BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD! | It's De Lovely - The Authentic Cole Porter Collection

Turn back the clock! | It's De Lovely - The Authentic Cole Porter Collection | Cole Porter

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	• It's De Lovely - The Authentic Cole Porter Collection Cole Porter RCA, 2004 average customer review:based on 12 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Lovely

Good collection of Cole Porter songs. The CD arrived very shortly and was in perfect condition

BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD!

On the face of it, much care has been take in the production of this CD; a glossy liner note penned by Will Friedwald, embellished by photos of Porter, his RCA Victor contract, a record wrapper, and the reproduction of the scroll Victor label on the CD itself. Add to that two of Porter's own recordings to which Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks have overlaid an orchestral accompaniment, and vocals by Lena Horne, Dinah Shore, Frank Sinatra, Al Bowlly, Fred Astaire, and Rosemary Clooney and you have the basis for an excellent tribute to the supreme lyricist/composer.

But that is not enough. "The Authentic Cole Porter Collection" needs the words as well as the music, and no fewer than seven of the nineteen tracks are lacking that vital ingredient. I've no objection to any jazz artist playing just the melody, least of all Artie Shaw with "Begin The Beguine" and Coleman Hawkins with "I Love Paris", but the inclusion also of Shorty Rodgers, Sonny Rollins, Paul Desmond, Tommy Dorsey, and Esquivel (who?), is surely under-egging the pudding.

To add insult to injury, the claim is made "What's special about this collection is that the selections ... are ... the performances that he himself heard when the songs were still fresh". Oh no they're not, to put it politely. You also need to get the words right when you do use them. It was "Delicious" and "Delightful" and "Delirious" but "De Lovely" it was not.

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Turn back the clock!

Is it possible to wear out a C.D. ? If so, I am getting close. This is a fantastic collect of Cole Porter's music - such memorable songs for ever!
If you like anything about Cole Porter, you will LOVE this collection !

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Simply . . . DeLovely

The biggest surprrise: each song is by the original artist! The CD label even bears the old RCA Victor Trade Mark . . . and THAT goes back quite a ways! But all the arrangements and artists are wonderful to hear from
Cole Porter, himself, to Sinatra, Lena Horne, Rosemary Clooney, and others, all singing the "old favorites" as done originally by themselves! And . . . there's Artie Shaw, Tommy Dorsey and other favorites of those bygone days. If you saw the Movie "It's Delovely" and liked it, then you'll LOVE this CD: "IT;S DeLovely: The Authentic Dole Porter Collection."

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Very good Porter collection, wide range of artists and musical styles

This collection presents a wide array of top jazz and jazz/pop artists performing some of Cole Porter's best songs, in recordings from 1928 to 1962.

The recordings range from late 20s and early 30s renditions that were probably some of the first recordings of those songs (Irving Aaronson & His Commanders on the excellent "Let's Misbehave"; Fred Astaire's masterful "Night and Day," which he introduced on Broadway) TO 40s swing and 50s pop (very young Frank Sinatra on "Night and Day"; Roy Rogers' "Don't Fence Me In"; Rosemary Clooney on a latin-tinged "You Do Something To Me") TO straight jazz and jazz/pop from the 50s and early 60s (Lena Horne, "Just One of Those Things"; Sonny Rollins, "You Do Something to Me").

The tracks on this CD aren't chronologically ordered by recording date, so, for example, you jump from Paul Desmond's 1962 sax/strings arrangmement of "I've Got You Under My Skin" back to Tommy Dorsey's late big-band version of "I Get a Kick Out of You" from 1950. While it can be fun to go from one style to another and then back around again, I also like programming the disc to play according to the recording dates, which produces a more consistent development of jazz-based styles.

I understand how the significant variations in style and genre brought on by the broad range of recording dates may dismay folks who were looking for a collection of, maybe, the earliest versions of each of these songs, which would have been more consistent in style. If you want something that's more strictly chronological and historical, I'd strongly recommend looking for a used copy of the Smithsonian's excellent (but out-of-print) 4-CD Cole Porter box set from the early 90s, or maybe one of the 3-CD boxes that the Indiana Historical Society and Koch issued (although the cuts are arranged by the date of the song, not the dates of the recordings). There's also "Cole Sings Porter," out-of-print but available used, which has Porter's own recordings of his songs. Or, look for a single-artist Porter collection that will be more stylistically consistent, like the excellent Sinatra/Porter disc on Sony/Columbia, one of Bobby Short's Porter albums, or Ella Fitzgerald's "Cole Porter Songbook."

One of the unusual aspects of the "De Lovely" disc is that it has Cole Porter's original 1934 voice/piano recordings of "Anything Goes" and "You're The Top" with an instrumental backing added in 2004 by Vince Giordano and His Nighthawks. I usually don't like tampering with original recordings, but here, Giordano has done an outstanding job of embellishing Porter's bare-bones recordings with historically accurate arrangements and a recording production that comes close to blending seamlessly with the originals. Since I have the unembellished recordings in the Smithsonian box set mentioned above, I like having the Porter/Giordano "collaborations" here.

Although Porter is remembered primarily for his work in the 30s and 40s, he lived into the 60s, so he was indeed around when all of the renditions on this disc were recorded. I don't know whether he actually did listen to these artists, but he might well have admired their undoubtedly superb artistry. Although some of the recordings here are instrumental and therefore omit Porter's marvelous lyrics, I'd like to think that Porter might have enjoyed jazz renditions of his songs, like his peer George Gershwin did.

These are all great artists, so if you want a collection that shows the wide-ranging jazz and pop styles that have been applied to Cole Porter's songs, this is a very good one.

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Tracks
Anything Goes - Cole Porter | You're The Top - Cole Porter | Begin The Beguine - Artie Shaw And His Orchestra | From This Moment On - Lena Horne | You Do Something To Me - Sonny Rollins | It's Delovely - Shorty Rogers And His Giants | Night And Day - Frank Sinatra | Let's Misbehave - Irving Aaronson And His Commanders | Don't Fence Me In - Roy Rogers | You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To - Dinah Shore | I Love Paris - Coleman Hawkins | Easy To Love - Ray Noble & His Orchestra | Just One Of Those Things - Lena Horne | What Is This Thing Called Love - Leo Reisman And His Orchestra | I've Got You Under My Skin - Paul Desmond | I Get A Kick Out Of You - Tommy Dorsey And His Orchestra | Night And Day - Leo Reisman And His Orchestra | You Do Something To Me - Rosemary Clooney | Night And Day - Esquivel and His Orchestra

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*MyHeartsSongs:Meaning,Memories,Magical,theMystical/MESSAGES in LIFE!*
**Jazzy Hearts:Standards&Otherwise/Cole Porter et al Jazz Era+Extras**
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It's De-Lovely (Cole Porter)