Get Happy: The Harold Arlen Centennial Celebration CD

Of all the classic composers in the American songbook, not even George Gershwin channeled the blues and jazz idioms like Harold Arlen. The Buffalo native and son of a Jewish cantor not only wrote that quintessential anthem of the Great Plains optimist ("Over the Rainbow"), but also many plaintive urban laments like "Stormy Weather" and "Blues in the Night." Verve celebrated the centennial of Arlen's birth (February 15, 1905) with a compilation that gathered much of the best jazz vocal Arlen readings extant in its vast holdings -- which includes not only the Verve label itself (home of much that was great by Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, and Mel Tormé), but also the Mercury catalog that includes Dinah Washington and Shirley Horn as well as the excellent EmArcy label's recordings by Helen Merrill and Sarah Vaughan. Thank the composer's son, Sam Arlen, for the excellent compiling job, which begins with a track from the most famous Arlen record of all time, Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Harold Arlen Songbook. From there he selects a wide range of material, some obscure and some very popular, that does justice to the sizeable impact his father exerted on American popular song. One of the happiest surprises is Abbey Lincoln's bucolic reading of another Wizard of Oz standard, "If I Only Had a Brain." ~ John Bush
The Great American Songbook includes work by George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, and Irving Berlin, to name a few. However, Harold Arlen may be the jazziest of all these composers. Therefore, a jazzy tribute to this master tunesmith is only fitting.
Billie Holiday's downtrodden version of "Stormy Weather" is simply a classic; it's hard to imagine any other singer bringing greater meaning to this lyric or greater inflection to this melody. In contrast, Mel Torme's "Get Happy" is a bouncy piece that sees the crooner jumping octaves with ease. There are also up-tempo big-band charts--"Hooray for Love," as performed Ella Fitzgerald, and "My Shining Hour," as sung by Sammy Davis Jr. On the latter, Count Basie's taut, virtuosic orchestra accompanies the charismatic Rat Packer, whose voice glides effortlessly over the sharp brass. Of course, no tribute to Arlen would be complete without "Over the Rainbow." On this album, Sarah Vaughan (backed by the Ernie Wilkins Orchestra) invokes the dreamy qualities of this timeless sanguine ballad.

E.Fitgerald,B.Holiday,D.Krall, M.Torme,D.Washington,S.Vaughan