Plenty Valente!

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Plenty Valente!
Studio album by Caterina Valente

Publication
(s)

1957

admission

November 9, 15 and 23, 1956

Label (s)

Format (s)

LP, CD

Genre (s)

Jazz , pop

Title (number)

12

occupation

production

Milt Gabler

Studio (s)

Decca Studio, New York

chronology
Olé Caterina!
(1956) 		Plenty Valente! A Toast To The Girls
(1958)

Plenty Valente! is the second studio album by the singer Caterina Valente . The work contains 12 English-language jazz and swing standards, including compositions by Cole Porter , Johnny Green , Arthur Schwartz, and Rodgers and Hart . The arranger and orchestra director of the recordings made in New York City in 1956 was the American orchestra director Sy Oliver . The album was released in 1957 in several countries as a long-playing record by Polydor , in the USA, however, on the Decca label. The complete music album was re-released on CD in 2002 with the title Caterina Valente in New York .

History of origin

Caterina Valente, 1959

Parallel to her successes in Germany, Caterina Valente became known to international audiences in the mid-1950s through recordings in English, Spanish, French, Italian and Swedish. The title The Breeze and I (1955) by the Cuban composer Ernesto Lecuona, sung by Valente, was able to assert itself in the US charts for 14 weeks. In 1956 she appeared with Chet Baker and recorded the pieces I'll Remember April and Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye with him. During the same period, Caterina Valentes released her first long-playing records, including the compilation The Hi-Fi Nightingale and her first concept album, Olé Caterina! that was created in collaboration with her brother Silvio Francesco . While Valentes records appear in Europe and other countries with Polydor , these were published in the USA with Decca.

Sy Oliver (1946), photograph by William P. Gottlieb

Milt Gabler , one of the multinational record company's most successful music producers, brought the 25-year-old Valente to New York in 1956 to record with the renowned band leader and arranger Sy Oliver . On November 9th, 15th and 23rd, live with the orchestra, the 12 mono recordings for the music album Plenty Valente! . The orchestra leader had well-known soloists such as Charlie Shavers ( trumpet ), JJ Johnson ( trombone ) and Hank Jones ( piano ) at his disposal . Before the session, Oliver is said to have warned his musicians to underestimate the European singer: "This young lady is swinging, you'd better swing too!" . During a conversation with the music journalist Jan Feddersen in 2003, Caterina Valente recalled her encounter with the orchestra: “I almost passed out. There sat all the famous people I adored. And Sy just said to me, we'll do everything for you now. Inconceivably."

In early 1957 the album was released under the title Plenty Valente! on the market (Polydor LPHM 46 037; Decca DL 8440).

Track list

  1. Poinciana - 3:12
    (Music: Nat Simon / Text: Buddy Bernier)
  2. Take Me in Your Arms - 2:49
    (Music: Fred Markush / Text: Mitchell Parish )
  3. Moonlight in Vermont - 3:38
    (Music: Karl Suessdorf / Text: John Blackburn)
  4. In the Still of the Night - 2:49
    (music and lyrics: Cole Porter )
  5. Out of Nowhere - 2:19
    (Music: Johnny Green / Text: Edward Heyman)
  6. Someday Sweetheart - 2:17
    (Music: John Spikes, Reb Spikes)
  7. Flamingo - 2:36
    (Music: Ted Grouya / Text: Ed Anderson)
  8. I'm In the Market for You - 2:49
    (Music: James F. Hanley / Text: Joseph McCarthy)
  9. Alone Together - 2:17
    (Music: Arthur Schwartz / Text: Howard Dietz )
  10. Nocturne for the Blues - 3:26
    (music and lyrics: Earle Hagen , Dick Rogers, S. Robin)
  11. Where or When - 3:11
    (Music: Richard Rodgers / Text: Lorenz Hart )
  12. When You Walked Out - 2:40
    (music and text: Irving Berlin )

Republication

In 1999 the recordings were remastered for the first time and re-released as part of the CD box set Caterina Valente - The Complete Polydor Recordings 1954-1958 ( Bear Family Records BCD 16307 HL). Following the example of the successful CD Nana Mouskouri in New York (1999), Polydor released the Valente album again in New York in 2002 under the title Caterina Valente (Polydor 065 104-2).

Reviews

The re-release of the album received mostly positive reviews. Michael Schuh from laut.de described it as a “swinging highlight” of Valente's long career. Kulturnews magazine found that the historical recordings “haven't lost a bit of their original freshness”. It is "a very tasty by-product of the US mainstream from the swinging fifties".

Helge Hopp von der Welt concluded that the album offered “a charming approach to the work of the international show legend”. Der Spiegel reported: “The CD" Caterina Valente in New York "sounds remastered, fresh and full of life. Nonetheless, there is melancholy: If Caterina Valente had honored fewer hits and more jazz festivals, she would have become a real goddess of the scene. "

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Helge Hopp: Your American Dream . The world . February 16, 2003.
  2. ↑ Jan Feddersen : "I don't whine any more" . the daily newspaper . July 12, 2003.
  3. ↑ Michael Schuh: The swinging highlight of a young career . laut.de . November 19, 2002.
  4. ^ CD criticism in Kulturnews . 2002.
  5. ↑ The Valente swings . The mirror . December 9, 2002.