Duet [Import]

This album was perfect for Doris Day(though Page Cavanaugh, her regular jazz pianist, would have been a better, choice than Previn), because it featured ger with a jazz trio, bringing her back to her roots as a jazz singer. Day never sounded this good(at least not since singing "Too Marvelous For Words" with the Harry James trio on The Toyng Man With A Horn album, or any of her airchecks with The Page Cavanaugh Trio), because she hardly ever got the chance to swing, or just sing in an "Ella Fitzgerald" setting(her voice is every bid as jazzy and beautiful as Ella's). Why Andre Previn you might ask, well he was commercial enough to gaurentee the records would be sold, and they couldn't pair her up with Teloniuos Monk not in the late 50's. Previn's jazz and swing style is very conventional, but it is jazz and Day does sizzle a top of this trio. Her voice is gorgeous with just piano on My One & Only Love, and she really sizzles on Close Your Eyes(what a swing singer, no wonder Les Brown hired her!)! Every selection on here is great, including Give Me Time, Previn's original Daydreamin', and a few other standards. Too bad Columbia didn't repeat this and star Day up with other Columbia stars(Doris Day & Dave Brubeck, that would have rocked!), imagine what a Doris Day & the Miles Davis Quintet would have sounded like. So pick this cd if you like Day and always wanted to hear her in a more creative improvisational setting(also check out Dinah Shore's album with the Previn trio, which came out at the same time, but). Get this for a gift for someone who doesn't think Doris was a "jazz singer" or who thinks she's too "sunny", thsi is the moody & swingy side of Miss Day, this will make anyone a fan, and people will realize what I already know about the "worlds most underrated singer"(says Will Friedwald in his book "Jazz Singing").

The Doris Day/Andre Previn Duet album is arguably one of the four or five best albums ever put out by Day.
Recorded in a single day during the peak of her popularity as the number one box-office star in the world during the 60's, it's simplicity if what makes it such a remarkable accomplishment.
There are no overwhelming orchestrations to "dress it up". There are no complicated or complex "tricks" to enhance the performances. It is, in essence, a magnificent singer, a masterful conductor/pianist and a small back-up. The result is musical magic.
In today's world of recordings, albums can take months and, in some cases, years to be produced. By the time the sound engineers have finished tinkering with their control panels, what is left often barely resembles the artists' genuine voice. What is often lost is the warmth and realness of a human voice...the expression, feeling, emotion that can touch and move the listener in so many ways.
Doris Day and Andre Previn had never met prior to doing this recording and perhaps that contributes to the freshness they bring to each song. There are old favorites, given a new twist, and a handful of new songs from Previn's then-wife, Dory. If one listens to the words and music, there is a definite story being told by the artists in a diverse and always fascinating way.
Miss Day has never sounded better. "Falling in Love Again" was long associated with Marlene Dietrich. Day's version gives the song an entirely new focus, and "Fools Rush In", although nearly two decades old at the time, seems to have been newly written.
The old Rodgers and Hart standard, "Wait Till You See Him" is an outstanding number in this collection. Day sings it with so much emotion and brilliant phrasing, that anyone not moved by the rendition would have to be made of stone.
Sigmund Romberg had composed "Who Are We To Say" for a 1938 Jeanette MacDonald/Nelson Eddy film at MGM entitled, "The Girl of the Golden West". This lovely song with it's poignant lyrics is, unfortunately, not as widely known as many other Romberg tunes. Doris Day virtually makes it her own with her flawless rendering. Other numbers are also given exquisite performances, and anyone who acquaints Miss Day merely with her pop classics from the 40's and 50's, may reevaluate their opinion after hearing the style she brings to the selections contained herein.
Suffice it to say, this is a must for lovers of music. A classic collection by artists who clearly loved the magic they created during one memorable day in a recording studio.