Boy Meets Girl: Sammy Davis, Jr. & Carmen McRae on Decca

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(5 stars) - Take a generous mixture of Sammy and Carmen, stir well in front of a microphone, and stand back to watch the musical fireworks
Sammy Davis, Jr. and Carmen McRae certainly had different backgrounds: his career evolved out of the vaudeville circuit and Carmen's career was based upon much more formal music training. Nevertheless, their union sparks more than just plain old harmony on this generous "two-fer" CD. The "two-fer" CD is called a "two-fer" because it contains all the tracks from their record album entitled Boy Meets Girl as well as the tracks from their album entitled Porgy and Bess.

The CD begins with the twelve tracks from the 1957 LP entitled Boy Meets Girl; and "Happy To Make Your Acquaintance" charms you with its beauty. Their excellent diction and enthusiasm electrifies this number and already you're dying for more.

You won't be disappointed as you listen along, either. The track set continues with the classic "Tea For Two." Sammy and Carmen sing the rarely heard opening verse and the musical arrangement makes great use of the piano and horns. Sammy also interjects clever, witty side comments to make this number even better than I've ever heard it! Excellent! "You're The Top" boasts a great musical arrangement and Sammy and Carmen sing this to perfection. Once again, the rarely heard opening verses enhance the beauty of this number. When Sammy Davis, Jr. and Carmen McRae sing these numbers, you can tell they ARE in love--with their music, of course, as they were two of the very best in the business.

Carmen and Sammy infuse "Cheek To Cheek" with a high octane energy as they sing this number as if their lives were on the line! You become convinced no duo could perform "Cheek To Cheek" better than Sammy and Carmen can here.

Other gems include "A Fine Romance" which gets a royal yet playful treatment from Sammy and Carmen; they sing like artists scratching to be heard and we get the all the benefits on numbers like "A Fine Romance!" "Baby, It's Cold Outside" offers more of that magical chemistry between Sammy and Carmen; and the horns on the musical arrangement work very well.

The CD also gives us a bonus single track entitled "I Go For You." Carmen and Sammy sing this love ballad with panache and a playful togetherness that charms you instantly. The cha cha rhythm makes "I Go For You" even better, too!

Then the CD gives us the ten tracks from Sammy and Carmen's 1959 record album entitled Porgy And Bess. Carmen performs "Summertime" with great sensitivity in a fairly serious mood. Sammy then comes in on the next track entitled "A Woman Is A Sometime Thing." Sammy performs "A Woman Is A Sometime Thing" with great feeling and a degree of sensitivity I rarely hear. His voice is rich, warm and full of masculine charm. "My Man's Gone Now" features Carmen performing this ballad with strength as she sings of her terrific angst over her lost love. Carmen even makes her voice tremble to convey her vulnerability which, ironically, makes her interpretation of "My Man's Gone Now" all the more powerful and commanding.

Other great numbers from the Porgy And Bess track set include the touching and memorable "Bess, You Is My Woman Now" performed by Sammy Davis, Jr.; and "It Ain't Necessarily So" gives us Sammy singing at his best with a great male backup chorus. "I Loves You, Porgy" yields yet another sublime duet between Sammy and Carmen; "I Loves You Porgy" lets Sammy Davis, Jr. and Carmen McRae sing of the love Porgy and Bess have for each other and how they may have to fight for their love and happiness together.

The CD ends with "Oh, Lawd, I'm On My Way." Sammy sings this uplifting ballad to perfection. The chorus in the background adds to the beauty of the number, too.

The liner notes feature an essay about Sammy Davis, Jr. and Carmen McRae by Wil Haygood; and the photos of Sammy and Carmen together are very nicely done. You also get miniature replications of the artwork for both the front and the back of the record album covers, too.

I truly have difficulty imagining a world of entertainment without the fine contributions of Sammy Davis, Jr. and Carmen McRae. They sang passionately with all their hearts and souls. We are much better off for them sharing their fine artistry with us. I highly recommend this "two-fer" CD for fans of both Sammy Davis, Jr. and Carmen McRae; and people who enjoy classic pop vocals will cherish this CD for many years to come.

(5 stars) - Great Duet Singing and Songs
This single CD combines two previously released albums featuring Sammy Davis, Jr. and Carmen McRae - "Boy Meets Girl" and "Porgy and Bess," recorded on various dates in 1957 and 1958, twenty-three tracks in all. The tracks from "Boy Meets Girl" feature some nice standards from Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern and Hoagy Carmichael, among others. Track 13 is a previously unreleased song, entitled "I Go For You," and it's a great duet tune, featuring witty lyrics and great singing. It's a very catchy number, and listening to it makes me wonder what other unreleased gems the record execs have kept hidden in the vaults away from prying ears. The tracks from "Porgy and Bess" are similarly excellent. It all adds up to a disc worth owning if you want to hear two great vocalists teaming up at their peak.

(5 stars) - Power Sessions--Remembering a Potent Pair and Unrepeatable Musical Meeting
It's easy to take Sammy Davis Jr. for granted, even today. This collection of Sammy-Carmen tracks from the '50s serves as a welcome reminder that, had he done nothing else, he was still one of the several best male singers from this period or any other. To begin with, I thought much of his humor on this outing was gratuitous and even distracting (he'll quickly replace his own lush baritone with a Jerry Lewis impersonation followed by a Nat Cole impersonation followed by spoken asides--all within a phrase or two). But upon repeated listenings his rapport with Carmen sounds convincing, indispensable to the unique chemistry between this pair. And he plays it serious, or romantic and tender, on enough of the tunes to balance the cutting up. (He's endearing on "Two Sleepy People," and I doubt there's a better, and more moving, reading of "Bess, You Is My Woman Now" on record.)

For some ears it may be a revelatory experience to hear Carmen McRae at this time (mid to late 1950s). By the early 1970s she was rightfully recognized as one of the top 3-4 jazz singers and interpreters of the American Songbook, but her once-lovely soprano had dropped considerably (perhaps by an octave) and it lacked the breath support that allowed her to draw out a phrase, finishing it off with a warm vibrato (the vibrato would desert her and her voice no longer had "body" when she sang softly). It was a credit to her that her interpretive abilities and all-around musicianship enabled her to work around the harmful effects of smoking. On this recording, however, you're able to hear both sides of Carmen--the ability to deliver a lyric convincingly and the vibrant vocal quality (which perhaps many listeners are unaware of).

There's no horseplay on the latter part of this collection--the "Porgy and Bess" session. Arranger-conductor Buddy Bregman, whose comments on his own recording are included among the Amazon reviews, has reason to feel satisfaction if not pride. The performances and settings rank among the best of the available recordings of Gershwin's unique opera, which enjoyed a revival in the late '50s (I wish someone would figure out that it's due for another one). As for Sammy Davis' tour de force performance, it should be sufficient in itself to place him in the front ranks of all-time great American entertainers. And the recorded sound of the vocalists and orchestra is not only balanced but has detail, depth, and "presence." This is a genuine, largely-hidden gem that, given the musical sensibilities (and absence of comparable talent) of the present millenium, is indeed an unrepeatable event.

(4 stars) - A Young Sammy and Carmen
A number of years ago I heard their recording of ,"There's A Small Hotel", recorded in the fifties on Decca. A great rendition of the Rodgers and Hart classic and rarely done as a duet. The album was out of print for decades and has just been reissued.This disc contains two LP's, "Boy Meets Girl" and their interpertation of "Porgy and Bess". The "Porgy and Bess", is a beautiful arranged and performed recording. The, "Boy Meets Girl", is spotty. Sammy resorts to a Jerry Lewis voice in some of the numbers, he's having fun, but it doesn't hold up. I love his voice so I'm always happy when he get's down to business. Carmen sounds fantstic all the way through. For my money and well...yours, if you are considering purchasing this CD, the best part are, the ballads at the beginning and all the Gershwin at the end. Still a good buy, considering you couldn't get it until now.

(4 stars) - Classic Carmen and Sammy!
Two classic LP's! The re-mastering job on this CD was first class. The first of the two albums, "Boy Meets Girl," features fun standards with Sammy 'hamming it up' while Carmen's voice is as wonderful as she always was. "Porgy and Bess" was a good concept with fine orchestrations and early 1958 stereo sound (except that some of the selections has the vocals a little low in the mix) but overall felt a little uneven in presentation. That's why I gave it four stars instead of five.

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