Don't Go to Strangers was Etta Jones' first album for the independent
jazz label Prestige when it was released in 1960 (having been recorded
in a single session on June 21 of that year), and although Jones had
been releasing records since 1944, including a dozen sides for RCA in
1946 and an album for King Records in 1957, she was treated as an
overnight sensation when the title tune from the album went gold,
hitting the Top 40 on the pop charts and reaching number five on the
R&B charts. An elegant ballad on an album that had several of them,
including the masterful "If I Had You" and a marvelous reading of "All
the Way," a song usually identified with Frank Sinatra, "Don't Go to
Strangers" featured Jones' airy, bluesy phrasing and uncanny sense of
spacing, and was very much a jazz performance, making its success on the
pop charts all the more amazing. Listen to Jones' restructuring of the
melody to the opening track, the old chestnut "Yes Sir, That's My Baby,"
to hear a gifted jazz singer sliding and shifting the tone center of a
song like a veteran horn player, all the while leaving the melody still
recognizable, but refreshing it until it stands revealed anew.
Apparently there were no additional tracks cut at the session, since
bonus material has never surfaced on any of the album's subsequent
reissues, although that's hardly a problem, because as is, Don't Go to
Strangers is a perfect gem of a recording. by Steve Leggett
Tracklist:
1 Yes, Sir That's My Baby 4:23
Written-By – Gus Kahn, Walter Donaldson
2 Don't Go To Strangers 3:51
Written-By – Arthur Kent, David Mann, Redd Evans
3 I Love Paris 4:01
Written-By – Cole Porter
4 Fine And Mellow 5:52
Written-By – Billie Holiday
5 Where Or When 3:41
Written-By – Rodgers & Hart
6 If I Had You 3:51
Written-By – James Campbell, Reginald Connelly, Ted Shapiro
7 On The Street Where You Live 3:45
Written-By – Al Lerner, Frederick Loewe
8 Something To Remember You By 3:45
Written-By – Schwartz & Dietz
9 Bye Bye Blackbird 3:16
Written-By – Mort Dixon, Ray Henderson
10 All The Way 4:39
Written-By – Sammy Cahn & Jimmy Van Heusen
Credits:
Bass – George Duvivier
Drums – Roy Haynes
Flute, Tenor Saxophone – Frank Wess
Guitar – Skeeter Best
Piano – Richard Wyands
Recorded By [Recording] – Rudy Van Gelder
Vocals – Etta Jones
