Pal Joey (André Previn album)


Pal Joey is a jazz album by pianist André Previn & His Pals, bassist Red Mitchell
and drummer Shelly Manne, recorded in 1957 and released on the Contemporary label. The album features Previn's jazz interpretations of songs from Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart's broadway musical, Pal Joey and followed the success of Manne's 1956 album, My Fair Lady. The album was recorded roughly at the same time as the release of the motion picture.

Reception

The Allmusic review by Scott Yanow states "Best known is "I Could Write a Book," which quickly became a standard, but the other, more obscure songs such as "Take Him," "Zip" and "Do It the Hard Way" are also generally good devices for jazz improvising. An enjoyable set of straight-ahead trio music". On All About Jazz Dave Rickerts states "Surprisingly Pal Joey seems like it would come later on in Previn's career when he might be scraping the bottom of the barrel for musicals to swing... It's clearly not a top shelf musical; only two songs from it became standards and it's rarely revived today. Still, there must have been something to grab Previn over other more worthy material, and the trio make a silk purse out a sow's ear by taking the mediocre and producing some wonderful improvisations".

Track listing

All compositions by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart
  1. "I Could Write a Book" - 4:52
  2. "That Terrific Rainbow" - 6:04
  3. "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" - 5:37
  4. "Take Him" - 3:35
  5. "Zip" - 3:40
  6. "It's a Great Big Town" - 3:34
  7. "What Is a Man?" - 3:19
  8. "I'm Talkin' with My Pal" - 5:02
  9. "Do It the Hard Way" - 4:05

    Personnel