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Personnel includes: Pearl Bailey (vocals); Toots Mondello, Eddie Vinson (alto saxophone); Charlie Shavers, Billy Butterfield (trumpet); Herman Chittison, Billy Kyle, Bud Powell, Bennie Payne (piano). Recorded in New York, New York between 1944 & 1947. Includes liner notes by Anatol Schenker. Personnel: Pearl Bailey (vocals); Hy White, Tony Mottola, Barry Galbraith, Carl Lynch, Carl Kress, Carmen Mastren (guitar); Bernard Kaufman, Bill Stegmeyer (clarinet, alto saxophone); Johnny Mince (clarinet); Wolfie Tannenbaum, Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson, Nuncio "Toots" Mondello, Art Drellinger, Charlie Holmes (alto saxophone); Lee Pope, Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis , Hank Ross (tenor saxophone); Eddie de Verteuill, Stan Webb (baritone saxophone); Chris Griffin , Cootie Williams, Red Solomon, Ermet Perry, Money Johnson, George Treadwell, Remo Palmieri, Billy Butterfield, Charlie Shavers (trumpet); George Stevenson , Edward Burke , Robert Horton (trombone); Herman Chittison, Benny Payne, Billy Kyle , Bud Powell (piano); Sylvester Payne, Irv Kluger, Jimmy Crawford , Morey Feld, Johnny Blowers (drums). Liner Note Author: Anatol Schenker. Recording information: New York, NY (01/06/1944/12/07/1947). Pearl Bailey was a magnificent jazz singer and comedienne. Check her out in front of the Cootie Williams Orchestra! That's Bud Powell back there behind the piano. Cleanhead Vinson and Lockjaw Davis are in the reed section. Pearl seems perfectly at home with this early modern-sounding big band, and Cootie puts extra sass in his horn to complement the lady's personality. Herman Chittison leads a much smaller and more intimate ensemble for "He Didn't Ask Me," a subtly soft-spoken lament with wistful incidental whistling. Pearl attracted a lot of attention by being unusually tough, candid, and outspoken in ways that few pop vocalists had ever dared to pursue. For a black woman to assert herself in this way anywhere near the mainstream was particularly refreshing during the late '40s. Pearl's high-stepping improvisations on "St. Louis Blues" are spectacular, but her relaxed conversational musings on "Tired" are perfectly timed theater, naturally hip and funny as hell. "I Ain't Talkin'" has a similar easy perfection about it. Some of this material is pure entertainment. "Personality" turns out to be a metaphor for booty. "That's Good Enough for Me," "Say It Simple," and "Get It Off Your Mind" are clever routines. Some of this stuff seems like it was inspired by Cole Porter's high camp. The Mitchell Ayres Orchestra likes to pour on a little extra glitz, and low-tech reverb makes it seem like Pearl is performing in a gymnasium. Finally, there's a two-part duet with Frank Sinatra. They sound at ease with each other: two actors with seasoned pipes who enjoy tearing apart a slow song note for note and phrase by phrase. ~ arwulf arwulf
