Four Classic Albums Plus (2-CD)

by Betty Roché / Marilyn Moore

AVID Jazz continues with its Four Classic album series with a re-mastered 2CD release from Betty Roche (3 x L.P.'s) and Marilyn Moore (1x L.P) complete with original artwork and liner notes. Betty Roche-'Take The 'A' Train'; 'Lightly and Politely'; 'Singin' and Swingin'' and Marilyn Moore-'Moody' Mary Elizabeth Roche was somewhat of an unsung heroine in the jazz and blues singing world of the 1940's. Hers is partly a story of being in the right place at the wrong time! Changing her name to Betty Roche her career began in 1939, recording with the Savoy Sultans two years later in 1941. The following year she joined none other than the famed Duke Ellington Orchestra with whom she appeared in the movie 'Reveille with Beverly'. Here she performed the song she has remained most renowned for 'Take the 'A' Train'. Duke then invited Betty to join him at Carnegie Hall where he was performing his Black, Brown and Beige suite. Both performances had been received extremely well but crucially for Betty's future, neither had been recorded. By 1944 Betty had left Ellington to pick up her career again, working with the likes of Lester Young, Thelonious Monk, Kenny Clarke, Earl Hines, Charles Brown and Clark Terry. Having left the music business for a while, Betty returned in 1951to rejoin Duke Ellington and she finally got to record 'Take the 'A' Train' for the Duke's 'Ellington Uptown' album. Here we feature all three of Betty's fine albums and also as a bonus cut, her wonderful rendition of 'Summertime' from the cast recording of 'The Complete Porgy and Bess'. Marilyn Moore was born into a showbiz family and was performing in vaudeville with them at the tender age of three! By her teens Marilyn had decided to join the jazz world as a singer and as such she performed the clubs with the likes of Woody Herman, Charlie Ventura and Ray McKinley and Al Cohn. In the fifties she married Cohn and settled down to raise their two children but by 1957 she was offered a recording contract with Bethlehem records with whom she made her one and only record, 'Moody'. It's a wonderful album with definite traces of the influence of Billie Holiday with whom she has often been compared . However she certainly has her own warm, intimate and sensitive style which comes across forcefully, as you will hear! Sadly, following her divorce from Cohn, Marilyn never got the chance to record again, instead settling down to continue raising her family.