For those unaware, Helen Merrill was a jazz vocalist, born in New York in 1929 to Croatian immigrant parents, who began singing in clubs in her teens in the mid-1940s and made her first recordings in 1952.

She recorded an album for Mercury, and the success of that brought her a long-term contract and a period of high visibility and popularity during the 1950s and ’60s, providing the basis for an album career that lasted into the new millennium.

Furthermore, she is still very much alive in 2026 at the age of 97. This 43-track 2-CD collection features her debut recording with Earl Hines and a single for Roost in 1952-53, plus the titles from her first four albums Helen Merrill with Clifford Brown, Helen Merrill With Strings, Dream of You and Merrill At Midnight.

It features recordings with small jazz groups and larger orchestras, including performances with Clifford Brown, Barry Galbraith, Oscar Pettiford, Quincy Jones, Milt Hinton, Hank Jones and Joe Morello, with arrangements by Quincy Jones, Richard Hayman, Gil Evans and Hal Mooney.

She was one of the lesser-known jazz stars of the era, but was a highly respected performer, with whom the top musicians of the day were more than happy to perform and record. This is a fine showcase for her already highly sophisticated style, even at the dawn of her album career.

Very early in her career Helen clearly established herself as a rising star. In December 1954 she arrived at the Fine Recording Studios in New York City to record her first major project for Emarcy (the jazz subsidiary of Mercury), the now classic album Helen Merrill. Working with her on this album, among others, were Clifford Brown on trumpet, Oscar Pettiford on bass and Quincy Jones arranging. Her third album for Emarcy, recorded 18 months later in June of 1956, was arranged by a pre-Miles Davis, Gil Evans.

Rather impressive company for a young singer who was 25 years old in 1954. Beyond the production of the two outstanding albums with Clifford Brown and Gil Evans, this period also established her as an artist with a restless musical nature. A trait that would prove to be somewhat of a double-edged sword in her career, as time has since told.

In her first three Emarcy albums, Merrill immediately set this pattern of stylistic diversification. The Helen Merrill album with Brown was a straight-ahead small group with vocalist album. Her next album, drawing on the nascent “artist with strings” trend, featured a small jazz group backed by a full string orchestra. Next, her Dream of You album, was a big band with singer outing, which, due to Gil Evans’ writing and arranging talents, was unique and compelling within that format.

By the mid-1950s Merrill already had a reputation in the jazz world as a musician’s musician. Her performance on these early albums only served to enhance that reputation as well as the reputation of some others with whom she worked. In the case of Gil Evans, it is clear that his work on Dream of You was very helpful to him in securing the job at Columbia working with Miles Davis on their three classic albums - Miles Ahead, Porgy and Bess and Sketches of Spain.

Columbia producer George Avakian had recommended Evans to Emarcy for the Merrill gig and even though Evans did go over budget and the record did lose money, the artistic quality of the finished product was enough for Avakian to recommend Evans be hired at Columbia to work with Davis.

Another factor that also influenced why quality musicians would sign-on to work with her was that Merrill was always much liked as well as respected by them for her musicianship. She was the anti-diva, only caring about carrying her load and integrating into the musical mix – essentially, just one of the boys.

CD 1:
1. A Cigarette For Company 2. The More I See You 3. Don’t Explain 4. You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To 5. What’s New 6. Falling In Love With Love 7. Yesterdays 8. Born To Be Blue 9. ’S Wonderful 10. Anything Goes 11. Mountain High, Valley Low 12. Beautiful Love 13. Comes Love 14. End Of A Love Affair 15. When I Fall In Love 16. The Masquerade Is Over 17. Just You, Just Me 18. Spring Will Be A Little Late This Year 19. You Won’t Forget Me 20. Wait Till You See Him

CD 2:
1. Lilac Wine 2. People Will Say We’re In Love 3. By Myself 4. Any Place I Hang My Hat Is Home 5. I’ve Never Seen 6. He Was Too Good To Me 7. A New Town Is A Blue Town 8. You’re Lucky To Me 9. Where Flamingos Fly 10. Dream Of You 11. I’m A Fool To Want You 12. I’m Just A Lucky So And So 13. Troubled Waters 14. Soft As Spring 15. Black Is The Color Of My True Love’s Hair 16. Lazy Afternoon 17. The Things We Did Last Summer 18. After You 19. If You Go 20. If I Forget You 21. If Love Were All 22. Easy Come Easy Go 23. I’ll Be Around

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