Carmen McRae. Carmen for Cool Ones + Mad About the Man

2 LPs on 1CD
This release presents two outstanding albums featuring Carmen McRae at her best. On For Cool Ones, she s backed by various studio groups, all directed by cellist Fred Katz, on which she sings a dozen tunes with a mature, natural style that epitomized her approach. Aware at all times of the lyrics and what they re about, she invests them with the kind of significance a great singer and inter- preter of songs can bring to them. On Mad About the Man, she explores a dozen Coward tunes some romantic, some touchingly perceptive, and all sophisticated this time backed by three studio groups directed by Jack Pleis, with with her own rhythm section (Ray Bryant, piano; Ike Isaacs, bass; Specs Wright, drums) in place throughout. She makes the most of the sometimes insouciant airiness of Coward s creations and invests all his songs with her own warmth and rigorous attention to detail.