The number of albums I receive from 'over there' gets me to thinking that maybe Bebop Spoken Here is actually in the running to become the fifty-first state of the Union although there is strong competition from places such as Puerto Rico, Canada, Washington DC and Washington Tyne and Wear not to mention Westminster and Dublin.
I don't think this recording is going to tip the balance either way. Wertz has a beautiful, wispy voice that gets inside. The voice is like the alluring perfume of someone sitting close to you and yet is unobtainable as her date looks like the young Chet Baker and your visage is more of the later Chet (cue for reader to say 'Oh no it's not' - the silence is the loudest I ever heard).
However, as always, I digress. Ms Wertz has a lovely voice that would have captured the UK in the same way that Ella did all those years ago but, today, we have Claire, Clare, Jo, Georgia (Cécile/Mancio). Emma and so many others who can repel most of the transatlantic invaders other than Samara Joy.
Nevertheless, what Ms Wertz has achieved, which is what few others have achieved, is a suggestion as to what Shirley Horn may have became had she lived on.
Going even further back, A Sunday Kind of Love is the best version I've heard of that lovely tune since Fran Warren sang it back in the 1940s.
A superb band takes the backing to the dry cleaners way, way, beyond Des Moines. Priven's alto solos rank up there with the best.
An album to check out and enjoy with repeated listening. Lance
April 2020; Spring is Here; Rest Your Head (One for Natalie); Hall of Champions; A Sunday Kind of Love; When the Walls Crumble we Return; I Have Dreamed/Dreamsville; Turn in; Cloud Shaped Thoughts; Other side
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