Mel Torme

At the short-lived 1950s label Bethlehem, Mel Torme and his musical cohort Marty Paich started adding the cool musical vocabulary of Miles Davis and Gerry Mulligan to vocal jazz. This overview of their Bethlehem recordngs starts off with two lush ballads, before it fires into Mel's famous reading of "Lulu’s Back in Town." There are also cuts from Torme's masterful salute to Fred Astaire (a career best), songs from a rare, all-star Ellington set, live numbers, and one tune from his California Suite concept LP. Torme sounds fantastic and Marty Paich's charts are fun and inventive. As a bonus, many of the best West Coast jazz musicians play on this set.