist John Young (well known for his work with the Eddie Chamblee combo) and guitarist George Eskridge will be familiar to many of Lorez' fans through their contribution to one of her most successful earlier LPs, Deep Roots (Argo 694). Jimmy Garrison happened to be in town with John Coltrane's quartet when the session was cut; Vernel Fournier, the New Orleans drummer (also heard on Deep Roots), was with Ahmad Jamal for several years and has been with George Shearing for the past year.

Ballimore Oriole is Lorez' second recorded version of the Hoagy Carmichael standard; she cut it for another label several years ago. The new treatment similar in approach to the original, makes a striking illustration of Lorez' warmth and assurance; listen especially for the ease with which she dips downward on the word "blackbird" not far from the opening.

"They told me Little Girl Blue has been done so many times before — I had to persuade them to let me include it," says Lorez, "because it's always been a favorite tune of mine." Noteworthy here are the oblique opening — the first nine words sung a capella, and the confidence with which Lorez' range enables her to get a low E Flat (on "unlucky") and soar soon after to a high B Flat.

All or Nothing a: All is a firm swinger all the way from Wilson's flute intro through Lorez' chorus and Young's solo. Garrison walks impressively through this unusual interpretation of the 1940 standard.

Traveling Down A Lonely Road was originally an instrumental theme heard in the movie La Strada. To my knowledge it has seldom, perhaps never, been recorded as a vocal. The moderato waltz meter is confidently handled by Lorez and there is a charming flute interlude.

The intimations of mortality in the lyrics of Mother Earth were first addressed to us by veteran blues singer Memphis Slim. On this track Ronald Wilson switches from flute to tenor sax and Lorez gets into a fittingly earthy blues groove with a 12/8 beat in the back ground.

Love Look Away is a theme from The Flower Drum Song. Once again there is a slow but solid beat and the flute adds an exotic touch.

The End of a Love Affair is handled very differently from the customarily melodramatic approach to these lyrics. A Latin beat is added, behind the vocal and during John Young's piano solo.

That Old Devil Called Love was introduced by Billie Holiday on a 1944 recording. There have been other Holiday-associated songs in Lorez' albums, but as she points out, there is never any attempt to imitate the original style or approach. ("That would be sacrilegious"). The tempo is a little brighter than that normally accorded to the tune; when you examine the meaning of the lyrics this seems very logical. George Eskridge is heard in four-bar trades with Lorez and Ronald Wilson again contributes a tasteful solo.

A concluding word about that title; it should not be inferred that only those concerned with swinging up tempos will appreciate this album. Perhaps a more comprehensive title would have been "For Admirers of Tasteful, Swinging Singing Only." On that basis, every Lorez Alexandria album would have a place in your library. But more than any previous set, I believe this one will convince any fence-straddlers that in Lorez we have one of those rare singers who can sense all the qualities required in a contemporary jazz-oriented vocal performance—and who knows how to translate those qualities into living, swinging reality.

—LEONARD FEATHER
(Author of The 'New Encyclopedia of Jazz)

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

LP-682

Lorez Alexandria - Sing No Sad Songs For Me

Released 1961

Recording and Session Information

Lorez Alexandria, vocals; strings, arrangement led by Riley Hampton
Chicago, 1960

10672 Sometimes I feel like a motherless child
10673 Trouble in mind
10674 Gloomy Sunday
10675 Lonesome road
10676 Who

Chicago, 1961
10828 A losers lullaby
10829 All my love
10830 No sad songs for me
10831 I'll remember April
10832 They can't take that away from me

Track Listing

A Loser's Lullaby	Edwards, Wayne	1960, 1961
Trouble In Mind	R.M. Jones	1960, 1961
Sing No Sad Songs For Me	Dino Courreay	1960, 1961
Gloomy Sunday	Javor, Seres, Lewis	1960, 1961
Motherless Child		1960, 1961
Who	S. Lewis	1960, 1961
I'll Remember April	Raye, DePaul, Johnson	1960, 1961
Lonesome Road	Austin, Shilkret	1960, 1961
They Can't Take That Away From Me	George & Ira Gershwin	1960, 1961
All My Love	S. Lewis	1960, 1961

Liner Notes

EVERY BODY knows that the record reviewers don't know what they're talking about. If they give rave reviews, they have no taste or they're prejudiced in favor of...If they don't like the record, they have no taste and they're prejudiced against...If they are luke-warm. they have no taste and they are copping out.

With this succinct, pacifying attitude the average entertainer eagerly thumbs through every minute line of type relating to appraisal of his or her work, vindicating those discerning idiots who accidentally recognized talent and damning deaf, unready idiots who missed the entire point.

About a year ago I had occasion to review Lorez Alexandria/Early In The Morning (Argo LP 663). I liked it, but I bemoaned the fact that much of the beautiful, soulful Lorez I remembered from those early lean days in Chicago was missing. In an historic meeting of the minds, the artist agreed. She went further. She decided to really and truly "sing what ever I feel, as I feel it." The in-person performance results have been nothing short of devastating. This recording contains some captivating moments of Lorez Alexandria at her natural best. Stripped naively bare of worldliness and suavity, Miss Alexandria breathes warmth and conviction throughout the album.

Listeners and writers often casually toss out the word flexibility. There is nothing casual about the unusual gift of flexibility. Hearing Miss Alexandria run the gamut of expression, phrasing and vocal mechanics here is Lesson No. 1 toward understanding the significance of the value of flexibility in singing.

Don't waste precious time critically analyzing the warm, good feeling that just oozes out when she sings; but for a brief moment hear her make the subtle shift from voice as singing equipment on the string background numbers to voice as vocal hornlike instrument on the trio tunes.

As a vocalist, she is diligently word conscious and at all times faithful to message communication. As an instrumentalist, she is equally music conscious, free wheeling, and capricious, using words and phrases mainly as guideposts to get around the changes. This album contains some of her best work at combining the two arts into a charged, emotion packed whole. Trouble In Mind, the eerie, fascinating Gloomy Sunday, the bright, crisp phrasing in I'll Remember are cases in point.

The encompassing scope of her material is a model showcase for her many sparkling facets. The general tone of the album is quiet; yet the undercurrent of excitement and smoldering embers never allows the mood to sink into maudlin self pity. At her heartbroken bluest, there is that rosy lilt in her delivery which promises that everything is going to be all right, after all.

The entire album was, for this listener, a happy reunion with a voice styling which I had beliwed was lost forever to model urbanity. There are moments recorded here typat I am jealously reluctant to share. Gloomy Sunday contains many of them. The beauty captured here, particularly in the bridge, is priceless. There are, of course, highlights which absolutely must not pass your attention. Since much of the joy of listening rests in personal discovery, permit me to tantalize you with a single word about each tune.

Loser's Lullaby — reflective; Trouble Blind — groovey; Sing No Sad Songs — philosophical; Gloomy Sunday — haunting; Motherless Child — meditative; Who — Lorez?; I'll Remember April — fresh. Lonesome Road — saucy; They Can't Take That Away Me — imaginative; All My Love — surprise!

The extra goody in the pie is the fact that all we have here are bits of the best of Lorez. There seems to be so much more to hear. But until she records another, sit back and enjoy this one as we borrow the words of jazz trumpeter Harry (Sweets) Edison and warn you to stop looking, "you iust can't get one no better than this."

Barbara J. Gardner

LP-663

Lorez Alexandria - Early In The Morning

Released 1960

Recording and Session Information

Lorez Alexandria, vocals, Joe Newman, trumpet; Al Grey, trombone; Frank Wess, tenor saxophone, flute; Frank Foster, tenor saxophone; Ramsey Lewis, piano; John Gray, Freddie Green, guitar; Eldee Young, bass; Redd Holt, drums
Chicago, March 15-17 1960

10004 So long
10005 Don't explain
10006 Early in the morning
10007 Good morning heartache
10008 Trouble is a man
10009 I ain't got nothin' but the blues
10010 Baby don't you cry
10011 Rocks in my bed
10012 I almost lost my mind
10013 I'm just a lucky so and so

Track Listing

Early In The Morning	Bartley, Hickman, Jordan	March 15-17 1960
Don't Explain	A. Herzog, B. Holiday	March 15-17 1960
So Long		March 15-17 1960
Good Morning, Heartache	Fisher, Drake, Higginbotham	March 15-17 1960
Trouble Is A Man	Wilder	March 15-17 1960
I Ain't Got Nothing But The Blues	George, Ellington	March 15-17 1960
Baby Don't You Cry	Buddy Johnson	March 15-17 1960
Rocks In My Bed	Ellington	March 15-17 1960
I'm Just A Lucky So & So	Ellington, David	March 15-17 1960
I Almost Lost My Mind	Joe Hunter	March 15-17 1960

Liner Notes

WHAT MAKES a jazz singer? Many things, and if we knew them all, we'd be able to produce such singers almost at will. And we can't. Wishing won't make it so, as the scarred egos of countless singers testify.

Sometimes a singer can be a jazz singer fpr one tune, one night. Doris Day, for instance, is to me a jazz singer on one record - April In Paris. And Rosemary Clooney for another - Tenderly. Perhaps there's a clue as to the why of jazz singing.

Lorez Alexandria says, "a lyric is dead until you breathe life into it," and I think she has, in this statement, hit at one of the essential elements of jazz singing which, whem added to swinging and a few more, make a jazz singer. And on the other hand, without which you can't be a jazz singer at all unless you are gifted with a rare voice — the kind that appears once in a generation.

Bringing a lyric to life, bringing a song to life, making those sounds into reality and above all into a personal reality which can then make it live in the mind of the listener and become part of his or her experience —these are the essential elements of jazz singing and they're not too far removed from the essential elements of any art.

Lorez Alexandria IS a jazz singer. I make that statement flatly, because she has reached me time after time on records and made the lyric and the song and the whole musical complex come to life.

She's a native of Chicago, from a musical family, sang spirituals, jubilees and semi-classics with an a-capella choir and taught in the Chicago park system recreation program. She sang with King Fleming's big band, his combo, and his vocal group in the midwest, and in recent years has been out on her own as a singer with a growing body of fans that includes Miles Davis and Sarah Vaughan.

She digs Ella Fitzgerald ("the most fabulous musicianship") and Frank Sinatra ("his phrasing always completely kills me") and, as any careful listener can hear, she has been greatly influenced by the horn players of jazz, including Lester Young and Charlie Parker.

When she selected the material for this LP, Lorez planned it with these thoughts in mind:

"I don't think blues have to be yelled, I'm not a blues shouter. We were striving for the mood-type thing and I wanted to attempt another phase of what I can do. I'm not entirely happy with the album — no singer ever does an LP she's altogether pleased with — but I am plexscd to this degree: These were things I wanted to do and I did as much as I can. I know that I did the BEST I could and we do have the light, the mood, and the blues."

Lorez has conviction about the importance of lyrics. "When you're telling a story you must have the liberty of speech. The only thing I think about when I am singing is what the lyric says to me and what I want it to say to the public."

The songs on this album are a beautiful cross-section of the blues ballads of the past few years. There's the sprightly Early In The Morning," which Louis Jordan made into a hit in the late '40s; the lovely Don't Explain and Good Morning Heartache which Billie Holiday wrote and recorded and made into classics; Rocks In My Bed, which was one of Ivie Anderson's greatest vocals with Duke Ellington; I Almost Lost My Mind, Ivory Joe Hunter's great blues ballad; I'm Just A Lucky So And So, and I Ain't Got Nothin' But The Blues, other Ellington standards; and Baby Don't You Cry. Little Miss Cornshucks' So Long, plus Alec Wilder's haunting Trouble Is A Man.

On all of these, Lorez sings as a jazz singer should: with conviction, with the phrasing and flexibility of an instrument, and with a deep concern for the communication of the lyrics. She has assistance throughout by musicians of the first rank. On side 1, she is accompanied by Ramsey Louis (piano): Eldee Young (bass); Red Holt (drums), Johnny Gray (guitar). On side two, they are joined by Joe Neasman (trumpet); Frank Wess and Frank Foster (tenors); Al Grey (trombone), and Freddie Green (rhythm guitar). The tenor solos are by Frank Foster, the flute solos by Frank Wess.

And the singing by Lorez Alexandria, singer, whose warmth, feeling, and ability to breathe life into a lyric - i.e. to sing creatively — marks her as one of the very few real jazz singers to emerge in recent years.

Ralph J. Gleason, whose syndicated column, The Rhythm Secton, originates in the San Francisco Chronicle.