Breathless!

CD Tracks

Track 1: Angel Eyes 2:53 Track 2: There'll be Some Changes Made 2:09 Track 3: Breezin' Along with the Breeze 2:33 Track 4: My Lucky Day 2:19 Track 5: 'Deed I Do 2:34 Track 6: Their Hearts Were Full of Spring 3:07 Track 7: It's D'Lovely 2:08 Track 8: September in the Rain 2:44 Track 9: I'm in Love with the Honorable Mr. So and So 1:58 Track 10: Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams 1:57 Track 11: Does Anybody Here Love Me? 2:33 Track 12: The Boy Next Door 3:16 Track 13: Breathless 1:57 Track 14: Holiday for Strings 3:14 Track 15: Bluesette 2:04 Track 16: Cry Me a River 2:32 Track 17: While We're Young 2:27 Track 18: Some of These Days 1:53

Liner Note

Sue Raney has long had a beautiful voice, a wide range and the ability to uplift any lyrics that she chooses to interpret. Her jazz-influenced singing is a joy whenever it is heard but she has been on records too rarely since the 1980's. This V.S.O.P. act, which features previously unreleased performances from the 1960's, partly fills the gap and serves to remind listeners just how appealing a singer Sue Raney has always been.

Born in McPherson, Kansas, Sue Raney's career started very early. "I came From a musical background for my mother was a singer and my great great aunt had been in German opera When I was about four my mother realized that I could sing. My first public appearance was at a party in Wichita, Kansas when I was five."

Unable to find a voice teacher for her daughter at that time (due to her extreme youth), Raney's mother (who later in life became a vocal teacher) took voice lessons herself and then passed what she learned down to Sue.

"Early on I sang the hits, tunes that the girl singers in the big hands were performing. While growing up in the 1950's. I first listened to Doris Day, Patti Page, Rosemary Clooney and Kay Starr. I discovered jazz when I was 16 or 17 and of course soon loved Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan."

After working steadily in New Mexico and taking several trips out to Los Angeles during a couple of summer vacations, Sue Raney joined the Jack Carson radio show in 1954. "That is why the family moved out to Los Angeles. I had auditioned for Frankie Laine and made a couple of demos for his office. It was through him that I ended up on the Jack Carson show. It was one of the last major radio programs on CBS and at 15 I was the teenager on the show for nine or ten months. After Jack Carson I started appearing on Ray Anthony's television program and then became the vocalist with his hand when he played the Palladium. When I was 19, I put an act together and started working on the road." Raney had already recorded for Phillips and was signed to Capitol at the time that the earliest performances on Breathless! were made.

On this release, Sue Raney is featured with three separate groups during a period when her attractive voice was in its early prime. Eleven of the eighteen numbers showcase her singing with pianist Page Cavanaugh and nine of those selections also with his quartet Although the impressive guitarist's identity is not known, the chances are good that it is either John Pisano or Al Hendrickson; my vote goes to the former. Cavanaugh proves to be an expert accompanist, which is not too surprising considering that for decades he has backed his own vocals. "There'll Be Some Changes Made" and "This Is My Lucky Day" are from June 22, 1960 while the other Cavanaugh numbers are from the 1960-61 period; all originated from a radio series titled The Navy Swings. In late 1961 Page Cavanaugh formed a group called The Page 7 that had the unusual instrumentation of two trombones (Lew McCreary and Dave Wells), one reed (Bob Jung on alto and baritone) and a four piece rhythm section that included guitarist Pisano, bassist Don Bagley and drummer Jack Sperling. The band lasted for about three years and is heard briefly on "Angel Eyes" (which starts out with Raney accompanied by just the guitarist) and more prominently on "I'm In Love With The Honorable Mr. So And So."

"This was one of the few times that I had the opportunity to work with Page Cavanaugh and he always gave the music a good swing feel." The singer alternates sensitive ballads& with swingers, sticking to the lyrics but improvising through her phrasing and subtle placement of notes. Listen to how she stretches out her phrases during the latter half of "This Is My Lucky Day."

During 1960-63, clarinetist Buddy DeFranco and the talented accordion player Tommy Gumina had a quartet which at various time used Bob Stone, Bill Plummer, John Doling or Lee Borrows on bass and Frank DeVito, Joan Guerin, William Mendenhall or Dickie Borden drum. Gumina's accordion is the most prominent instrumental voice behind Raney on three selections (a 6/4 rendition of "Some Of These Days" and a couple of lesser-known ballads, "Does Anybody Here, Love Me" " and "The Boy Next Door) that are taken from the singer's Feb. 20, 1963 appearance on The Navy Swings

Raney's four tunes with drummer Shelly Manne date from the late 1960's and include some of her finest performances on this release. Backed by Manne, probably pianist Mike Wofford. an unidentified bassist and (on the sensitive ballad "Their Hearts Were Full Of Spring") a trumpeter (possibly Gary Barone), the renditions included are, highlighted by the humorous tongue twister "Breathless" and a version of "Holiday For Strings" which is drastically slowed down from its usual racehorse tempo and transformed into a touching ballad.

"I remember that I did 'Breathless' and 'Holiday For Strings' on an Imperial album in the early 1970's. Shelly Manne was on a lot of the record dates that I made through the years although I only actually worked with his group at one concert shortly before his death." Another highpoint is Raney's version of Toots Thielemans' greatest hit "Bluesette" which features some superior wordless vocalizing.

In the 1960's Sue Raney worked with the Four Freshmen at Las Vegas, toured with her own group, and appeared frequently on television variety shows including those of Red Skelton, Dean Martin and Danny Kaye. During the following decade she became active in the studios where her impressive voice helped sell products. But when asked to name her favorite gig, Sue Raney says "Possibly the highpoint of my life musically was when I toured with Michel Legrand in the 1980's. We worked with symphony orchestras in addition to having a self-contained rhythm section. I had a chance to sing Michel's lovely songs and it was wonderful." Of her own personal recordings she says "I think the trio of records that I made for Albert Marx, on Discovery in the 1980's are the ones that I am most proud of. I also like the Henry Mancini tribute Dreamsville that I did with Alan Broadbent."

These days Sue Raney is quite active as a voice teacher. "I've been teaching since the early 1980's, originally at the Dick Grove school and now privately nearly every afternoon. It is very rewarding. Teaching has allowed me to relearn what I thought I knew and explore new areas. I find that I'm now in better shape vocally than I've ever been. I sing with the L.A. Voices and Supersax, occasionally appear at the Moonlight Tango Cafe in Sherman Oaks near Los Angeles with Bill Watrous' big band and still go on the road when it feels right and it is artistically rewarding." When asked about her future goals, Sue Raney replied "I'd like to record a duet album with Alan Broadbent. But basically I just want to keep on doing what I'm doing, singing the music I love."

Scott Yarnow,
Editor of The All Music Guide To Jazz

Personnel

Selections 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 16, 17, feature the Page Cavanaugh Quartet and were recorded in 1960-61.
Selections 1 and 9 feature the Page 7 (Page Cavanaugh Septet) and were recorded in 1960-61.
Selections 11, 12, and 18 feature the Buddy De Franco//Tommy Gumina Quartet and were recorded in 1963.
Selections 6, 13, 14 and 15 feature Shelly Manne and His Men and were recorded in 1969 or 1970.

Recorded at United Recorders, Hollywood, CA