MEL TORMÉ: OLÉ TORMÉ - ( Mel Tormé Goes South of the Border with Billy May)

MEL TORME
Mel Torme foi um dos maiores cantores de Jazz de todos os tempos; como se não bastasse, era um excepcional arranjador, compositor, show-man, pianista, baterista, etc. Trata-se de um ícone, uma referência, uma legenda. (Cá prá nós: há muitos anos atrás eu tinha a mania de escolher o melhor dos melhores e considerava Tormé o nº 1, acima de todos os outros). Hoje não o considero mais o melhor, mas tem um problema: ainda não consegui ouvir alguem que cante jazz melhor que ele, portanto...
(CB)
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Melvin Howard Tormé (September 13, 1925 – June 5, 1999), nicknamed The Velvet Fog, was an American musician, known as one of the great male jazz singers. He was also a jazz composer and arranger, a drummer, an actor in radio, film, and television, and the author of five books. He composed the music for the classic holiday song
"The Christmas Song". Tormé was born in Chicago, Illinois to immigrant Russian Jewish parents. A child prodigy, he first sang professionally at 4. Tormé works with the most beautiful voice a man is allowed to have, and he combines it with a flawless sense of pitch… As an improviser he shames all but two or three other scat singers and quite a few horn players as well. In 1943, Tormé made his movie debut in Frank Sinatra's first film, the musical Higher and Higher. He went on to sing and act in a number of films and television episodes throughout his career, even hosting his own television show in 1951–52. His appearance in the 1947 film musical Good News made him a teen idol for a few years. In that year he also formed the vocal quintet "Mel Tormé and His Mel-Tones," modeled after Frank Sinatra and the Pied Pipers. The Mel-Tones.Later in 1947, Tormé went solo. The resurgence of vocal jazz in the 1970s resulted in another artistically fertile period for Tormé, whose live performances during the 1960s and 70s fueled a growing reputation as a jazz singer. In February 1999, Tormé was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. On August 8, 1996, a stroke abruptly ended his 65-year singing career; another stroke in 1999 ended his life. Tormé wrote more than 250 songs, a number of which became jazz standards. He also often wrote the arrangements for the songs he sang.
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BILLY MAY (Born 10 November 1916, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Died 22 January 2004, San Juan Capistrano, California) Billy May has said that he became an arranger because he had so much time to observe the other instruments when he played tuba in high school. He worked with a variety of Pittsburgh bands until he introduced himself to Charlie
Barnet, who was touring through town, and offered to write an arrangement for Barnet's band. He ended up becoming one of Barnet's main arrangers and was enlisted as a trumpeter when Barnet reformed his band in 1939. The next year, Glenn Miller hired him as an arranger and trumpet player. At this time, he perfected his "slurping
saxophones" sound--a bluesy glissando--that instantly became a much-sought-after "new sound." May was a wild man; by most accounts, he wasn't just a drinker--he was a guzzler. One member of the Freberg cast recalled that he was "the only man I ever knew who could conduct a full orchestra and chorus while he was stone drunk." While his drinking was out of control, his music was not. His lifestyle finally slowed him down in the mid 1960s. He had a heart bypass operation in 1963, and ended a
twenty-five year smoking habit. After a particularly hard night at Charlie Barnet's 51st birthday party, he stopped drinking completely. In 1969, Time-Life Records approached May with an offer to arrange and conduct a dozen-album set of tunes from
the Big Band era. Titled The Swing Era, the set turned out to be much more than a simple rehash of the old standards. May not only took painstaking care to transcribe and arrange each tune as faithfully as possible, but also had the good fortune to have his pick of the best session players in Hollywood, many of whom were Big Band
veterans and shared his love for the material. The set was so successful that Time-Life hired him to do another set, As You Remember Them, which featured May's Big Band adaptations of popular instrumental tunes from the 1950s and 1960s. Almost every single Space Age Pop standard can be found in this set. May settled down with his second wife, Doris, in San Clemente, California, where he passed away in 2004.
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MINHA OPINIÃO : wow! Mel Torme e Billy May juntos é coisa natural e esperada. Mas tocando música latina, é uma novidade. Este álbum é uma preciosidade, por reunir dois dos maiores nomes da grande música norte-americana, tocando um luxuoso repertório latino, onde encontramos clássicos como Malaguena, Frenesi, Adios, Perfidia e outras pérolas. Imperdível !
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OLÉ TORMÉ: Mel Tormé Goes South of the Border with Billy May
Original Release Date: March 21, 1959
Label: Umvd Labels

TRACKS/FAIXAS:
01. Malaguena.mp3
02. Frenesi.mp3
03. Adios.mp3
04. Baia.mp3
05. Six Lessons From Madame La Zonga.mp3
06. Rosita.mp3
07. South Of The Border.mp3
08. Nina.mp3
09. Cuban Love Song.mp3
10. Perfidia.mp3
11. The Rhumba Jumps.mp3
12. Vaya Con Dios.mp3

DOWNLOAD: AQUI