The Artistry of… Blossom Dearie
“She has a tiny voice,” said Whitney Balliett in The New Yorker. “Without a microphone it wouldn’t reach the second floor of a doll’s house.” That tiny voice reached around the world.
The body of work is diverse and extensive in the U.S. and Europe. Her voice and artistry touched many. A certain generation may also recognize her from her voice acting on Schoolhouse Rock and another from her tribute to U.K. pop star Dusty Springfield with a song named after the singer. She was a Verve artist and eventually established her own label Daffodil Records in the 1970s — truly a feat in an all-too-often too slow-changing world of male dominance.
A pace that is no stranger in the history of jazz. One of many voices heard, her own distinctive vocal artistry is described succinctly by Vinyl Me Please, summing Dearie’s sound up like this: “…The sound of New York at its location-shot, cosmopolitan, dry-martini best, thanks to her unique ability to soak up life and art uptown, downtown and everywhere in between.”
The Artistry of… airs Wednesday evenings on Dinner Jazz with John Devenish.