June Christy – With The Kentones…Again! (Remastered) (2019) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

June Christy – With The Kentones…Again! (Remastered) (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 50:25 minutes | 360 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RevOla

June Christy was an American singer, known for her work in the cool jazz genre and for her silky smooth vocals. Her success as a singer began with The Stan Kenton Orchestra. This release features the well-recorded radio transcriptions (from 1946) all of singer June Christy’s regular solo recordings that she had only been with Stan Kenton’s Orchestra for about a year at the time. The identification of the backup personnel has been lost to history (despite the anonymous title of “the Kentones”), but Christy is the star of these performances anyway. June Christy had the ability to swing in any song she was given, and in this case, all of the selections were superior standards.

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June Christy – The Intimate Miss Christy (1963/2019) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

June Christy – The Intimate Miss Christy (1963/2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 35:40 minutes | 313 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RevOla

On June Christy’s excellent run of albums for Capitol Records the vocalist was most often backed by Pete Rugolo’s complex orchestral charts or by small, freewheeling jazz groups led by her husband, Bob Cooper. So “The Intimate Miss Christy” is a special treat for her fans as it finds the cool blonde singer backed only by Al Viola’s guitar and Don Bagley’s bass (though a flutist sits in on a few tracks). This guitar/bass-only approach was first popularized by Julie London and went on to be utilized by many other singers during this era. The backing not only suits the laid-back, cool jazz approach of June Christy perfectly, but it also means that the singer is never forced to strain too hard, as she sometimes did when working with the experimentally inclined Pete Rugolo. And while the vocalist usually put a dark emotional spin on her ballad readings, this album is definitely aimed more toward romantic entanglements than romantic regrets. The Intimate Miss Christy may be a fireside makeout album, but it’s one that merits repeated listens even when the embers die out.

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June Christy – Make Love To Me: The Small Group Recordings (2001/2019) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

June Christy – Make Love To Me: The Small Group Recordings (2001/2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:11:44 minutes | 513 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RevOla

Though June Christy performed well in many different settings, she excelled when leading a small group or singing a sympathetic chart. Though in 1945 she was still a decade away from a dedicated solo career that saw her shine with Pete Rugolo’s advanced arrangements, Christy began recording laid-back transcription dates with small groups of Stan Kenton sidemen. The Jazz Factory’s collection of this material, “Complete Capitol Small Group Transcriptions”, trumps earlier collections like “The Uncollected June Christy with the Kentones” (1946) by offering 25 small-group titles from late 1945 and 1946, all recorded with a talented group of Kenton’s players including Bob Cooper, Kai Winding, Shelly Manne, and Ray Wetzel, plus guitarist Dave Barbour.

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June Christy – June’s Got Rhythm (1958/2018) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

June Christy – June’s Got Rhythm (1958/2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 43:00 minutes | 458 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RevOla

Many of singer June Christy’s popular Capitol albums feature her cool-toned vocals backed by an orchestra. This recording is an exception. Christy excels on a jazz-oriented set with a nonet that includes trumpeter Ed Leddy, trombonist Frank Rosolino and her husband Bob Cooper (who arranged the set) on tenor and oboe. Christy accurately called this music “intimate swing.” Her versions of such songs as “I’m Glad There Is You,” “My One and Only Love,” “When Lights Are Low” and “Blue Moon” are tasteful, sincere and often quite memorable.

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June Christy – June Sings The Standards (2002/2019) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

June Christy – June Sings The Standards (2002/2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 53:15 minutes | 520 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RevOla

June Christy was an American singer, known for her work in the cool jazz genre and for her silky smooth vocals. After her death, she was hailed as “one of the finest and most neglected singers of her time”. This solid collection may strike June Christy fans as a little ironic because rather than stock her albums with standards the way that most of her peers did, the West Coast jazz vocalist was known for unearthing new and obscure songs. It’s not that Christy neglected standards (in fact she recorded dozens of them over her 12-year run with Capitol Records), it’s just that one gets the feeling that when she sang something like “I’m Glad There Is You” it was because she had something fresh or unique to bring to it. And she does put her own personal and idiosyncratic stamp on 20 of the songs here while two tunes haven’t been recorded enough to become standards (the undeservedly obscure “Cry Like the Wind” and the swing-era novelty “Bei Mir Bist Du Schon”). So, when you add the song selection to the fact that this disc features the vocalist in orchestral, small-group jazz and big-band settings, the disc not only offers a much more complete portrait of the artist than the title suggests, but this is also one of the strongest entries in EMI’s Sings the Standards series.

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June Christy – This Time Of Year (1961/2018) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

June Christy - This Time Of Year (1961/2018) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz] Download

June Christy – This Time Of Year (1961/2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 29:15 minutes | 319 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RevOla

This Time of Year is a 1961 album by American jazz vocalist June Christy, arranged and conducted by Pete Rugolo.

Christy’s only Christmas album, it consists entirely of original songs composed by the husband-and-wife songwriting team of Connie Pearce and Arnold Miller.
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June Christy – The Misty Miss Christy (1956/2018) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

June Christy - The Misty Miss Christy (1956/2018) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz] Download

June Christy – The Misty Miss Christy (1956/2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 37:53 minutes | 393 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RevOla

Using Anita Day as starting point – but eschewing many of her scat-song histrionics in favor of pure tonal power and melancholic shading – June Christy honed her singing skills with Stan Kenton’s band before going solo in the ’50s. Christy’s relatively accessible vocal approach and blonde good looks eventually helped her gain success with such classic long players as Something Cool and The Misty Miss Christy. Less swinging than Something Cool, The Misty Miss Christy mostly stays on auto-stroll with a wealth of subtle and sophisticated orchestral charts. The jazz-pop environs come courtesy of longtime arranger Pete Rugolo and optimally frame the singer on highlights like “That’s All,” “I Didn’t Know About You,” and “Dearly Beloved.” With West Coast-style brass and reed accents gliding atop the lush strings, Christy also turns in fine renditions of Monk’s “Round Midnight” and Russ Freeman’s expressionistically torchy “The Wind.” Balancing out the predominant autumnal lull, Christy shows her swinging savvy on breezy gems like “Sing Something Simple,” “There’s No You,” and “A Lovely Way to Spend an Evening.” Both an essential Christy title and one of the best vocal albums from the ’50s. – Stephen Cook
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June Christy – Ballads For Night People (1959/2018) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

June Christy - Ballads For Night People (1959/2018) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz] Download

June Christy – Ballads For Night People (1959/2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 34:59 minutes | 346 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RevOla

The music on this album features the popular singer June Christy in a ballad-oriented program. She is backed by trombonist Frank Rosolino, a French horn, a sax section, a rhythm section, and a harp, all arranged by her husband, tenor saxophonist Bob Cooper. One in a long string of Christy’s Capitol recordings, this fine set (highlighted by “Bewitched,” “Do Nothin’ ‘Till You Hear from Me,” “Kissing Bug,” and “My Ship”) holds its own with the singer’s best sets. – Scott Yanow
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