Social Call (1956)

 
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Personnel:

Album Info:
Gigi Gryce big band2 Columbia 36425
see personnel from Meet Betty Carter and Ray Bryant1

 

Songs:
Moonlight in Vermont [Blackburn/Suessdorf] 1 3:23
Thou Swell [Hart/Rodgers]1 1:39
I Could Write a Book [Hart/Rodgers]1 2:37
Gone with the Wind [Magdison/Wrubel]1 4:10
The Way You Look Tonight [Fields/Kern]1 2:42
Can't We Be Friends? [James/Swift]1 2:25
Tell Him I Said Hello [Canning/Hager]2 2:32
Social Call [Hendricks/Qusim]2 2:37
Run Away [Coleman/Lee]2 2:28
Frenesi [Charles/Dominguez/Russell]2 2:29
Let's Fall in Love [Arlen/Koehler]2 1:57

 

Production Notes:

 Social Call as it exists today is a combination of parts of two albums.  The songs marked with a 1 are the vocal cuts that originally comprised Meet Betty Carter (before it became Meet Betty Carter and Ray Bryant with the addition of six instrumentals).  The songs marked with a 2 are from a previously unreleased April 1956 date with the Gigi Gryce big band, and were first released in 1980.  These together are Betty Carter's first two recordings as a headlining performer.

 

Reviews:

  • Shows that Carter is a natural innovator.  This recording reveals some of the early musical choices Carter made, showing both steps and leaps she took from her early, traditionally centered style to her current profoundly innovative one... Carter's musical decisions (especially about pitch and timing) were made with an assurance and musicality that, for most musicians, comes only after many years of work.  While there is no doubt that Carter is a better singer now than she was then, this recording is an important reminder of the many ways she expanded the jazz singer's role. - Down Beat
  • Carter sounds much more conventional on these performances than she would 30 or 40 years later, but already her voice was immediately recognizable. - All-Music Guide

 

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