It’s a sad irony that
\nMel Torm\u00e9 At The Movies<\/i>, a compilation disc featuring
\nsome of his contributions to films (as well as some personal
\nfavorites), came out around the time of Torm\u00e9’s death
\nearlier this year. By no means was this disc released to capitalize
\non his death; rather, this compilation was planned far in
\nadvance… and it shows.<\/p>\n
This 20-song collection shows the progression of Torm\u00e9
\nfrom a Sinatra-like crooner to the glory days where he became one
\nof jazz’s best-known vocalists due to his free-flowing scat style.
\nBut it also shows Torm\u00e9 at the end of his career, when his
\nwork almost became a parody of what he once did – and that’s a sad
\nlegacy to leave behind.<\/p>\n
The first part of this disc tends to drag a bit, as songs from
\nclassic movie musicals of the ’40s are featured (
\nGood News<\/i> from 1947 in particular, which has five songs
\nfeatured). At this time, you could hear how Torm\u00e9 was being
\nsculpted as the next Sinatra, something which just didn’t seem to
\nsit right on my ears. At times, it sounded like Torm\u00e9 was
\nforcing himself to perform numbers like “Be A Ladies’ Man” and
\n“Lucky In Love”. It just didn’t always seem like his heart was in
\nthe material – and after hearing his jazz numbers later on the
\ndisc, who could blame him?<\/p>\n
One other thing I found difficult about these tracks was that
\nyou often had about three vocalists working on the same number at
\nthe same time. “Mrs. Whippen (Outtake)” and “Be A Ladies’ Man” are
\ntwo examples of tracks that I thought sounded very cluttered. Of
\ncourse, if you’re an afficionado of these types of movies, your
\nopinion of these songs will undoubtedly be skewed in the opposite
\ndirection.<\/p>\n
By the time Torm\u00e9 moved into the ’60s, his distinctive
\nstyle had been established, and he uses it with great relish.
\nTracks like “Love Is Just Around The Corner (Live)”, “These
\nDesparate Hours” and”The Lady’s In Love With You” all have an air
\nof happiness about them, and are genuinely fun to listen to. The
\nonly exception to this is “All That Jazz,” another number which I
\nthought sounded cluttered with the additional vocals.<\/p>\n
For all the star power and draw that Torm\u00e9 had, it seems
\nsad to see that the last two tracks on
\nMel Torm\u00e9 At The Movies<\/i> fail to utilize his
\ndistinctive gift with any honor. I don’t know how Warner Brothers
\ngot him to do a two-minute croon of “Monsters Lead Such Interesting
\nLives,” and after listening to it, I wish he had turned down the
\ngig. Simply put, it’s a waste of his talent. Likewise, hearing
\n“Live Alone And Like It” from
\nDick Tracy<\/i> makes me wonder why Torm\u00e9’s talents were
\nbeing underutilized for numbers like this when he still had
\neverything it took to belt out the scat.<\/p>\n
\nMel Torm\u00e9 At The Movies<\/i> is definitely geared towards
\nthe person who spends their free time re-living what some consider
\nto be the golden age of the cinema. Chances are the younger kids
\n(especially those who only knew Torm\u00e9 from his guest
\nappearances on Night Court) won’t be willing to take a chance with
\nthis disc. Too bad; there are many moments which could show them
\njust how interesting and how much fun the world of jazz could be.
\nAt the best, this is a fitting tribute to one of America’s premier
\nvocalists. At worst, it highlights both the positive and negative
\nof a career that deserves to be remembered better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27930,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[7542],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-39319","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-mel-torme","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39319"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39319"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}