Beryl Booker - The Chronological Classics 1946-1954, 2 Albums

Tracks:




During a recording career that only spanned about 15 years, Philadelphia-born pianist and vocalizer Beryl Booker recorded some 45 titles. These fit nicely into two volumes released by the Classics label in 2006 and 2007. Recorded between October 8, 1946 and March 13, 1952, the 26 tracks that comprise the first installment elucidate Booker's stylistic solidarity with Erroll Garner. That similarity can clearly be heard in her upbeat playing on "I Wished on the Moon" and "Stay as Sweet as You Are," and on any of this compilation's 12 slow instrumental ballads. Also like Garner, Booker read no music and was almost entirely self-taught. Note that this compilation contains no less than seven examples of Beryl Booker the ballad singer. During the '50s she worked as an accompanist for Billie Holiday and Dinah Washington; their combined influences certainly colored her delivery, although Booker had her own earthily intimate style, which mingles beautifully with the mature Lady Day vibe on "You Better Go Now." As far as instrumentalists went, Booker almost invariably worked with some of the best on the scene. Tracks one through four -- her first session as a leader -- feature Booker in the company of guitarist Mary Osborne and bassist June Rotenberg. Recorded sometime during the year 1948, tracks five through ten bring on guitarist John Collins and bassist Slam Stewart, whose combo Booker joined in 1946 and with whom she would work on a semi-regular basis through 1952. Tracks eleven through fourteen represent recordings so rare as to be entirely absent from several standard discographical session indexes. Fifteen through eighteen showcase tenor saxophonist Budd Johnson and also feature Don Elliott, who blew the mellophonium and doubled on vibraphone. Only two of the last eight selections on this disc are upbeat; the rest are languid examples of Booker's dreamily lyrical approach to the art of the instrumental ballad, which again has a lot in common with the whimsicality of Garner. Perhaps the high point of her entire recording career was to take place in Paris in February 1954 when she had the opportunity to collaborate with tenor saxophonist Don Byas. Those recordings -- and what appears to be the rest of this woman's recorded legacy -- can be found on volume two of her complete works on the Classics Chronological Series.

1946-1952 {Chronological Classics 1415}

01 Low Ceiling Booker 3:16
02 Oops! My Lady Osborne 3:18
03 I Only Have Eyes for You Dubin, Warren 2:45
04 Don't Blame Me Fields, McHugh 3:31
05 One for the Road Arlen, Mercer 3:17
06 Easy to Love Porter 3:01
07 You've Changed Carey, Fischer 3:19
08 I Can Dream, Can't I Fain, Kahal 3:06
09 Someone to Watch Over Me Gershwin, Gershwin 3:07
10 That Old Black Magic Arlen, Mercer 3:13
11 They Can't Take That Away from Me Gershwin 3:13
12 I Wished on the Moon Parker, Ranger 2:42
13 What Have I to Live For Burton 3:15
14 Man with a Horn Donaldson, Forrest, Wright 3:12
15 A Handful of Stars (Stairway tothe Stars) Lawrence, Shapiro 2:43
16 Moonlight Saving Time Kahal, Richman 2:36
17 Where Were You? Feather 2:45
18 You Better Go Now Graham, Reichner 2:43
19 Let's Fall in Love Arlen, Kohler 3:30
20 Darn That Dream DeLange, Heusen 3:18
21 Remember Me Dublin, Warren 2:50
22 But Beautiful Burke, Heusen 2:42
23 Stay as Sweet as You Are Gold, Revel 2:18
24 Love Is the Thing Washington, Young 2:48
25 Why Do I Love You Hammertein, Kern 2:57
26 When a Woman Loves a Man Hanighen, Jenkins, Mercer 3:02




Volume two in the complete recordings of Beryl Booker as presented in the Classics Chronological Series documents the adventures of the Beryl Booker Trio with eight titles recorded for Discovery Records in Los Angeles on October 14, 1953, material from two Vogue sessions that took place in Paris during February 1954, and six selections recorded for Cadence in New York during the summer of 1954. Booker's approach to the piano recalls her contemporary Erroll Garner; like him, she was a brilliant autodidact who didn't read music. Garner and Booker exist in the same swing-to-bop-to-cool constellation with Herman Chittison, Johnny Guarnieri, Mary Lou Williams, Bud Powell, Dodo Marmarosa, Al Haig, and Ahmad Jamal. Teamed with bassist Bonnie Wetzel and drummer Elaine Leighton, Booker handled jazz and pop standards with dazzling dexterity, humor, warmth and soul. When she sang she sounded more than a little like Dinah Washington, for whom she served as accompanist at the beginning and the end of the decade; on "One for My Baby" the similarity is uncanny. Be sure and cop a listen on the two instrumental selections recorded at the second Parisian Vogue date with tenor saxophonist Don Byas. Thanks to the increasingly popular LP format, each Booker/Byas performance is a little under five minutes in duration, allowing for longer solos and a more relaxed mood than was usually possible under 78 rpm three-minute constraints. Users are warned that "Beryl Booker's Byased Blues" and "Makin' Whoopee" will immediately seep into your bones and groove you out before you realize what has happened. Those two tracks are worth double the price of admission all by themselves.

1953-1954 {Chronological Classics 1442}

01 Thou Swell Hart, Rodgers 3:00
02 Ebony Booker 3:08
03 Polka Dots and Moonbeams Burke, VanHeusen 2:46
04 That Old Gang of Mine Dickson, Henderson, Rose 3:00
05 Symphony Alstone, Bernstein, Tabert 4:35
06 Booker T. Feather 2:55
07 An Old Piano Plays the Blues Allen 3:35
08 One for My Baby Arlen, Mercer 3:39
09 Paris Medley: April in Paris/Paris in the Spring/The Last Time I Saw Pa Duke,
Gordon, Hammerstein II, Harburg… 6:30
10 Cheek to Cheek Berlin 5:04
11 Makin' Whoopee Donaldson, Kahn 4:58
12 I Should Care Cahn, Stordahl, Weston 4:39
13 Beryl Booker's Byased Blues Booker 4:51
14 Tenderly Gross, Lawrence 4:59
15 Body and Soul Eyton, Green, Heyman, Sour 4:47
16 Night and Day Porter 4:04
17 My Funny Valentine Hart, Rodgers 5:42
18 My Ideal Chase, Robin, Whiting 2:59
19 I Don't Know Why Ahlert, Turk 3:05

Personnel: Beryl Booker (vocals, piano); Don Byas (tenor saxophone); Elaine Leighton (drums).