The Quarantined Jazz Voyager

The variants are still plaguing society and yet most are taking a casual attitude in dealing with health. Understand it takes a village for all of us to get past this, to coin a phrase. Those of us who have had friends and family pass due to Covid~19 know the loss of loved ones. Stay vigilant people.

So, for those of you who are not familiar with the jazz side of the Queen Of Soul, allow this to be your introduction to the other side of her interpretive talent. This week I am pulling from the shelves one of her classic albums, Laughing On The Outside. It is the fourth studio album by Aretha Franklin, recorded at Columbia Recording Studios, in New York City on April 17, 1963 and on June 12–14, 1963 in Hollywood, California. It was released on August 12, 1963, by Columbia Records.

These sessions found a 21-year-old Aretha stepping away from her gospel roots and recording jazz and popular music standards, from Johnny Mercer to Betty Comden to Duke Ellington. She is backed by the arrangements of Columbia producer Robert Mersey. One of the most popular songs from the album is her interpretation of the classic Skylark. This was also one of the first times she recorded one of her written compositions, I Wonder (Where Are You Tonight), on an album.

Track Listing | 41:00

Side One

  1. Skylark (Johnny Mercer, Hoagy Carmichael) ~ 2:49
  2. For All We Know (Sam M. Lewis, J. Fred Coots) ~ 3:25
  3. Make Someone Happy (Betty Comden, Adolph Green, Jule Styne) ~ 3:48
  4. I Wonder (Where Are You Tonight)” (Aretha Franklin, Ted White) ~ 3:16
  5. Solitude (Duke Ellington, Eddie DeLange, Irving Mills) ~ 3:50
  6. Laughing on the Outside (Bernie Wayne, Ben Raleigh) ~ 3:14

Side Two

  1. Say It Isn’t So (Irving Berlin) ~ 3:05
  2. Until The Real Thing Comes Along (Sammy Cahn, Saul Chaplin, L. E. Freeman) ~ 3:04
  3. If Ever I Would Leave You” (Alan Jay Lerner, Frederick Loewe) ~ 4:04
  4. Where Are You? (Harold Adamson, Jimmy McHugh) ~ 3:50
  5. Mr. Ugly (Norman Mapp) ~ 3:22
  6. I Wanna Be Around (Johnny Mercer, Sadie Vimmerstedt) ~ 2:25
Personnel
  • Aretha Franklin ~ vocals
  • Robert Mersey ~ producer, arranger, conductor
  • Earl Van Dyke, Dave Grusin, Andrew Acker, Leon Russell ~ piano
  • C. Bosler, Ray Pohlman, Melvin Pollan ~ bass guitar
  • Hindel Butts, Hal Blaine ~ drums
  • Don Arnome, Tommy Tedesco, Billy Strange ~ guitar
  • Jimmy Nottingham ~ trumpet
  • Robert Ascher ~ trombone
  • Plas Johnson ~ saxophone
  • Bernard Eichenbaum, Julius Schacter, Leo Kahn, Berl Senofsky, Felix Gigol, Max Pollikoff, George Ockner, John Rublowsky, Sid Sharp, Tibor Zelig, George Poole, Irving Lipschultz, Irving Weinper, Darrel Terwilliger ~ violin
  • R. Dickler, Theodore Israel, Jacob Glick ~ viola
  • Jesse Erlich, Anthony Twardowsky, Joseph Tekula ~ cello

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