Sunday, January 3, 2010

My name is Blossom, I was raised in a lion's den...

Happy New Year to you and your families! I hope 2010 turns out to be very special and brings you happiness, success and lots of great new music!

GF's post a few down brought to my attention the fact that 2009 saw the demise of a lady whose music I have loved over the years. The improbably named Blossom Dearie left us at the age of 84 in February. It was my father who made me listen to her at first and what strikes one initially is the careless brilliance of her vocal interpretation. It's a candy floss voice which is almost too sweet to be true and yet very pure and totally unforced. She was also a classically trained pianist and converted effortlessly to jazz. Her accompaniments are delicate, spare and leave just enough room for her voice. She's at her best when interpreting the incisive lyrics of the likes of Cole Porter or Irving Caesar. She was apparently no mean wit herself and this, linked to her clarity of interpretation mean that she injects the right amount of verve and irony into each line. You can read her obit in the New York Times here.

Here's a small selection of some of her interpretations.
RIP Lady Blossom...

Discover the playlist RIP Blossom with Blossom Dearie

7 comments:

sourpus said...

Likewise a fan FP, nice tribute.

FP said...

Cheers Sourpus. It's music for a glass of sherry - got a bottle of Harvey's in the fridge. I remember dissing that venerable beverage not so long ago on this self same blog. It was an excess of CHristmas spirit and the nice blue bottle that got me to buy it. I know better now....

goneforeign said...

FP: Thanks for trhe NY Times obit, I'd missed it earlier, and thanks for the playlist

FP said...

Cheers GF - thanks for letting me know we'd lost her.

debbym said...

Thanks for posting this, FP - I've got a recording I love of Blossom Dearie with les Blue Stars, time to dig it out again methinks.
Happy New(ish) Year!

FP said...

Methinks you should indeed Debby. I took things nice n'easy in the office today. Gently did it with the album by Tony Bennett and KD Lang interspersed with Blossom. Did the job nicely...

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