Sue Raney Volume II

Track List

Track 1 Someone To Watch Over Me 2:22 Track 2 I Hear Music 1:57 Track 3 Trouble Is A Man 2:10 Track 4 Breezin' Along With The Breeze 2:59 Track 5 Little Girl Blue 2:36 Track 6 Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams 2:23 Track 7 'Deed I Do 1:28 Track 8 Love Me Or Leave Me 1:59 Track 9 No Place To Go 1:56 Track 10 Five Definitions Of Love 2:41 Track 11 With A Little Help From My Friends 2:47 Track 12 My Love Is A Wanderer 2:58 Track 13 Umbrellas Of Cherbourg (Watch What Happens) 3:57 Track 14 Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams 2:24 Track 15 Burnt Sugar 3:28 Track 16 I Ain't Got Nobody 2:26 Track 17 'Deed I Do 2:03 Track 18 Breezin' Along With The Breeze 1:55 Track 19 Goodbye Charlie 2:01 Track 20 Bluesette 1:57

Liner Note

Sue Raney has one of the most beautiful voices in music. She is always in-tune, displays complete control over her vibrato, and has the rare gift of being able to interpret lyrics with such deep understanding that she makes them sound fresh, even if the words are familiar. Raney would be much better known today if she did not spend most of her time as a well-respected voice teacher, living in the Los Angeles area, and if she had recorded more extensively throughout her career. But it is obvious, in listening to the previously unreleased performances on this CD, that she is one of the greats.

The singer was born in McPherson, Kansas and she started performing quite early. Her mother was a vocalist and her great great aunt had been active in German opera. When she was five, Sue Raney performed at a party in nearby Wichita and her musical skills were obvious even at that tender age, Her mother, unable to find a teacher for her young daughter, took singing lessons herself and passed them down to her child, who caught on very quickly.

Growing up in the early 1950s, Sue loved the big band singers and such performers as Doris Day, Patti Page, Rosemary Clooney and Kay Starr, discovering jazz a little later. She worked in New Mexico and first visited Los Angeles during a couple of summer vacations. In 1954 she and her family moved to L.A. so she could join the Jack Carson radio show, performing for ten months regularly on the radio even though she was still just 15. In the 1950s she also appeared on Ray Anthony's television series, worked as a single from the age of 18 and recorded for the Phillips and Capitol labels. In the 1960s, Sue Raney appeared frequently on the radio series The Navy Swings. Performances from some of the shows came out a few years ago on Breathless (Studio West 107). The additional music on the new CD had not been available before and although the performances are generally quite concise, the results are rewarding and add some valuable selections to the Sue Raney discography.

Selections 4, 6, 7, 14-18 and 20 feature Raney joined by pianist Page Cavanaugh's Quartet from 1960-61. Cavanaugh first gained attention in the late 1940s when he had a piano-guitar-bass trio with guitarist Al Viola and bassist Lloyd Pratt that was quite popular They appeared in a few movies (including having opportunities to share the stage with Doris Day) and had a few hit records, most notably "The Three Bears," "Walkin' My Baby Back Home" and "All of Me." Cavanaugh became a fixture in the Los Angeles area and not too surprisingly was, in addition to being a fine soloist, an expert accompanist since lie often backed his own vocals.

The personnel is not definitively known for Cavanaugh's 1960-61 radio appearances with Raney although it is possible that it consists of guitarist John Pisano, bassist Don Bagley and drummer Jack Sperling who were all members of his group in 1962. "Breezin' Along With Breeze," " Deed I Do" and "Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams" (which has an excellent arrangement) are heard in two versions apiece and show that Raney could swing with the best singers even though she is often thought of as a masterful interpreter of ballads. A subtle improviser whose style is always accessible and cheerful, Raney pays close attention to melody and words but is not shy to infuse the music with her own winning personality. Other songs on this set that feature Cavanaugh's quartet include Raney's "Burnt Sugar Man" (an original blues that has a country feel) and a mostly wordless version of "Bluesette." Raney and Cavanaugh work together so naturally and with such spirit on a happy version of "I Ain't Got Nobody" that one wishes they had collaborated much more often.

In late-1961, Page Cavanaugh formed a larger group called the Page 7 that consisted of both Lew McCreary and Dave Wells on trombones, Bob Jung on alto and baritone, and a four-piece rhythm section with the leader, Pisano, Bagley and Sperling. The Page 7 accompanies Sue Raney on cuts 12 and 19. Bart Howard's "My Love Is A Wanderer" is given an atmospheric and haunting treatment while "Goodbye Charlie" is a waltz that is a blues-with-a-bridge. The Page 7 had a lot of potential and was popular in Los Angeles for a few years before breaking up in the mid-1960s. Happily, Page Cavanaugh, who turned 80 in 2002, is still playing on a regular basis in Los Angeles clubs with his trio and he has lost none of his musical abilities or enthusiasm for the swinging music he loves.

Buddy DeFranco has long been one of jazz's great clarinetists, ever since at least 1944 when he was with Tommy Dorsey's orchestra. Despite his background in swing, DeFranco was an important innovator in bebop, transferring the ideas of Charlie Parker to the clarinet and not having any real competitors until the rise of Eddie Daniels in the 1980s. He never became the household name that Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw did simply because his instrument went through an eclipse with the rise of bebop, but DeFranco ranks as one of its giants and is still quite active today at the age of 79.

During 1960-65 DeFranco co-led a quartet with accordion player Tommy Gumina. Gumina was one of the few who showed that the accordion could adapt itself quite well to swinging jazz if the right person was playing the instrument. During its life the DeFranco-Gumina Quartet also included Bob Stone, Bill Plummer, John Doling or Lee Burrows on bass and Frank DeVito, John Guerin, William Mendenhall or Dickie Borden on drums.

The DeFranco-Gumina group joins Sue Raney on cuts 2, 3, 5, 8 and 9, all recorded in 1963. On "I Hear Music," some of Raney's phrasing recalls Ella Fitzgerald a bit. She puts a lot of feeling into the brief "Trouble Is A Man" and a touching rendition of "Little Girl Blue," and swings well on a medium-tempo version of "Love Me Or Leave Me." For the fine ballad "No Place To Go," Raney shows off her skills as a lyricist by contributing the words. Throughout these five numbers, while DeFranco is only occasionally present, Tommy Gumina shows just how effective an instrument the accordion can be in this setting.

Shelly Manne was a much beloved drummer who led important bands from 1953 until his death in 1984. Manne, who was a busy studio musician for decades, first recorded in 1941 and gained his initial fame with Stan Kenton's Orchestra (1948-52). He always headed top-notch jazz combos (known as Shelly Manne and his Men) that fell stylistically between West Coast cool jazz and hard hop.

The 1970 version of Manne's band consisted of trumpeter Gary Barone, tenor-saxophonist John Gross, pianist Mike Wofford and bassist Juney Booth in addition to the drummer-leader. This was a more modern outfit than Manne usually had but swung well and could be quite fiery Functioning as a backup group for Raney on cuts 1, 10, 11 and 13, the roles for Barone and Gross are minor while Wofford is easily the most important musician. In fact, the opening "Someone To Watch Over You" is a vocal-piano duet that shows off the beauty of Raney's voice and her sensitivity on ballads. Manne's band is also heard on Bob Borough's unusual "Five Definitions Of Love" (which sets to music the definitions of love listed in Webster's dictionary), "Umbrellas Of Cherbourg" (also known as "Watch What Happens") and the unlikely Beatles song "With A Little Help From My Friends" which Raney manages to effortlessly swing.

Sue Raney, who in more recent times has sung with the L.A. Voices and Bill Watrous' band, still appears on a rare occasion in clubs and her 1997 Fresh Sound release Autumn In The Air is excellent. She remains one of the most unsung but easily enjoyable of all jazz singers, as can be heard throughout her valuable Studio West set.

Scott Yanow, Author of Swing, Bebop, Afro-Cuban.Jazz. Trumpet Kings and Classic Jazz