For those unaware, the American jazz and pop singer Toni Harper was a remarkable performer, beginning her career as a child star, and first appearing on stage as a dancer at the age of 12, then starting to sing with noted jazz orchestras a couple of years later, immediately having her first hit 1948 when she was 14.

After a few quiet years, she started recording albums in the mid-1950’s and made some high-quality jazz and sophisticated pop collections before retiring from the business in 1960 in her early 30’s.

This 73-track 3-CD collection entitled Candy Store Blues: The Singles & Albums Collection 1948-60 (and out now via Acrobat Records) comprises a significant proportion - around 70% - of her career recorded output, and includes singles for Columbia and Verve with the bands of Eddie Beale, Herb Jeffries, Dizzy Gillespie and Buddy Bregman, plus the tracks from her album Toni on Verve, and the albums Lady Lonely and Night Mood on RCA.

It includes her 1948 R&B hit single Candy Store Blues. On her Verve album she is accompanied by Oscar Peterson, Herb Ellis, Ray Brown and Alvin Stoller. She was an unusual, distinctive and stylish performer, and this selection of recordings from across her career is an enlightening showcase for her often unheralded talents.

Toni Harper once performed with Cab Calloway, sang at Carnegie Hall. She was on TV with Frank Sinatra and Perry Como. She made solo appearances on the Ed Sullivan show a handful of times, all before she turned 12-years-old.

In her teen years, Toni became an in-demand singer. When she was 17, she recorded “Play Me the Blues” and “Taking a Chance on Love” with Dizzy Gillespie and his Orchestra. A year later, she signed to Verve Records, where she recorded Toni Harper Sings with the Oscar Peterson Trio. It was her only album in an intimate jazz setting and her first time singing jazz standards from Rodgers & Hart, Billy Strayhorn and Cole Porter.

Harper was only 18 during these recording sessions. She recalled learning the songs for the first time while she sat next to Oscar on the piano bench. She later described him as the kindest, most gentle, soft-spoken, fun person.

A clipping from Jet magazine marks her time with the Count Basie Orchestra at age 22 - where she was, according to the clip, the first woman to sing with the orchestra in nearly seven years. At 26, she traveled abroad with the Cannonball Adderly quintet to Japan. Where she toured, performed on TV, and sang across Japan. During her time there she performed with Yussef Lateef, Sam Jones, Joe Zawinul, Louis Hayes and Cannonball.

The trip was impactful for Toni, who converted to Buddhism a few years later. Her new faith was one of the reasons she left the recording industry at the age of 29, opting for a life outside of the constant demands of being a professional singer. She never recorded commercially again, but in her 80s, she made an impact as a player of the virtual reality video game Second Life. She built an online community of friends and even recorded new material performed in the game’s virtual world.

Harper’s impact on popular music could easily be lost to the hands of time, but reflecting on her talents, success, and life beyond entertainment shows that pursuing personal joy, love, and community is the most fulfilling life for anyone to live.

Disc 1:
1. Dolly’s Lullaby 2. Candy Store Blues 3. Tabby The Cat 4. You’re My Everything 5. Bippity Be-Bop Pony 6. Miss In Between Blues 7. Peppermint Stick 8. You’re Too Tall, I’m Too Small 9. The Muffin Man 10. Cinderella Baby 11. It’s Story Time Again 12. Rock-A-Bye Baby 13. Floppy 14. Is That All I Mean To You 15. Get Goin’ Engineer 16. Sam’s Song (The Happy Tune) 17. Happy Feet 18. Dish Rag 19. Get Up 20. Snowy White Snow And Jingle Bells 21. Jingle Bells 22. Baby Blues 23. Peculiar Kind Of Feeling 24. That’s All I Want For Christmas 25. Mom And Dad’s Waltz 26. Blacksmith Blues

Disc 2:
1. Don’t Send Me Home 2. Melancholy Trumpet (Ooh-Wah) 3. Fruit Cake 4. Silly Heart 5. I’ll Never Forget You 6. Taking A Chance On Love 7. Play Me The Blues 8. I Telephoned I Telegraphd 9. We Got To Live, Got To Grow 10. Can’t We Be Friends? 11. I Could Write A Book 12. Gone With The Wind 13. Singin’ In The Rain 14. Love For Sale 15. Just A Sittin’ And A-Rockin’ 16. A Foggy Day 17. You Don’t Know What Love Is 18. Bewitched, Bothered And Bewildered 19. Little Girl Blue 20. You Took Advantage Of Me 21. Like Someone In Love 22. Lady Lonely 23. He Was A Man

Disc 3:
1. In The Dark Of Night 2. My Heart Is A Lonely Hunter 3. Lack Of Love 4. Blue It Grows 5. I Love The Blues 6. You Taught Me How To Cry 7. Velvet Hammer 8. Other Woman 9. Nobody Home But The Blues 10. Busy Blues 11. Love Has Come, Love Has Gone 12. River Weep 13. In The Still Of The Night 14. Paradise 15. ’Round Midnight 16. The Meaning Of The Blues 17. Saturday Night (Is The Loneliest Night In The Week) 18. Night After Night 19. Just Go 20. A Sleepin’ Bee 21. My Ship 22. You And The Night And The Music 23. Petals On The Pond 24. Where Flamingos Fly

Official Purchase Link