Verve Jazz Masters 51: Blossom Dearie

Though her name isn’t nearly as known as Ella Fitzgerald’s or Billie Holiday’s, Blossom Dearie more than earned a place in Verve’s Jazz Masters series. In 1956 Norman Granz personally lured Blossom to the label from the nightclubs of Paris, where she was making her living playing in a trio with Christiane Legrand and Bob Dorough. Between 1957 and 1960 she made six LPs for Verve, each a classic in its own right. As a bandleader, song selector, singer and pianist, Blossom left an indelible imprint on each of her releases. This collection comprises songs from those early LPs, and taken together they form a portrait of a voice that Leonard Feather once called “chic, sleek and squeaky-clean, a voice in a million.” Blossom never sang songs she didn’t like, giving her output a rare unity. She loved songs that were fun and clever, like “Rhode Island Is Famous for You,” and she continually returned to her Paris roots in songs like “L’Etang.” She was so known for being cool and clever that her abilities as a storyteller and blues singer of great depth were often overlooked.