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Mrs. Swing | 
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| Artist: Mildred Bailey
Label: Proper Box UK
Category: Music
List Price: $25.98
Buy New: $19.19
You Save: $6.79 (26%)
New (12) Used (6) from $13.49
Avg. Customer Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 134404
Format: Box Set, Import
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 4
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 5.7 x 5.1 x 1.9
UPC: 805520020572
EAN: 0805520020572
ASIN: B0000918PK
Release Date: May 5, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand new Item. CD, DVD, Book, VHS more than 400 000 titles to choose from. ALL days Low Price !
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| Tracks:
Disc 1
| • | What Kind O' Man Is You? - Mildred Bailey, Carmichael, Hoagy | | • | Is That Religion? - Mildred Bailey, Parish, Mitchell | | • | Harlem Lullaby - Mildred Bailey, Millhane, Margod | | • | Lazy Bones - Mildred Bailey, Carmichael, Hoagy | | • | But I Can't Make a Man - Mildred Bailey, Bloom, Rube | | • | Doin' the Uptown Lowdown - Mildred Bailey, Gordon, Mack | | • | Heat Wave - Mildred Bailey, Berlin, Irving | | • | Junk Man - Mildred Bailey, Loesser, Frank | | • | Ol' Pappy - Mildred Bailey, Levinson, Jerry | | • | Emaline - Mildred Bailey, Parish, Mitchell | | • | I'd Love to Take Orders From You - Mildred Bailey, Dubin | | • | I'd Rather Listen to Your Eyes - Mildred Bailey, Dubin, Al | | • | Someday Sweetheart - Mildred Bailey, Spikes, B!Spikes, J | | • | When Day Is Done - Mildred Bailey, De Sylva | | • | Willow Tree - Mildred Bailey, Razaf, Andy | | • | Honeysuckle Rose - Mildred Bailey, Razaf, Andy | | • | Squeeze Me - Mildred Bailey, Waller, Fats | | • | Downhearted Blues - Mildred Bailey, Austin, Lovie | | • | A Porter's Love Song to a Chambermaid - Mildred Bailey, Johnson, James [01] | | • | Picture Me Without You - Mildred Bailey, Koehler, Ted | | • | Now That Summer Is Gone - Mildred Bailey, Simons, Seymour | | • | For Sentimental Reasons - Mildred Bailey, Silver | | • | It's Love I'm After - Mildred Bailey, Mitchell, Sidney | | • | 'Long About Midnight - Mildred Bailey, Hill, Alex [1] |
Disc 2
| • | More Than You Know - Mildred Bailey, Eliscu | | • | A Thousand Dreams of You - Mildred Bailey, Alter, Louis | | • | Smoke Dreams - Mildred Bailey, Brown, Nacio Herb | | • | Slumming on Park Avenue - Mildred Bailey, Berlin, Irving | | • | I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm - Mildred Bailey, Berlin, Irving | | • | My Last Affair - Mildred Bailey, Johnson, Haven | | • | Trust in Me - Mildred Bailey, Wever, Ned | | • | Where Are You? - Mildred Bailey, Adamson | | • | You're Laughing at Me - Mildred Bailey, Berlin | | • | Never in a Million Years - Mildred Bailey, Gordon | | • | There's a Lull in My Life - Mildred Bailey, Gordon, Mack | | • | Rockin' Chair - Mildred Bailey, Carmichael | | • | If You Should Ever Leave - Mildred Bailey, Cahn | | • | The Moon Got in My Eyes - Mildred Bailey, Burke | | • | Heaven Help This Heart of Mine - Mildred Bailey, Samuels | | • | It's the Natural Thing to Do - Mildred Bailey, Burke, Johnny | | • | Posin' - Mildred Bailey, Cahn, Sammy | | • | Bob White (Whatcha Gonna Swing Tonight?) - Mildred Bailey, Mercer | | • | I See Your Face Before Me - Mildred Bailey, Dietz, Howard | | • | Thanks for the Memory - Mildred Bailey, Robin, Leo | | • | Lover, Come Back to Me - Mildred Bailey, Hammerstein, Oscar | | • | Always and Always - Mildred Bailey, Forrest, George | | • | I Was Doing All Right - Mildred Bailey, Gershwin, George | | • | It's Wonderful - Mildred Bailey, Parish, Mitchell | | • | Love Is Here to Stay - Mildred Bailey, Gershwin, George |
Disc 3
| • | The Weekend of a Private Secretary - Mildred Bailey, Hanighen, Bernie | | • | Please Be Kind - Mildred Bailey, Cahn, Sammy | | • | Bewildered - Mildred Bailey, Powell | | • | I Can't Face the Music - Mildred Bailey, Koehler | | • | Don't Be That Way - Mildred Bailey, Goodman, Benny | | • | At Your Beck and Call - Mildred Bailey, DeLange, Eddie | | • | Says My Heart - Mildred Bailey, Lane, Burton | | • | I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart - Mildred Bailey, Ellington, Duke | | • | Rock It for Me - Mildred Bailey, Werner, Sue | | • | If You Were in My Place - Mildred Bailey, Nemo | | • | (I've Been) Saving Myself for You - Mildred Bailey, Cahn, Sammy | | • | You Leave Me Breathless - Mildred Bailey, Freed, Ralph | | • | Washboard Blues - Mildred Bailey, Callahan, Fred B. | | • | My Melancholy Baby - Mildred Bailey, Burnett, Ernie | | • | So Help Me - Mildred Bailey, De Lange | | • | Small Fry - Mildred Bailey, Carmichael, Hoagy | | • | As Long as You Live (You'll Be Dead If You Die) - Mildred Bailey, Mercer | | • | Put Your Heart in a Song - Mildred Bailey, Churchill, Frank | | • | The Sunny Side of Things - Mildred Bailey, Churchill, Frank | | • | Garden of the Moon - Mildred Bailey, Dubin, Al | | • | Love Is Where You Find It - Mildred Bailey, Dubin | | • | I Used to Be Color Blind - Mildred Bailey, Berlin, Irving | | • | This Is Madness (To Love Like This) - Mildred Bailey, DeLange, Eddie | | • | My Reverie - Mildred Bailey, Dubin | | • | What Have You Got That Gets Me? - Mildred Bailey, Robin |
Disc 4
| • | Have You Forgotten So Soon? - Mildred Bailey, Heyman | | • | They Say - Mildred Bailey, Heyman, Edward | | • | Blame It on My Last Affair - Mildred Bailey, Nemo | | • | St. Louis Blues - Mildred Bailey, Handy, W.C. | | • | Begin the Beguine - Mildred Bailey, Porter, Cole | | • | Cuckoo in the Clock - Mildred Bailey, Donaldson, Walter | | • | There'll Never Be Another You - Mildred Bailey, Jacobs, Al | | • | 'Taint What You Do - Mildred Bailey, Oliver | | • | There'll Be Some Changes Made - Mildred Bailey, Higgins, Billy [2] | | • | Gulf Coast Blues - Mildred Bailey, Williams, Clarence | | • | Prisoner of Love - Mildred Bailey, Paris | | • | The Lamp Is Low - Mildred Bailey, Paris | | • | Moon Love - Mildred Bailey, David, Mack | | • | Ghost of a Chance - Mildred Bailey, Crosby | | • | You're the Moment in My Life - Mildred Bailey, Crosby | | • | I Thought About You - Mildred Bailey, Mercer, Johnny | | • | Bluebirds in the Moonlight - Mildred Bailey, Rainger, Ralph | | • | Darn That Dream - Mildred Bailey, DeLange, Eddie | | • | Peace, Brother! - Mildred Bailey, DeLange, Eddie | | • | All the Things You Are - Mildred Bailey, Hammerstein, Oscar | | • | Wham (Re-Bop-Boom-Bam) - Mildred Bailey, Durham, Eddie | | • | Give Me Time - Mildred Bailey, Wilder, Alec | | • | Don't Take Your Love From Me - Mildred Bailey, Nemo, Henry | | • | Arthur Murray Taught Me Dancing in a Hurry - Mildred Bailey, Mercer, Johnny | | • | I'll Be Around - Mildred Bailey, Wilder, Alec |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Album Description
Blessed with a light, clear, bell-like voice & a musician's ear, coupled with excellent diction, Mildred Bailey could sing a song with such conviction & warmth that she could make the listener believe in it no matter how superficial the actual message. She was the number one white singer of the swing era, and truly was Mrs. Swing. 100 tracks have been shoehorned onto four CDs including all her greatest recordings between 1929 & 1942. Includes 52-page booklet. Standard jewel cases housed in a box. Proper. 2003.
Album Details
Blessed with a Light, Clear, Bell-like Voice and a Musician's Ear, Coupled with Excellent Diction, Mildred Bailey Could Sing a Song with Such Conviction and Warmth, that She Would Make You, the Listener, Believe in It, No Matter How Superficial the Actual Message. She was the Number One White Singer of the Swing Era, She Truly was Mrs. Swing. 100 Tracks have Been Shoehorned Onto the Four CDs Including all of her Greatest Recordings Between 1929 and 1942. The Set Comes with a 52 Page Booklet.
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| Customer Reviews:
The Mildred Bailey Jackpot !!! January 9, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Mildred Bailey sang beautifully--and when they say her voice was as clear as a bell, they mean it! This terrific four CD set gives us many tracks from the years when Mildred was truly a star.
The first of the four CDs is entitled Squeeze Me. "Heat Wave" features Mildred's vocals squarely in the spotlight; there's some surface noise but she sings this so well you can forgive it. After a musical intro Mildred comes in--and man, how this number takes flight! I love the jazzy arrangement, too. Mildred's excellent diction bolsters her performance even further. In addition, "I'd Love To Take Orders From You" is a peppy little jazzy tune that features Mildred singing about the type of romance she wants with her man. Mildred sings this campy number without a flaw and this impresses me very much. Listen also for "Honeysuckle Rose;" Mildred sings this without a superfluous note and I like how she sings that opening verse!
The second CD is entitled Rockin' Chair. "I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm" keeps Mildred's vocals right up front with a great musical arrangement to support her. Mildred sings this flawlessly with panache and sensitivity. "Rockin' Chair" begins with a great horn solo; and Mildred sings this with great feeling. Mildred never misses a note. "Thanks For The Memory" gets the royal treatment from Mildred as she sings this as well as any male crooner ever could. "Our Love Is Here To Stay" again has a beautiful horn solo at the beginning and the somewhat jazzy interpretation lets Mildred put her own stamp on this very famous number. "Our Love Is Here To Stay" makes great use of the percussion, too.
The next CD, Born To Swing, continues the hits. "The Weekend Of A Private Secretary" gets a lovely Latin arrangement to make this number shine. Mildred never sounded better! "My Melancholy Baby" is another highlight of this album; the arrangement for the piano is very well done and Mildred performs "My Melancholy Baby" like the pro that she always was! Listen also for "Love Is Where You Find It;" this number starts with the brass and Mildred comes in to deliver this to perfection. I predict that you will like "Love Is Where You Find It" very much.
The last CD is "There'll Never Be Another You." "St. Louis Blues" sounds so good when Mildred sings it; she never misses a beat and her voice conveys every emotion of every word in the lyrics. "Begin The Beguine" shines like gold when Mildred sings this jazzy number so well; and listen for "Arthur Murray Taught Me Dancing In A Hurry." Mildred sings this cute little number very well.
The four CD set comes with a huge booklet. We get excellent, informative essays about each of the four CDs; and I really like the photos that they use, too.
Mildred Bailey deserves to be remembered more than she is remembered. Hopefully people will notice this great box set of her work and buy it to experience her singularly beautiful style of singing.
Mildred is so good YOU REALLY NEED THE BOX SET! February 14, 2005
14 out of 15 found this review helpful
Mildred Bailey was not just the first real Jazz band singer. She was one of the earliest real jazz singers and she continued to have a jazz based strain to her singing throughout her career unlike some singers with her success who might have gone more pop. She was fun. She was fun. She was fun. She jived, she joked, she played.
She is just so good you can't just have dribs and drops and drabs, you need the Box Set. Oh Mildred we miss you soooo bad!
You are going to smile when you hear Mildred and know she is really serious when she is serious. She could bring out the jazz in the most wooden of accompaniest, but usually she had great musicians, white, black or otherwise playing behind her, because Mildred is fun.
In an age before television, Bailey continued to have fans white and Black who did not know she was white. This remains true even recently when I have loaned tapes of Mildred to other African Americans without any liner notes or anything and had them ask why they had never heard of this great Black singer.
However, I do find it distressing that Mildred Bailey seems to be so forgotten. She was the first prominent female band singer in Jazz. She was and is fun to listen to and a great voice. Mildred was actually able to swing and swing hard even with Paul Whiteman. She produced masterpieces using some of the same small groups as Billie Holday for HER Columbia recordings, although Bailey semed to prefer Herschal Evans to Lester Young. Bailey was also pretty out front for the time as a white female singer performing with an all black combo--"Mildred Baily and Her Oxford Browns." Mildred was simply magnificent in the small combos her husband Red Novro organized, She had a sense of humor about her performances and a bit of salaciousness that you won't find in Billie's recordings.
I don't think it was just out of sentimentality, but in tribute to her artistry, that Sinatra and Bing Crosby (who owed his career to Bailey's bringing him in contact with Whiteman)spent thousands of dollars helping her out in the last years of her life when health problems and the end of her career led her to very hard times.
Mildred was a great singer, a great jazz pioneer, and a lot of fun. How does anyone get along without the joy her music has brought to my life. There have been times when my life was worse than it is now when I was depressed and just thinking about one of Mildred's tracks on this CD started to turn my life around!
Amazing music, August 16, 2004
21 out of 21 found this review helpful
All I can say is that I bought this box, listened to it more than any other collection of music I've ever owned, and then started buying all 9 CDs in the Chronological Classics of Mildred Bailey series. Never since I first discovered the recordings of Lee Wiley and Ethel Waters did a voice stun and touch me like hers. Her voice has been described as light and sweet, which it is, but that belies the amazing complexity and emotionally wrenching quality of her best performances (of which there are many). Witness her version of "Rockin' Chair", easily the best version of the song I have ever heard. All I can say is, if you think you enjoy vocal jazz and don't know Mildred, you've got a lot of listening to do.
Buy this set for a cheap introduction to Mildred Bailey, although you may find yourself wanting more as I did.
(Let me also recommend the music of Ethel Waters, Anita O'Day, Connee Boswell, Annette Hanshaw and Lee Wiley, other superlative, jazz singers who are not heard nearly enough today.)
Mildred Bailey , Jazz, and Political Correctness September 30, 2003
28 out of 40 found this review helpful
Let's be clear from the start---Mildred Bailey was a white jazz singer whose career streched from the mid-1920s through the WWII era. Mildred Bailey was also the first female jazz singer to front a band, and she was arguably the greatest female jazz singer whoever lived. No qualification necessary here. Again, Mildred was white, and I emphasize this point only becaue Ken Burns and other white jazz historians seem to think that they're doing the African American community some favor by pretending that only blacks in jazz really mattered. Bailey sang jazz just as Bix Beiderbecke (who was also white) played jazz and few, if any---black or white---did it better. Bailey sang with such a clear, bell-like tone, impeccable phrasing, and a natural swinging syncopation that every subsequent female jazz singer from Connee Boswell and Billie Holiday to Ella Fitzgerald and Peggy Lee were simply variations on the Bailey model. It has become rather annoying that every time an accolade is written about a great white jazz singer or jazz musician the author feels compelled to "qualify" his praise of that artist by mentioning that he or she was indeed "white." The implication being that he or she was great only as far as white jazz artists are concerned. There is no need for such mushy left wing, politically correct, vacuous apologetics. There has been an unjustifiable neglect of a long, rich white jazz tradition that stretches as far back as the 1880s in cities like New Orleans, and to admit this is not taking anything away from a similarly long and great black jazz tradition. It is simply that the dawn of jazz was as populated by great Italian-Americans, Jewish-Americans and other ethnic Americans as it was by African Americans. There were great black jazz artists and there were great white jazz artists. The first great jazz band to actually record a jazz record was The Original New Orleans Jazz Band which was headed by Nick La Rocca (who was white), and he composed that first popular jazz recording, "Tiger Rag." Somehow Mr. Burns seemed to miss that rather substantial slice of jazz history in his documentary. No one need qualify that the greatest coronet player in Jazz history is Bix Beiderbecke, who was white. Similarly, the greatest trumpet player in all of jazz was Louis Armstrong, who was black. Who could argue with that?Among the greatest jazz drummers are Louis Belson and Buddy Rich, who were white, but also Elvin Jones and Cozy Cole, who were black. The greatest jazz violinist was Joe Venuti, who was white. The greatest jazz guitarists included Charlie Christian and Wes Montgomery, who were black, but also Django Reinhardt and Eddie Lang who were white. The greatest jazz pianist-composer was Fats Waller, who was black. The point is, black Americans don't own jazz anymore than Woody Guthrie owns folk music. This is the same ignorance that allows nitwits to proclaim that Elvis Presley was the King of Rock and Roll when Little Richard, Joe Turner, Wynonie Harris, Carl Perkins, and Chuck Berry were doing it far earlier and far better. Whether it is simply a genuine ignorance of jazz history or a misplaced allegiance to the social disease known as political correctness (probably both), it is about time that both white and black jazz artists get their fair recognition. It is a sad but true fact that past racial discrimination against African-Americans was rampant, immoral, and abominable. For years the great early black jazz performers like King Oliver were cruely underappreciated, if not totally neglected. But pretending that all of Jazz was solely a black cultural phenomena and that all documentaries on the history of Jazz must focus exclusively on black artists in order to compensate for past discrimination is as deranged and as delusional as white racism was horrific. In the case of Mildred Bailey, enough is enough. Bailey was a great singer, plain and simple. She happened to be quite overweight and so she never attracted a popular following similar to that of a young Billie Holliday, Lena Horne, Peggy Lee or Doris Day, all of whom were attractive. But singers should be evaluated not by their bust, waist, and hip measurements but rather by their voices. Music critics realized this, and they recognized the brilliance of Baily's unique vocalizing. Bailey was around in the 1920s, long before Holliday or Fitzgerlad. She had a sweeter and much less warbly voice than Holliday. (Some fans find Holliday's warble appealing, I don't. That's a matter of taste). In fact, Bailey had perfect pitch and intonation. To my mind, both Bailey and Fitzgerald were superior jazz vocalists to Holliday (and note, Bailey is white, Fitzgerald black). Mildred introduced so many classics it would take pages to list them, but among them are "Ghost of A Chance," "I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm," "Georgia On My Mind," and "Rock'n Chair." Whether an uptempo swing tune or a smokey ballad, Mildred put a song over with musical brilliance. Obese, ill, and impoverished, Mildred Bailey died in relative obscuirty in 1951 and has since been largely forgotten. No movies or books about her life. Jazz collections advertised on TV invariably exclude her. Just as Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey helped pioneer female blues singing back in the 1920s, Mildred Bailey did the same for jazz. She should be remembered and this collection is a step in rekindling her memory for true lovers of jazz---of all races, colors, and creeds. We need to replace political correctness with historical correctness.
GREAT MILDRED BAILEY COMPILATION August 3, 2003
16 out of 17 found this review helpful
Mildred Bailey, initially heavily influenced by Bessie Smith and Ethel Waters, chose not to follow either the blues style or the melodic ballad method they each had made their own. In fact, when Mildred recorded her first songs in 1929, she could claim to be the first successful white female jazz vocalist, having taken a similar route as Billie Holiday who she admired. However, their voices were dissimilar, with Mildred's having a high bell-like quality enabled by perfect diction, and the ability to interpret lyrics in a believable way which heightened any song's sentiments. Both she and Billie had careers which were beset with personal problems and resulted in their early deaths - in Mildred's case at age 48. Compared with Billie, Mildred's recording career has received less attention, and this four CD set containing 100 tracks from the initial 1929 recording session follows through the years until 1942. Fortunately, Mildred was usually backed by the very best musicians and she recorded with husband Red Norvo's Orchestra, as well as under her own name when they recorded for different record companies. There were also odd sessions with the Dorsey Brothers and Benny Goodman. Apart from featuring songs of the day which did not become standards, there are those which did like HEAT WAVE, PLEASE BE KIND, and PRISONER OF LOVE. She also had her own popular hits, ROCKIN' CHAIR, LAZY BONES and SMALL FRY for which she is particularly remembered. What is clear is the sheer variety of material Mildred recorded, with all songs stamped with her individual style and effort. This collection, together with its excellent career over-view and discography, is certainly one which should help bring her name back into popularity, ensuring she finds her place as one of the great early vocalists
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