Less is More, Pt. 1: Julie London

Julie London's biographical sketch at allaboutjazz.com begins with her describing her voice to Life magazine in 1957 as "...only a thimbleful of a voice ... But it is a kind of over-smoked voice, and it automatically sounds intimate."  The same sketch also uses the following to describe her vocal qualities: sultry, sexy, “come-hither”, intimate, breathy, warm, smoky, haunting, husky, sullen, sad, suggestive and seductive.  As you can see from the above image, the sound matched the look.

London began her show business career on screen in the late 1940's.  During this period she married Jack Webb (Sgt. Joe Friday of Dragnet fame).  Shortly after this marriage broke up in 1953, London met Bobby Troup, musician and song writer best known for composing the now-standard "Route 66."  He would shepherd her into a singing career and become her husband in 1959.  Julie released her first album, Julie is Her Name in 1955.  I chose the "Less is More" title for this post for two reasons.  First, London's "thimbleful" of a voice was not comparable to the room-filling pipes of Ella Fitzgerald or Anita O'Day.  Second, on this first album the singer was accompanied only by Barney Kessel on guitar (you may not recognize the name, but Kessel was almost ubiquitous as a sideman and studio musician for many years) and Ray Leatherwood on bass, an unusual arrangement both for the small size and lack of piano.  These three musicians, however, create a whole lot of sound.


Julie is Her Name became a huge hit, remaining on the album charts for 20 weeks and reaching as high as No. 2. The first single from the album, "Cry Me a River" became London's biggest hit and peaked at No. 9 while remaining on the charts for 13 weeks.  The success of this album was not a foreordained conclusion.  The quality of Julie's voice and the instrumentation were both out of the ordinary, and the subdued, unassuming nature of the recording contrasted sharply with the rock 'n roll that was beginning to dominate the airwaves.  Interestingly, Julie & her laid-back song were featured in the 1956 movie that showcased Little Richard, Fats Domino, Gene Vincent, and other upcoming rock 'n rollers, The Girl Can't Help It.  The video below, while not the best version of "Cry Me a River" on YouTube, is the clip from the movie.  You might recognize Tom Ewell as the married man smitten with Marilyn Monroe in The Seven Year Itch.



Julie London continued to record regularly until the late '60s.  She would record with a variety of orchestrations and arrangements, but would return to the guitar (Howard Roberts) and bass (Red Mitchell) accompaniment for Julie is Her Name, Vol. 2 in 1958.  London was one of the pioneers of the "concept" album.  Some of her themed albums included: Your Number Please (covers of songs made popular by male singers of the day); Calendar Girl (a set of 13 songs, 12 with the name of a month of the year in the title, plus "The Thirteenth Month"); Julie...At Home (recorded with a small combo in Julie's living room); and Around Midnight (songs with late lonely, late night themes).  Although Julie London may not be as well known today as some of her contemporaries, she was distinguished as Billboard magazine's most popular female vocalist three years running, 1955-57.


"Black Coffee" featured in the first video below is the version that was included on Around Midnight.  You can probably tell from the photo montage that Julie's publicists were not loath to take the "sex sells" approach when it came to marketing her and her music.  Although "You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To" was featured on  Julie...At Home, the live version presented below was played at a faster tempo and demonstrated Julie's jazz chops.

Fine and Mellow Music 1

About this Blog 

I've named my blog after a particular song (after a particular rendition of a song, actually), but it also represents a type of music I hope to write about and showcase.  Most of it will fall under the broad umbrella of jazz, but there are so many kinds of jazz and music is so notoriously difficult to categorize.  You will find music here that you might label as cool jazz, mellow jazz, vocal jazz/pop, the Great American Songbook, and maybe even Easy Listening.  In recent years a number of cd's and internet radio stations have cropped up presenting what they call Lounge Music; some of what you encounter here will fit into that category.  What will the music have in common?  Most of it will have been recorded since the early 1950's.  In fact, much of it will be from the 50's & early 60's.  There will be lots of vocals, probably more female than male vocals.  There will be a bias toward small combos rather than larger ensembles.  Finally, with a few exceptions, there won't be a lot of up tempo stuff.  You know, music that's mellow, and fine.

I've always been one to read the liner notes of my albums and I want to know who the players are and a little of the backstory.  What I hope to do with this blog is share some music videos from you tube that I like and provide a little background about the songs &/or the videos.

 Fine & Mellow Billie

The video below is the source of my blog's title.  It is from a 1957 CBS special, The Sound of Jazz.  As was most all TV in 1957, it was broadcast live and featured 32 musicians representing the various eras of jazz history.  Fine & Mellow was written by Billie Holiday and was one of the few straight blues numbers in her repertoire.  She is backed/accompanied by an all-star combo, which consisted of a combination of veterans and youngbloods: Lester Young (ts), Ben Webster (ts), Coleman Hawkins (ts), Roy Eldridge (t), Doc Cheatham (t), Vic Dickenson (tb), Gerry Mulligan (bars), Danny Barker (g), Mal Waldron (p), Milt Hinton (b), Osie Johnson (d).  All of the solos are outstanding, but the most poignant is the 2nd tenor solo, which was performed by Billie's long-time collaborator from whom she had become estranged, Lester Young.  Ken Burn's featured this presentation in his Jazz series (Disc 9: The Adventure).  Jazz critic, Nat Hentoff, who was a consultant for the original broadcast, described the moment this way: "Lester got up, and he played the purest blues I have ever heard, and [he and Holiday] were looking at each other, their eyes were sort of interlocked, and she was sort of nodding and half–smiling. It was as if they were both remembering what had been—whatever that was.  And in the control room we were all crying.  When the show was over they went their separate ways."  Some have argued that by 1957 (only 2 years before the premature deaths of both Billie and Lester), Billie's voice had suffered too much from years of abuse.  While her instrument may not have been what it once was, this performance demonstrated that she could do so much with what was  left.