This past weekend - April 28, to be exact - would have marked the 95th birthday of Blossom Dearie. The singer-pianist-songwriter with the recognizably wispy, coquettish voice recorded over 30 albums for labels including Verve, Capitol, and Fontana, and collaborated with talents including Johnny Mercer, Michel Legrand, and Bob Dorough. Cherry Red's El label has just celebrated Dearie's early years with a new 3-CD set, The Adorable Blossom Dearie (superseding the label's previous single-disc
Music from Season Two of the acclaimed Amazon Prime television series boasts not one but two Barbra Streisand tunes ("Just Leave Everything to Me" from the film soundtrack of 1969's Hello, Dolly! and the evergreen "Happy Days Are Here Again") plus appearances by Frank Sinatra ("How Are Ya Fixed for Love" with Keely Smith), Blossom Dearie ("Some Other Time") and Ella Fitzgerald ("Old Mother Hubbard'). Further tracks come from Dean Martin ("I'd Cry Like a Baby"), Louis Prima and the Witnesses