Julie London Turns Winter to Summer

JazzWax readers know I traditionally feature Julie London on Christmas Day, but today I wanted to take a beat to let you know what a great singer she is any time of year. To me, London is a consummate jazz singer—from her tone to her phrasing. Like Anita O'Day, London had an understated hipness built into her delivery along with a dry airiness that all but eliminated any trace of vibrato.

I also love that she never quite fit in, largely because she steadfastly refused to compromise. Her only downside, in retrospect, is that she seemed compelled to record a lot of dull, tired songs rather than push for better material. Hard to know if these were imposed on her by Liberty Records or she just didn't care.

Let's dig in (and yes, a bunch of summer fare since it's below freezing much of this week here in New York):

Here's Theme From A Summer Place...



Here's That Sunday (That Summer)...



Here's Our Day Will Come...



Here's Desafinado...



Here's Soft Summer Breeze...



Here's Like to Get to Know You...



Here's They Didn't Believe Me...



Here's The Days of Wine and Roses...



Here's Angel Eyes...



And here's Gone With the Wind, backed by Barney Kessel on guitar and Ray Leatherwood on bass.