Dorothy Dandridge, Smooth Operator - 47m 52s

Tracks & Durations

1. It's easy to remember	2:25
2. What is there to say?	3:12
3. That old feeling	3:08
4. The touch of your lips	3:01
5. When your lover has gone	3:02
6. The nearness of you	3:20
7. (In this world)I'm glad there is you	4:05
8. I've grown accustomed to you	1:51
9. Body and soul	3:40
10. How long has this been going on?	3:33
11. I've got a crush on you	2:32
12. I didn't know what time it was	2:41
13. Somebody	2:50
14. Stay with it	2:37
15. It's a beautiful evening	2:40
16. Smooth operator	3:06

Note: The information about this album is acquired from the publicly available resources and we are not responsible for their accuracy.

Review

Early in her career, Dorothy Dandridge was a genuine Renaissance woman, able to perform exceedingly well as a dancer, actress, and singer. She executed each performance with a theatricality that hinted at vast talents, and her acceptance into the annals of the beautiful and luxurious in the 1940s and '50s was hailed by major media players. Her cream-colored skin made Dandridge one of the most highly touted "sepia" stars (like the great Lena Horne) in a commercial culture hell-bent on an extremely tight line between the races. This set of recordings matched Dandridge the nightclub singer with pianist Oscar Peterson and his group--which was sleek enough to highlight the singer's coarse overtones that recall late Billie Holiday recordings--and with an unnamed large orchestra that pushes the vocalist to shine brilliantly on the collection's title tune. Dandridge had all the tragic dynamics that would make her voice deservedly--and artfully--rough at the edges. Her daughter was born brain-damaged, and her persistent insecurities likely led her to both drug addiction and a fatal overdose in 1965. She had built a fledgling, promise-filled film career (garnering an Oscar nomination for Carmen Jones) and, as this collection shows, a very promising career as a nightclub jazz singer. Her magnetism is palpable, and hearing the bulk of these tracks for the first time in 1999, it's clear they should've hit the airwaves decades ago. --Andrew Bartlett

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