Miriam Klein - Ladylike (1973/2015) [Official Digital Download 24/88]

Miriam Klein is a Swiss jazz singer. Miriam Klein gained fame for the first time, when she appeared on the scene in Paris with Pierre Michelot, Don Byas and Art Simmons in the 1950s. After education at the music school in Vienna, she went back to Switzerland and has sung in the group of her husband Oscar Klein since 1963. In 1960s and 1970s, she gained international fame as a singer. In 1973, her famous album "Lady Like" was published. The album was dedicated to Billie Holiday. In the album, she performed with the musicians Roy Eldridge, Dexter Gordon and Slide Hampton.

Singer Miriam Klein’s claim to fame lies in the uncanny similarity of her voice and phrasing to that of one of the legends of the music, Billie Holiday. Critic Leonard feather commented that she “suggests a later Billie but without the weaknesses”. For Holiday devotees and the curious, that might be enough to interest them in these sides. However there is much more that these recordings have to offer: tenor saxophone giant Dexter Gordon, trombone great Slide Hampton, and trumpet legend Roy “Little Jazz” Eldridge, who played on some of Billie’s classic 1930’s recordings. Eldridge’s muted trumpet introduces Comes Love, then later twirls around Klein’s lines. A majestically strolling sax solo leads into Eldridge and a Ladylike Mariam restating the theme. What a Little Moonlight Can Do is an up-tempo romp with Miriam in a relaxed mood and “Little Jazz” once again plying muted counterpoint. You’ve Changed is sung and played slow and mellow, while The Man I Love has an open-horned Eldridge playing with the melody, buzz tone in full form before Klein and band jump in, the melted-butter sound of Hampton’s trombone front and center. Fine and Mellow is another Billie Holiday classic, a slow blues with Slide’s beautiful horn weaving in and out of the lyrics. Roy’s solo features his patented “screech” high notes and buzz tone. Yesterdays captures Billie’s pain and yearning in a voice and piano duo before doubling the tempo and inviting the rest of the band to have a say. A sensual Body and Soul ends the album the way it began: carrying the flame that Lady Day lit into the next generations.

Tracklist:

01 - Comes Love
02 - What a Little Moonlight Can Do
03 - You've Changed
04 - The Man I Love
05 - Big Stuff
06 - Fine and Mellow
07 - I Cried for You
08 - Yesterdays
09 - Body and Soul

Produced by MPS Records.
Recorded in June 1973 at Trixie-Studio, München, Germany.
Digitally Remastered.

Musicians:
Miriam Klein - vocals
Dexter Gordon - saxophone
Roy Eldridge - trumpet
Slide Hampton - trombone
Vince Benedetti - piano
Oscar Klein - guitar
Isla Eckinger - bass
Billy Brooks - drums


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