Like Delmark, Southport has provided a valuable service by documenting talented but obscure Chicago-based jazz artists. In the late 1990s, one such artist was
Libby York, who made her recording debut with
Blue Gardenia. This CD showed York to be a subtle, relaxed vocalist who was right out of jazz's Cool School.
June Christy and Chris Connor are among
York's more prominent influences, and the Chicagoan shows herself to be a tasteful interpreter of lyrics on some well known pop standards (including "It Might As Well Be Spring" and "Imagination") as well as
Duke Ellington's "I Ain't Got Nothin' But the Blues" and the 1950s
Patti Page hit "Old Cape Cod."
York successfully gives the melancholy title song a rare bossa nova makeover, while "Out of This World" receives more of an Afro-Cuban treatment. The singer won't win any awards for being cutting-edge--much of
Blue Gardenia could have been recorded 30, 40 or 45 years earlier. But it's a satisfying and likable, if conventional, debut. ~ Alex Henderson