Mel Torme's Own Song- Born To Be Blue" As virtuoso a singer as he was, Mel Torme was also an excellent songwriter with his Christmas Song a perennial favourite starting with " Chestnuts roasting on an open fire.....") His song Born To Be Blue with lyrics by Robert Wells is excellent and to quote Jenness & Velsey " It's closer to real blues style than most pop songs, in that it uses the flatted 3 and 6 ( intervals) a lot and also has the pattern roughly, of the blues syllogism: two short declarative phrases followed by one long summative phrase." They also conclude that " The lyric is well-integrated invoking a range of color terms that renders blue more poignant."
If there is someone who comes closer to technically perfect singing than Torme, please let me know.
First of all, he has more musical training than most singers-he can arrange songs for orchestras, play piano and is also an excellent drummer. He is the only "scat" singer in the same league as Ella Fitzgerald and as his friend and intrepid scholar Will Friedwald recounts in A Biographical Guide ToThe Great Jazz and Pop Singers, no other singer could embody the tenderest poetry of Cole Porter one minute and then a song later, ditch the words altogether to fly off into the scatosphere."
Although Torme was a perfectionist, he may have lacked the emotional and dramatic
power of Sinatra or the happy "goomba" warmth of Tony Bennett. As a jazz singer he leaves both Sinatra and Bennett in the dust , especially in his thrilling improvisational flights of fancy with George Shearing which will be featured in the next post.
Listen and enjoy vocal artistry that your unlikely to hear again.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJkdMMrIyRs
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