Kay Starr “Misbehavin’
One of the most versatile of all popular singers, Kay Starr sang swinging jazz, country tunes, ballads, pop songs, and rock & roll with nearly equal success. She started early, ended fairly late in life, and was always a joy to hear. On this reimagined reissue, she is featured on early radio transcriptions that also include three classic jazz greats and the subtle and inventive orchestrations of John Forbes.
She was born as Katherine LaVerne Starks on July 21, 1922 in Dougherty, Oklahoma and was half American Indian and half Irish. She grew up in Dallas, started singing when she was nine and regularly won the weekly talent contest at radio station WWR. The station eventually retired her from the contest since she won so often, hiring her to sing on her own 15-minute program three times a week. When her family moved to Memphis three months later, she again was featured on her own show (Starr Time), this time on WREC. The singer soon changed her stage name to Kay Starr.
In 1937 when she was just 15, she was hired by violinist Joe Venuti to sing with his band for a few weeks since he needed a female singer. Starr did so well that Venuti hired her to return during her next two summer vacations. In 1939 she sang briefly with Bob Crosby's orchestra and for two weeks was with Glenn Miller (who was long on his way to leading the most popular of all swing bands) when Miller's regular vocalist Marion Hutton was unavailable. During this period, Starr made her recording debut with Miller on "Love With A Capital 'You'" and "Baby Me." After graduating from high school in 1940, she worked again with Joe Venuti's big band for two years, recorded with Wingy Manone, and gained recognition as the star singer with Charlie Barnet's orchestra during 1943-46, recording such numbers as "Share Croppin' Blues" and "You Always Hurt The One You Love." Still just 22, she was already so highly rated that she was picked to record "If I Could Be With You" with the Capitol International Jazzmen, a group that included such notables as Benny Carter, Coleman Hawkins and Nat King Cole.
After surviving a bout with pneumonia that resulted in her taking six months off from singing and leaving the Barnet band, Kay Starr became a solo artist, recording for small labels (Lamplighter, Crystalette and Modern) before signing with Capitol in 1947. Always popular, she had success with her recordings of "I'm The Lonesomest Gal In Town," "So Tired" and "You Were Only Fooling (While I Was Falling In Love)," the first of two dozen hits that she had during 1948-54. While she always performed some jazz, in the 1950s Starr became known for such pop-oriented numbers as the polka "Hoop-Dee-Doo," "Bonaparte's Retreat," "Wheel Of Fortune," "Side By Side," "The Rock And Roll Waltz," "My Heart Reminds Me," and the Christmas favorite "(Everybody's Waitin' For) The Man With The Bag."
While the hits stopped soon after rock and roll took over, Kay Starr retained her fame, her wonderful voice, and her career, recording albums that alternated between jazz and country, performing in nightclubs and concert halls, appearing on television, and going on regular tours. In the late1980s she teamed up with Rosemary Clooney, Helen O'Connell and Margaret Whiting in the revue 4 Girls 4. She toured England in 1993, recorded her last album in 1997, and made her final recording in 2001 (62 years after her debut), singing "Blue And Sentimental" as a duet with Tony Bennett. Not bad for someone who simply described herself as a "hillbilly singer." Kay Starr passed away on Nov. 3, 2016 at the age of 94.
On several occasions during 1945-49, a young Kay Starr recorded jazz sessions that were made strictly for the radio. The best of these transcriptions are reissued and reimagined on this release. Nine selections from May 1945 team her in a combo with violinist Joe Venuti and guitarist Les Paul. The other two dates, one song from a big band and four with a combo that includes trumpeter Billy Butterfield, are from the 1947-49 period.
This release in Hindsight's Reimagined Series follows successful jazz-oriented albums by Doris Day and Patti Page, each of which includes John Forbes' arrangements and orchestrations. Forbes has had quite a career, one filled with diverse musical accomplishments in many areas. He studied classical piano for 14 years, attended the Berklee College of Music in the mid-1980s, and worked in Austin, Texas with the popular reggae band "The Killer Bees." Forbes spent six years (1989-95) touring the world as an r&b/hip hop keyboardist for Bobby Brown, worked with The Gnarley Braus (the group later became known as Cross Culture), was an arranger-keyboardist with Rick James, was involved as a keyboardist and orchestrator in six of Tyler Perry's plays, worked with Shawn Rivera and Leona Lewis, and has gained extensive experience as a producer for a countless number of television shows, films, and recording projects.
"I have used my Sentimental Orchestra for each of these historicrecordings and it has been a great opportunity," says Forbes. "I always want to orchestrate to the arrangements that were in place and not get in the way of the vocals. Kay Starr is an amazing jazz singer. She is very much like a horn player so I played off of that, interfacing with her phrasing. I used a similar band as with the Doris Day and Patti Page projects, 20 pieces plus strings with woodwinds in lieu of the brass. The frequency range of LesPaul's guitar and Joe Venuti's violin both occupy the area that is also the singer's high end so I avoided as many unison lines as I could and let her voice and the point-counterpoint with the instruments shine, orchestrating around that." John Forbes' subtle and tasteful arrangements never take awayfrom the lead voices, adding to the timeless appeal of the performances.
Joe Venuti (1903-78) had two golden periods in his career, separated by a lengthy "off period." The first great jazz violinist, Venuti was on scores of important recordings during 1925-35, often with his close friend Eddie Lang who is considered the first significant jazz guitarist. After Lang's death and the beginning of the swing era, Venuti led a big band off and on during 1935-43 but had little commercial success. He became a studio musician and, despite a few fine records and his work on the Bing Crosby radio show, was in obscurity for decades. Fortunately he was rediscovered in the late 1960s and enjoyed a final decade of high-profile activity.
Les Paul (1915-2009) had a unique career. An inventor (as a youth he devised a harmonica holder worn on the neck that allowed him to play the harmonica and guitar at the same time), while still a teenager he experimented with ways to amplify his guitar. Paul 's early work was as a country guitarist billed as Rhubarb Red. His most jazz-oriented period was in the mid-1940s when he led a trio and was practically the only American
guitarist to be influenced by Django Reinhardt rather than Charlie Christian. Starting in 1949, he had tremendous success with his inventive overdubbing that utilized his guitars and Mary Ford's voice. The team of Les Paul and Mary Ford became famous and were constants on the best-seller charts throughout the 1950s. The guitarist stayed active well into his nineties.
Although their careers overlapped for quite a few decades, Kay Starr never otherwise recorded with Les Paul. Starr's period with Venuti's big band only resulted in a single song from a radio broadcast surviving: 1942's "Little Sleepy Head." Venuti and Paul can heard in a radio broadcast version of "Honeysuckle Rose" that is dated as Mar. 20, 1944 but, since it utilizes the exact same group as is heard on these transcriptions, chances are that it is from a year later. Their only other documented collaboration is in the 1947 movie Sarge Goes To College where Venuti and Paul are part of an all-star jam session band playing a heated uptempo blues.
The nine selections that feature Starr, Venuti and Paul are unique from the historic standpoint but, most importantly, the music is quite fun and swinging. Kay Starr was just 22 during this set which is considered her earliest recordings as a leader, sounding quite mature and confident. She is joined by Venuti (who is in prime form), Paul's regular trio of the period (with rhythm guitarist Cal Gooden and bassist Clint Nordquist), and the fine swing pianist Tommy Todd. The opener, "What Can I Say Dear After I Say I'm Sorry," is given a joyful treatment. Venuti never got to play with Django Reinhardt but this number gives one an idea what it might have sounded like.
"Betcha I Getcha" is a true obscurity that was not otherwise recorded. It gives one a rare opportunity to hear Kay Starr scat a bit. In contrast, "Honeysuckle Rose" and "Ain't Misbehavin'" are Fats Waller's best known compositions and great jam session tunes that have been recorded a countless number of times. With Starr's spirited singing and the enthusiastic soloing of Venuti and Paul, these concise performances could have easily been three times as long.
Kay Starr's versatility is on evidence during the spiritual "Nobody Knows The Trouble I've Seen," the medium-tempo ballad "There's A Lull In My Life," and the superior if now-unknown swinger "What Goes Up Must Come Down" (also known as "Flying Too High"). Starr would often be compared to Dinah Washington in the 1950s due to their similar sounds and their abilities to sing anything, no matter the style, quite well. It is interesting to note that Washington had a giant pop hit in 1959 with "What A Difference A Day Makes" but 15 years earlier Starr had already recorded her own fine version with Charlie Barnet; the song is given similar treatment on this set. Completing the Starr-Venuti-Paul collaboration is a fun rendition of "The Dixieland Band," a song rarely recorded since the 1935 version by the Benny Goodman Big Band and Helen Ward.
Four of the selections on this album have Kay Starr joined by a quintet led by trumpeter Billy Butterfield (1917-88). Butterfield gained fame as a member of the Bob Crosby band during 1937-40 (including the brief period when Starr was with the band), took a famous solo on "Stardust" while with Artie Shaw, led a series of fine ballad-oriented sets for Capitol in the late 1940s, and was heard in many Dixieland and swing sessions through the years including working with the World's Greatest Jazz Band. His beautiful tone and hot jazz style were always considered an asset. But other than two transcription sessions with the singer, he and Kay Starr never crossed paths in the recording studios.
The numbers on which Billy Butterfield appears are all lesser-known songs. "It's A Great Feeling" has Starr expressing joy in a swinging fashion. Her expressive singing on "Blame My Absent-Minded Heart" serves as strong evidence that this ballad is well worth reviving. "Don't Do Something To Someone Else" is a semi-gospellish song about following the golden rule while "You're Always There" is sung with such longing and regret that it is hard to believe that Kay Starr was still in her mid-twenties at the time.
The other selection, "So Tired," has Kay Starr joined by an orchestra led by Buzz Adlam. It has a special meaning for John Forbes. "'So Tired' was one of my mother's favorite songs and my Dad, who was a theatre organist, used to play it. In general, working with this music sometimes felt like reliving my childhood because I already knew the songs. These performances are a moment in time, a time capsule, yet the music is so timeless."
Future projects in the Reimagined Series will include sets by Sarah Vaughan and Rosemary Clooney among others. "I know that it is really a blessing for me to get to do this," says John Forbes in conclusion. "I have played with Bobby Brown, Whitney, Rick James and Puffy, just did a couple of Broadway shows, and have been involved in a lot of other activities which are all gratifying in their own way. But I am not lying when I say that I would rather work with this music than anything in the world. The music is so beautiful that it is a true pleasure."
Scott Yanow