About the Blues
(Liberty: LRP-3043/LST-7012)

Released: 1957. Billboard peak:  #15.

Producer: Bobby Troup. Arranger / Conductor: Russ Garcia.

Notes: Originally issued in mono, the rechanneled stereo version of this album was issued in 1958. Recorded at Radio Recorders in Los Angeles, 1956 - 1957.

CD Availability: (1)  2001 EMI two-fer, with "London By Night." (2)  2002 Capitol Jazz, which includes the original 12 songs, plus 4 other songs released as Liberty singles: "Baby, Baby, All the Time," "Shadow Woman," "Meaning of the Blues" (single version), and "Dark."

Liner Notes by Jack Wagner:

While attending Hollywood Professional High School in 1944, I hardly thought the teen-age doll sitting at my left in English class would someday be a top recording artist who got her start by recording a song written by the boy sitting at my right! I'm referring, of course, to Julie London, Arthur Hamilton and Cry Me a River. What also never entered my mind was that I'd be fortunate enough to become a Los Angeles disc jockey who would be featuring precisely this type of music and literally be flipping over the talents of my schoolmates! Well...it's true and I'm thrilled to be in any way connected with these two talented personalities...let along having the opportunity of telling you about this fine new record album.

Having established Julie's ability as a vocalist through her albums "Julie Is Her Name" and "Calendar Girl," LONDON now presents this talented beauty complemented with strings, trombones and the transcendent ability of Russ Garcia, whose arrangements are surpassed only by his personality.

An azure hue sets the mood featuring blues standards and two originals --Bouquet of Blues by Arthur Hamilton and Meaning of the Blues written by the producer of this effort, Bobby Troup. As for Julie, I can only say without getting completely carried away that she is achieving what all artists hold as a goal--the ability to create a mood. So well has Julie done this that some of the more commercial type vocalists have tried to imitate the "Julie London approach." This, in itself, is a great compliment and verification of an artist's success. Often an artist is accepted by the public but not by the industry...and vice versa. But with Julie it's unanimous! We're all with her 100%! Not only is she a gorgeous woman with an abundance of talent but also a wonderful person eager to please her admirers.

So here, again, is our Julie as she sings "About the Blues."

All Music Guide review by Nick Dedina:

Julie London wasn't really a jazz singer, but she possessed a definite jazz feeling and many of her finest albums (such as Julie Is Her Name and Julie...At Home) feature small-group jazz backings. About the Blues was aimed at the 1950s pop market, but it may just be her best orchestral session. Since downbeat torch songs were London's specialty, the album features an excellent selection of nocturnal but classy blues songs that play to her subtle strengths instead of against them. Likewise, Russ Garcia's clever arrangements bleed jazz touches and short solos over the solitary strings and big-band charts. Like June Christy, London usually included a couple of new songs in with a selection of standards, and her husband, Bobby Troup, wrote two excellent numbers for the album. One of them, the emotionally devastating "Meaning of the Blues," is the album's highlight, and was turned into a jazz standard after Miles Davis recorded it the same year for Miles Ahead.

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Tracks

Make Love to Me
(Liberty: LRP-3060/LST-7060)

Released: 1957.

With Russ Garcia & His Orchestra.

Notes: Originally issued in mono, the rechanneled stereo version of this album was issued in 1959.

CD Availability: 2002 EMI two-fer, with "Lonely Girl."

Liner Notes (author unknown):

Julie is a girl! This fact may be easily learned by a not-too-prolonged study of the cover. She's the girl next door...the one you've danced with...maybe the one you took to the senior prom...the girl you've been in love with, but never met.

In this group of arrangements, Julie invites...Make love to me...Russ Garcia and a group of carefully chosen musicians supply the background for the mood. The choice titles include standards---which are songs not likely to be passing fads---along with new pieces which should supply material for singers yet unborn.

The lights are dim...and by chance, it's the maid's night off. The radio plays softly and out of a fragrant haze of perfume, she whispers..."Make love to me." So steady the trembling hand, pour the martinis---let your imagination go...

If I could be with you, she pleads---and you answer, "You can, you...anywhere...everywhere..."

On the San Francisco Waterfront she sighs, It's good to want you bad...You cling to her...to the mood, to the magic...don't lose her in the mist...

Casablanca---it's night---and you place your lips on hers...but the night is still young; the streets are winding and narrow, and she warns, Go slow.

Then Paris---and A room with a view---she admires the Eiffel Tower, Montmartre, Les Champs Elysees by moonlight...you are lost in enchantment...

The pale Manhattan dawn---and you are lost in the tenderness. You hold her close and she senses the Nearness of you.

Tahiti?...Ceylon?...as long as you are Alone together, the place matters little, the time matters less.

I wanna be loved, she taunts...and in wild anticipation you'll follow her...to Madrid, to Siam, to the moon!

Now Rome, where the night is cold...and you're glad, for she's there---Snuggled on your shoulder.

Then to be spellbound by the splendour of the Pyramids, the beauty of the Nile...and to hear her say, You're my thrill.

Switzerland at sunset---and she whispers Lover man...and you hold her, oblivious to the call of...all aboard...all aboard...

I'm yours, Body and soul, she admits. And you believe, so why travel on...?

The journey's end, and now the joy, as again she whispers...Make love to me.

All Music Guide review by Scott Yanow:

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Tracks

Julie
(Liberty: LRP-3096/LST-7004)

Released: 1957

Producer: Bobby Troup.

With the Jimmy Rowles Orchestra.

Notes: Originally issued in mono, the stereo version was issued later in 1958, and is rechanneled. Recorded in the Liberty studios in Hollywood.

CD Availability:  2006 EMI two-fer, with "Love on the Rocks."

Liner Notes by Liberty President Si Waronker:

Dear Julie,

Perhaps you can help me put down this kaleidoscope of impressions that runs through my mind as I listen to the final assembly of this, your newest and truly most magnificent album.

I hear the relaxed self-assured musician that you have become, and a wonderful nostalgia takes me back to the beginning of our association. Those first sides, "CRY ME A RIVER", etc., that set an easy-singing stylist into the minds of the listener, then constantly being bombarded by a bevy of "belters" and "shouters". Pure sincerity and desire, Julie, were the ingredients, plus a candid applaudable courage that carried you beyond the confines of the "frightening" microphone and into the hearts of all of us that were lucky enough to be there from the beginning.

Did you know you are now singing a good third lower than those first efforts?...Perhaps this is indicative of the mellowed confidence that you have attained with each new album release.

And in "JULIE!" you practically launch a new Julie. Long have we suspected that your roots were embedded in jazz -- here is proof positive. Impeccable as is the intonation and phrasing, none of the famous London approach of a basic honesty is sacrificed. And, Julie, to my mind this bespeaks true artistry. No matter how great the mood, how swinging the beat, we believe each word that you tell us.

Fortunately, when this idea was launched, a young man with ideas as fresh and fertile as your approach was available and more than eager to lend his talents to the project ... Jimmy Rowles. Heretofore he has been recognized as one of the leading pianists of our time; but these arrangements backing you, I'm sure, will establish him in the forefront of modern conductor-arrangers. And a great deal of credit is due his side-men, some of the greatest purveyors of jazz in the world.

But, back to you, Julie -- this album is a triumph! To my mind this is relaxed jazz at its very best. I'm full clear up to "here" with good feelings; you're the best ... what more can I say!

With love,

Si

All Music Guide review by Dave Nathan:

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