Depth of experience
Jonathan Rickard | Connecticut River Valley, USA | 09/19/2008
(5 out of 5 stars)
"In recent years, listening to a variety of New England public radio jazz programs, every once in a while a recording by an obviously elderly lady named Elisabeth Welch would break through and take my attention away from my work. I hadn't heard her in perhaps ten years but her name remained in my memory. I knew nothing about her but was always curious so when I thought to enter her name in an Amazon search and came up with this CD, I instantly ordered it. With obvious jazz knowledge, she was more of a cabaret singer who lived a good portion of her very rich life in Paris, returning for engagements in New York when she was in her eighties. This is a recording of one of those performances, one I gnash my teeth over having missed. We are blessed to have this record of her voice, her experience, and her other gifts; gifts to those of us who care about American music."