Etta Jones - Don't Go To Strangers (1960/2006/2014) [Official Digital Download]

This was Etta Jones' first album for Prestige Records when it was originally released in 1960 (having been recorded in a single session), and although Jones had been releasing records since 1944, she was treated as an overnight sensation when the title tune from the album went gold, hitting the Top 40 on the pop charts and reaching number five on the R&B charts. The album was inducted in the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2008.

Don't Go to Strangers was Etta Jones' first album for the independent jazz label Prestige when it was released in 1960 (having been recorded in a single session on June 21 of that year), and although Jones had been releasing records since 1944, including a dozen sides for RCA in 1946 and an album for King Records in 1957, she was treated as an overnight sensation when the title tune from the album went gold, hitting the Top 40 on the pop charts and reaching number five on the R&B charts. An elegant ballad on an album that had several of them, including the masterful "If I Had You" and a marvelous reading of "All the Way," a song usually identified with Frank Sinatra, "Don't Go to Strangers" featured Jones' airy, bluesy phrasing and uncanny sense of spacing, and was very much a jazz performance, making its success on the pop charts all the more amazing. Listen to Jones' restructuring of the melody to the opening track, the old chestnut "Yes Sir, That's My Baby," to hear a gifted jazz singer sliding and shifting the tone center of a song like a veteran horn player, all the while leaving the melody still recognizable, but refreshing it until it stands revealed anew. Apparently there were no additional tracks cut at the session, since bonus material has never surfaced on any of the album's subsequent reissues, although that's hardly a problem, because as is, Don't Go to Strangers is a perfect gem of a recording.

Tracklist:

01 - Yes Sir, That's My Baby
02 - Don't Go To Strangers
03 - I Love Paris
04 - Fine And Mellow
05 - Where Or When
06 - If I Had You
07 - On The Street Where You Live
08 - Something To Remember You By
09 - Bye Bye Blackbird
10 - All The Way

Produced & Engineered by Rudy Van Gelder.
Recorded on June 21, 1960 at Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
All transfers were made from the analog master tapes to digital at 24-bit resolution. Supervision by Bob Weinstock.
Remastered by Rudy Van Gelder at Van Gelder Studio in 2007.

Musicians:
Etta Jones - vocals
Frank Wess - flute, tenor saxophone
Richard Wyands - piano
Skeeter Best - guitar
George Duvivier - bass
Roy Haynes - drums

A Note From Rudy Van Gelder:
I remember the sessions well, I remember how the musicians wanted to sound, and I remember their reactions to the playbacks. Today, I feel strongly that I am their messenger.

Thanks to the Original customer!