Four Classic Albums Plus (Night In Manhattan / Lee Wiley Sings Vincent Youmans & Irving Berlin / West Of The Moon / A Touch Of The Blues)

As one of the most notable vocalists in circulation Lee Wiley began her career at fifteen and was soon appearing on radio and co-starring with Paul Whiteman thus gaining unusually rapid public exposure without the touring and word of mouth normally required at the time. For "A Night in Manhattan" she is joined by Bobby Hackett, Stan Freeman, Joe Bushkin and Cy Walter. Our next selection does what it says on the album cover! "Lee Wiley Sings Vincent Youmans & Irving Berlin", although Ms. Wiley does choose many songs that are perhaps not the most obvious by two such great composers. Ably accompanied by the piano duo of Stan Freeman and Cy Walter, Ms. Wiley shows what a magnificent song stylist she was, always " digging as deeply as possible into the song and exploring the meaning of the lyrics and melody". We travel "West of the Moon" in 1956 for our next meeting with Ms. Wiley. Along with her arranger and band leader Ralph Burns, Lee spent many hours selecting the songs for this date with one particular criteria in mind…."there would be nothing that Ms. Wiley had ever recorded before". The range of songs meant three different bands were used, one "accenting strings, harp and a light rhythm", another "swinging in the Red Norvo style" and the third "a tightly woven jazz band". "A Touch of the Blues" from 1957 finds Ms. Wiley in the company of amongst others Billy Butterfield as leader and trumpet man, Al Cohn and Bill Finegan as arrangers, Moe Wechsler on piano, Mundell Lowe on guitar, Milt Hinton on bass and Don Lamond on drums.

All four albums plus have been digitally re-mastered.