HELEN MERRILL - DREAM OF YOU (EMARCY)

I mention above that I've been listening to this cd, and listening now I just have to rave a little bit about this album. It has to be one of my favorite jazz vocal albums of all time. My hero Gil Evans did the arrangements - probably one of the lesser known albums with his input? - and the combination of Gil's expertise and Helen's near-perfect phrasing and performance just creates this perfect storm of smoothness and beauty. Smoothness done right though! Smooth as some sort of epic ideal of songcraft and musicianship. "A New Town is a Blue Town" has me in a puddle on the floor by the end of it. *Sigh*. What a voice. What an album! "Troubled Waters"! Oh, jeez, it will make you cry it is so achingly achingly lovely. This is pop art of the highest calibre.