Original sources:
CD-1, tracks #1-11 from the 12" album
“Sings Lullabies For Losers” (Jubilee JLP1021)
CD-1, track #12 from the 7" EP Jubilee 45-5236
CD-1, tracks #13-14 from the 7" EP Atco 45-6086
CD-2, tracks# 1-10 from the 12" album
“Change of the Scenery” (Capitol T941)
CD-2, tracks #11-22 from the 12" album
“Have You Forgotten?” (Capitol T1078)
Ethel Ennis, sings in all tracks
Personnel on CD-1, #1-12:
Hank Jones (p), Eddie Briggs (g), Abie Baker (b), Kenny Clarke (d).
Recorded in New York City, late 1955.
Personnel on CD-1, #13-14:
Ray Ellis' Orchestras & Chorus.
Recorded in New York City, on December 18, 1956.
Personnel on CD-2, #1-10:
Musical direction by Neal Hefti
Recorded in New York City, 1957.
Personnel on CD-2, #11-22:
Music arranged and conducted by Sid Feller.
Recorded in New York City, 1958.
Original Jubilee, Atco and Capitol recordings
Jubilee photo & cover design: Burt Goldblatt
Capitol cover photos probably by Charles Stewart
Produced for CD release by Jordi Pujol.
24-Bit Digitally Remastered
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Notes:
"Ethel Ennis was blessed with a remarkable voice and an innate jazz feel that she poured into everything she sang. Oddly enough, however, her first professional jobs were as a pianist. “I never thought of singing in a club, only in church. Then one night they asked me to sing. I was well received and decided to hang up and shingle as a singer.” She made her professional debut in Philadelphia in 1950 on the Paul Whiteman Amateur show.
When these recordings were made, Ethel Ennis was relativelly unknown, except to a few American jazz connoisseurs devoted of the small club circuit up and down the Atlantic Coast; and her loyal local following in Baltimore, where she was born in 1932.
Her skillful and well-controlled phrasing is heard in this collection of songs she recorded during her early days. The first CD features her acclaimed 1955 debut album for Jubilee Records “Sings Lullabies For Losers,”—featuring Hank Jones and Kenny Clarke—with the addition of I've Got You Under My Skin as a bonus track, and also a rare single she recorded for Atco Records.
The second CD features the two excellent albums she recorded for Capitol Records in 1957 and 1958. On the first, “Change of the Scenery,” she’s accompanied by an orchestra directed by Neal Hefti, who is also responsible of the warmly pulsing arrangements of an exceptionally good program of rhythm tunes and torch songs.
On the second “Have You Forgotten?” she sings in front of three different backgrounds – a large string section, a full brass section and a rhythm section plus vibes and guitar, with arrangements and conducting by Sid Feller. With these albums she proved she was an artist of taste, with a striking musical talent.
Although critical acclaim was not immediately followed by wider public success, word was getting round about her talent. In 1958 she was hired to tour with Benny Goodman’s orchestra for a European tour.
Then, in July 1964, after 14 years on the small club circuit, the 31-year-old Ethel Ennis was discovered, after she appeared at the Newport Jazz Festival with such stars as Louis Armstrong and Dave Brubeck.
In those days, she was variously described her as a second Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan or Peggy Lee, but she scorned any obvious labels, and described herself as a “progressive pop singer.” “I hate to sing any song exactly as it’s written. That’s progressive. But I don’t want to be so far out that people don’t understand it,” she said.
It was a credo she was to follow all her life. And it’s a credo amply demonstrated, with the taste, good judgement and the artistry with which she used her exceptional voice, in this collection of albums from the beginnings of her career on record."
FRESH SOUND RECORDS (Original Jubilee, Atco and Capitol recordings)
