Search - Jimmy Giuffre, Mabel Mercer :: Travelin Light / Merely Marvelous

Giuffre is wonderful, inventive, playful and haunting

P. J. Keating | 10/03/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Guiffre, Hall, and Brookmeyer are all wonderful. The best of cool jazz. Their music opitimizes what happens when musicians listen to each other. Chamber music that is fun, inventive and lovely."

Yet another "review" from someone who doesn't own the CD

P. J. Keating | New York, NY USA | 07/15/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"robert-g-near-nyc wondered plaintively in his review what Mabel Mercer has to do with this product since the samples available here (only the first five tracks) do not include her. The answer is that the set consists of two wildly different CD's that were shoe-horned into the same box as an effort of will. Mabel Mercer recorded four 12" LP's for Atlantic in the fifties, Merely Marvelous being one of them. I own the original LP on black vinyl. What can you say about it? Mabel is unique. You "get her" or you don't. If you want all of her records you need to buy this. If you don't like the Jimmy Giuffre use it as a coaster. It's a separate disk. But you might like it. And remember this is two disks for the price of one.I specified the size of the LP's above because she also made some 10" LP's which were collected on two 12" LP's as "The Art of Mabel Mercer". This is going to be released in August by the same company that released this album. That one is also going to be "must have" if you love Mabel. I can't wait. Unfortunately it is coming out under a strange title, I forget exactly what, but it is not going to be called "The Art of..." Be warned...."