June Christy - Junes Got Rhythm (15 tracks) +Album Reviews

June Christy's jazziest set

Ben Glenn | The nation's capital | 08/16/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Recorded in 1958, JUNE'S GOT RHYTHM marked a turning point in Christy's marvelous years at Capitol Records. Rather than working with the esteemed Pete Rugolo, for this session the beloved singer looked to husband Bob Cooper (a superb musician in his own right) to provide the arrangements. Cooper assembled a small group of Kenton alumni, and the resulting ensemble clearly put Christy at ease, as the results are relaxed, lilting, and arguably the jazziest recordings of Christy's career.

As with previous Christy reissues, producer Michael Cuscuna has produced a first-rate package, with superb remastering, original album art, and new liner notes by Will Friedwald.

A tasty bit of 1950s West Coast jazz at its peak, JUNE'S GOT RHYTHM is simply splendid."

After 47 years, we can retire our LPs

Steve Emerine | Tucson, AZ United States | 09/24/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"My 47-year-old LP of "June's Got Rhythm," bought for $3 at an Air Force BX when I was a young, single lieutenant, has been scratchy for a lot of years, but it's finally been replaced with this CD, which also features some bonus tracks from another Christy album. If you've never heard this Christy effort, it's one of her best. If you have, it's probably time to replace your LP, too. The CD reveals that the "George Spelvin" listed on the original LP as a flutist and saxophonist with June and husband Bob Cooper was really the great Bud Shank, still going strong in Tucson and around the world as he approaches his 80th birthday. Check out his new CD with Phil Woods after you've heard this one. Better yet, consider buying them both."

Great album

Jim Andrews | Chicago, Illinois USA | 08/24/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"On the way I to buying this new issue of "June's Got Rhythm" I mused at length on exactly what made and makes June Christy so special. After listening to her 50 years I still can't figure it out. How surprised and amused I was to find Will Friedwald musing on the same topic in his album notes. This is one of June's most relaxed albums, a true jazz outing with the cream of instrumentalists on a tasty menu of standards, some better known than others. "Rock Me To Sleep" and "When Lights Are Low" long have been regarded as this album's notable bookends but there is much admirable between.

Tracks have been added from "The Cool School," June's unusual collection of mostly kids' songs in a jazz setting. That should be reissued completely. The remastering here is admirable and this is music that never wears out its welcome."

This girl got rhythm and cool--and a lot of life and warmth,

Samuel Chell | Kenosha,, WI United States | 12/13/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This one definitely is in the same league as "Something Cool" and "Misty Miss Christy" as a vehicle for a unique and compelling voice--somewhere between Chris Connor's androgynous baritone richness and Anita O'Day's sexy sultriness. All three are voices that maintain a direct, strikingly "conversational" quality devoid of obvious vocal techniques and artifice.

What's especially endearing about June is that she was a diminutive 1950s West Coast gal with blonde bangs who sang with a bang! She has considerably more power (and upper register) than either of the other two singers, projecting full-throated, straight-out tones that must have had recording engineers turning down the levels instead of the usual boosting required by most vocalists. You never miss a word with June, and I've never heard anyone else literally "belt out" Rodgers and Hart's "Blue Moon"--a memorable reading. Paradoxically, given the clarity of her diction, her voice has a slightly rough-edged, unrefined, "morning-after" quality that has an undeniable allure (it's certainly easy--if a bit scary and depressing--to imagine her headlining a latter-day guitar-based rock band).

Despite the aforementioned "natural" qualities, Christy is clearly measuring her notes and phrases carefully. No sloppiness, bad intonation, tentative note choices whatsoever. And when she has you convinced that her capacious instrument might be too cumbersome to get around on the up-tempo material, she lets fly with a scat chorus on "It Don't Mean a Thing" and a rollicking "All God's Children" that rank among the best.

For the most part, June's vocal timbre is best complemented by thick textures, like Kenton's orchestra or piano stylings ("Duet"), and the settings on this collection are definitely on the light side--guitar, flute, crisp brushwork. Even so, her version of "My One and Only Love" with little more than guitar accompaniment is as good as any I've heard by a female singer.

Whether June was wise to follow in the tradition Greta Garbo and Doris Day by getting out of the game early is difficult to say. Hearing latter-day Connor and O'Day would lead me to support her decision. Although she doesn't receive the attention she deserves, she's remembered fondly by a select, discriminating portion of the public, and while she may not be as revered as Anita, she's risen above Chris. Moreover, for some of us she's enough to make anything sung by Diana Krall sound anticlimactic at best--and comparatively lifeless at that. Once thought of as a "cool" if not "cold" singer, June sounds positively glowing and effervescent on this set.

I had started out with 4 stars in mind, since the first tune ("Rock Me to Sleep") is a bit of fluff, followed by the old standard "Gipsy in My Soul" with a curiously casual non-arrangement, then the spare guitar accompaniment of "I'm Glad There Is You" completing the less than auspicious opening hat trick. But beginning with "They Can't Take That Away" and with each successive tune the program moves up into a higher gear. And listening to it now for the 3rd time--"I'm so in love there's nothing in life but you"--I'm beginning to distrust my initial impressions so much I can no longer find a reason to begrudge it the extra star."

June's Still The One

Jerry M. Hosmer | Poplar Bluff, MO, USA | 10/28/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I am not a music critic. I simply love music and I have loved June Christy's work since I first heard it many years ago. This is one fine album. I recommend it to anyone that wants to hear what great jazz vocal music sounded like in the 1950's."

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