Helen Merrill (album)

Helen Merrill is the debut studio album by vocalist Helen Merrill, on which she's accompanied by trumpeter Clifford Brown in arrangements by the young Quincy Jones.[1] Brown had recorded a somewhat similar album with Sarah Vaughan only a few days previously, on December 16 and 18, 1954.[2]

Helen Merrill
Studio album by
Helen Merrill
Released1955
RecordedDecember 22–24, 1954
GenreJazz
Length32:33
LabelEmArcy
Helen Merrill chronology
Helen Merrill
(1955)		 Helen Merrill with Strings
(1955)

In 1995, on the fortieth anniversary of this debut album, Merrill recorded a tribute album to Brown, who had been killed in a car crash in 1956, the year after their collaborative album was released.

Reception
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide[3]

The AllMusic review by Scott Yanow awarded the album four and a half stars and said that "The music is essentially straight-ahead bop, yet the seven standards ... are uplifted by the presence of Merrill (in top form) and Brown."[1] In a review of a 2007 reissue of Merrill's first two albums by Lone Hill Jazz, David Rickert singled out the performance of "'S Wonderful" as "one of the best versions of the Gershwin tune I've heard in years" and called the two sessions "a vocal jazz feast well worth deserving of more renown."[4]

Track listing
  1. "Don't Explain" (Arthur Herzog Jr., Billie Holiday) - 5:08
  2. "You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To" (Cole Porter) - 4:17
  3. "What's New?" (Bob Haggart, Johnny Burke) - 4:56
  4. "Falling in Love with Love" (Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart) - 3:52
  5. "Yesterdays" (Otto Harbach, Jerome Kern) - 5:56
  6. "(I Was) Born to Be Blue" (Mel Tormé, Bob Wells) - 5:12
  7. "'S Wonderful" (George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin) - 3:12

Personnel

References
  1. "Helen Merrill". AllMusic. Retrieved April 22, 2011.
  2. "Clifford Brown Discography". JAZZDISCO.org. Retrieved December 26, 2018.
  3. Swenson, J., ed. (1985). The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide. USA: Random House/Rolling Stone. p. 138. ISBN 0-394-72643-X.
  4. "Helen Merrill: Complete Recordings With Clifford Brown". All About Jazz. Retrieved December 26, 2018.
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