Friday, February 13, 2009

Sarah Vaughan - "Feelin' Good" (1972, Mainstream)





22.3.09 - Hello to all the New York Times readers who read the story about the man searching for "Just a Little Lovin" ... a friend sent me the article today. My conjecture is that the guy who finally sent him the song a few weeks ago got it from here ... timing seems right ... anyway welcome, enjoy, say hi in the comments ...

Sarah Vaughan's third studio album for Mainstream Records sits somewhere between the lush orchestrations of the Michel Legrand "Sarah Vaughan" album and the pop-jazz stylings of "Send In The Clowns" and "A Time In My Life".

"Feelin' Good"
includes both contemporary pop songs and classics with rich orchestrations coming from three groups of arrangers.

This is not my usual jazz - the album arrived in a throwaway box from a retiring DJ. I dismissed it on a quick listen, but revisited it when I noticed that it was missing from the Shad Shack, and several tracks have grown on me since.

At this stage of her career Vaughan is something of a vocal dramatist, and here refines the dynamic range that Legrand's orchestrations had afforded her on the previous album. To my mind, she hits the mark in spectacular fashion on about half of this album ... and sounds like a drag queen channelling Shirley Bassey on the other half.

Michel Legrand's only contribution here is "Deep in the Night", an extraordinary track that builds from a cocktail bar blues into a full scale drama that leaves you breathless, with vocal and instrumental arrangements that trump anything on their previous collaboration - it ended up being tacked on to the CD re-release of the other album.

"Easy Evil" is a great restrained soulful piece, previously covered on this blog on Marcia Hines' album "Marcia Shines". Some nice wah-wah guitar, building brass and evil strings. "Promise Me" is a good ballad, with a nice reverbed second vocal playing call-and-answer with Vaughan's main vocal.

"Take a Love Song"
sounds here like a lost Burt Bacharach number that deserves to be found, and is written by Donny Hathaway - just another example of his lost genius, covered from his second studio album.

"Just a Little Lovin' " is the established sample dig here (though I never quite understand why people want to dig holes that have already been dug, isn't that more canine than hip hop, behaviourly speaking? ) Anyway ... a guy named Irfane had a notable, catchy underground success about four years ago when he chopped it over a compressed house pulse, first running into sample clearance problems and then later releasing it on an album under the moniker "Outlines". Here's that track.

Hope you enjoy this album, just watch out for "Alone Again (Naturally)" and a cover of the Bee Gee's "Run To Me", along with a few of the others they're just a little bit scary. This album is guaranteed 50 % killer!

TRACKLIST
01. And The Feeling's Good (4:20)
(N.Gimbel - C.Fox)

02. Just A Little Lovin' Early In The Mornin' (3:07)
(Mann-Weil)

03. Alone Again (Naturally) (4:25)
(R. O'Sullivan)
04. Rainy Days And Mondays (3:42)
(Nichols-Williams)

05. Deep In The Night (3:17)
(Miller-Miriam)

06. Run To Me (3:00)
(Bee Gees - R.Stigwood)

07. Easy Evil (3:04)
(Alan O'Day)

08. Promise Me (4:00)
(Peter Matz - Carol Hall)

09. Take A Love Song (3:25)
(D.Hathaway - N.McKinnon)

10. Greatest Show On Earth (3:00)
(J.Marcellino - M.Larson)

11. When You Think Of It (4:00)
(R. Allen - A.Kent)


PRODUCTION DETAILS
Mainstream Records MRL 379
Producer - Bobby Shad
Conductor, Arranged By:
Allyn Ferguson (tracks 2, 6, 10)
Jack Elliott (tracks 2, 6, 10)
Michel Legrand (tracks 5)
Peter Matz (tracks 1, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9)


POST CREDITS
Vinyl rip by Simon666
Links in this post go to the Shad Shack and Daytime Lovers.
Thank them for their work if you go there!


DOWNLOAD WAV - MP3

Please say hi in the comments. 

46 comments:

Simon666 said...

btw this has a gatefold cover, leave a comment and you'll get notification when I scan the inside ...

MFS Equipe ♪ said...

BIG thanks Simon!
This is THE stuff!
very thx

peace

Pier

email@kontakt.cz said...

You're right, Simon, 50% killer, 50% rather dull. But even that is a good score which not too many jazz singers achieve. So thanks a lot.

By the way, what has happened to that marvellous Henry Franlin post (as well as to the complete Black Jazz discography at El Goog Ja, to which you contributed a lot)?

Radek

ish said...

Thanks Simon. Is the "Deep In the Night" the same song that Etta James sings so well? I guess I'm about to find out!

I will forward the less than brilliant tracks to my friendly neighborhood drag queen so everything will go to use.

Simon666 said...

@ Pier -
Good to see you, and hope Wordpress is treating 'My Favourite Sound' well :) I've switched the links here and at the Blogwatch.

@ yga -
Black Jazz asked us to take them down, so we had to.

@ Ish -
Don't know the Etta James version! great song ...

ish said...

Oh yeah, it's the same song. VERY different version. Here's the Etta James track, from an album of the same name, worth going out and buying (still in print so here's just a taste)
http://rapidshare.com/files/197576569/etta_deep.rar
I believe this is the first and only song with a rap about menstrual period sex I have ever heard. (the original album cover was arranged so that Etta James was flat on her back. A little too racy for the CD reissuers apparently.)

Anyway....
enjoying the Sarah Vaughan. Thanks again.

AmBrOsE said...

excellent thanx for the upload simon :)

Simon666 said...

wow ish that's totally different isn't it?

ish said...

But each has its own sense of drama!

PS I am really loving your other Sarah Vaughn album as well.

E-mile said...

Besides the music ( I haven't heard it yet) - what drug was the guy (or doll) who designed the cover high on??? I'm a sucker for these kinda things, don't get me wrong, but what a difference between these two S.V. Mainstream album cover art...maybe the art director said also: don't worry Sarah, you'll look great [;-)
will have a lissen later,
peace, E-mile

LC said...

Thanks for the upload. Have the LP, hadn't listened to it for more than twenty years :-)

yungbdaproducer said...

1st time checkin out ya blog great material i definentl respect ya hard work and your perfect selection on classic music much love and keep it up

Simon666 said...

thanks for checking it out yungbdaproducer, enjoy yourself here :)

Gianni aka Cesare Barbetta said...

wow, thank you Simon!
I was looking for it.

JTF said...

Thanks again!

FuNkAdeLiC said...

Many thanks for sharing this

Djalma said...

Thank you Simon for blessing us with these sounds! Peace...

Anonymous said...

Many many thanks!

Jazzjet said...

Thanks for this one Simon. I've never been into Sarah Vaughan much before but this one and the earlier post have broadened my horizons.

Manny said...

Hey Simon great blog... I found it via Crime's... Nice...

Manny said...

Hey Simon great blog... I found it via Crime's... Nice...

Hunter said...

Your work is excellent my friend! Congrats!

Jer.Eps said...

bang bang u shot me down! thanks!

deadmanstar said...

Hey, thanks so much. I was talking to my niece about the story in the NY Times. She never heard of Sarah Vaughan so I played it for her.

Robert said...

I visit your blog way more than before and I love the detailed posts and all the effort that you put in them.
Those two tracks are really good!!

Many thanks!!

Simon666 said...

Glad you're enjoying it Robert (and all the rest of you) and thanks for the comments :)

catacaldos said...

Excellent post.Thanks a lot

cheeba said...

Never got a chance to thank you properly for this one Simon. Better late than never? Hope so.

You nailed it with Deep in the Night. Fantastic arrangement and she just belts it out. What a piece and worth the price of admission alone. Appreciated as always!

Simon666 said...

hiya cheeba, yep great track :) Thanks for stopping by.

cheeba said...

"Stopping by" you say? NER is a destination, not a waystation.

:)

tboy34 said...

thank you for posting this. I was thinking about her version of Rainy days and mondays today. Then I did a search and you popped up. I'm so glad I found you. You're site is classy and informative. Thank you very much.

Simon666 said...

Thanks for the comment tboy34; hope you enjoy digging around here :)

Panama Red said...

i love u man lol seriously thanks for evvvvvvvvvvvvvverrrything

Simon666 said...

No problems Panama Red :) Thanks for dropping by.

Anonymous said...

< a cover of the Bee Gee's "Run To Me", along with a few of the others they're just a little bit scary.>

What a pompos twat you are. The Bee Gees song is the only dfecent song on the album. Moron.

Simon666 said...

You know, if I was a Bee Gees fan, I'd be anonymous and cowardly as well. Three cheers for anonymous losers, everyone! ;)

Unknown said...

Simon,great stuff. Feeling Good was my intro(as a teenager) to Sarah and I love every track.An outstanding version of Rainy days and Mondays is on her Live in Japan album.(1972, Mainstream).
BTW I have practically everything recorded by SV; Mark Murphy n Chet Baker.
Brandon says he hasn't seen you for a while. Must catch up and you can borrow whatever takes your fancy.
Shane

Simon666 said...

Good to see you here Shane ! Yeah I should catch up with you guys, been a while for sure, love to you and B x

Peter said...

Hello Simon,

This and Sarah Vaughan & Jimmy Rowles Quintet are two of the "missing" Sarah Vaughan albums from my collection of her CDs.

I have downloaded your mp3 version easily, but sadly I tried the link for your WAV download, but sadly, a message popped up to say that there is a copyright to the link.

Anyway you think that I can access the WAV files?

Thanks again for the posting!

PETER

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the album. Love that piano sample in the Outlines track, so when searching where it came from i got here...

Rodney said...

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I have a compilation CASSETTE with two of these tracks that threatens to give up the ghost each time it's played. Now I can send it on to glory!

Aaron Dae said...

Great stuff! Thanks so much...

Scraps said...

I'm a Sarah Vaughan fan, and I didn't have this album; I'm disappointed that all the links are down. If you were to put up the mp3 links, I'd be very grateful, but of course I'm very grateful with all you've done in the first place.

Incidentally, I like the BeeGees -- not anonymously! -- and "Run to Me" is one of their great songs; and I like "Alone Again Naturally" (and I like Gilbert O'Sullivan), and I wonder what Sarah Vaughan will do with them.

--Scraps

Simon666 said...

Hi Scraps, new links at the base of the post.

Scraps said...

You are a marvel!

Wytse said...

Lovely!