ETTA JONES "Don't Go To Strangers" LP NM/NM Shrink Stereo RVG JAZZ VOCALS

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Etta Jones Biography by Scott Yanow

Etta Jones Sings Lady Day

An understated, dynamic singer within jazz and popular standards, Etta Jones was an excellent singer always worth hearing. She grew up in New York, and at 16, she toured with Buddy Johnson. Jones debuted on record with Barney Bigard's pickup band (1944), singing mostly the hits of Dinah Washington. She recorded other songs from 1946 to 1947 and worked with Earl Hines (1949-1952). Jones' version of "Don't Go to Strangers" (1960) was a hit, and she made many albums for Prestige between 1960 and 1965. She toured Japan with Art Blakey (1970), but she was largely off record from 1966 to 1975. However, starting in 1976, Etta Jones (an appealing interpreter of standards, ballads, and blues) began recording regularly for Muse, often with the fine tenor saxophonist Houston Person. She died from complications of cancer on October 16, 2001, the day her last album, Etta Jones Sings Lady Day, was released.

Don't Go to Strangers Review by Steve Leggett

Don't Go to Strangers was Etta Jones' first album for the independent jazz label Prestige when it was released in 1960 (having been recorded in a single session on June 21 of that year), and although Jones had been releasing records since 1944, including a dozen sides for RCA in 1946 and an album for King Records in 1957, she was treated as an overnight sensation when the title tune from the album went gold, hitting the Top 40 on the pop charts and reaching number five on the R&B charts. An elegant ballad on an album that had several of them, including the masterful "If I Had You" and a marvelous reading of "All the Way," a song usually identified with Frank Sinatra, "Don't Go to Strangers" featured Jones' airy, bluesy phrasing and uncanny sense of spacing, and was very much a jazz performance, making its success on the pop charts all the more amazing. Listen to Jones' restructuring of the melody to the opening track, the old chestnut "Yes Sir, That's My Baby," to hear a gifted jazz singer sliding and shifting the tone center of a song like a veteran horn player, all the while leaving the melody still recognizable, but refreshing it until it stands revealed anew. Apparently there were no additional tracks cut at the session, since bonus material has never surfaced on any of the album's subsequent reissues, although that's hardly a problem, because as is, Don't Go to Strangers is a perfect gem of a recording.

Etta Jones – Don't Go To Strangers

Label:

Prestige – 7186, Prestige – PRST 7186

Format:

Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue, Stereo

Country:

US

Released:

Genre:

Jazz

Style:

A1 Yes Sir That's My Baby

Written-By – Kahn*, Donaldson*

A2 Don't Go To Strangers

Written-By – Kent*, Mann*, Evans*

A3 I Love Paris

Written-By – Cole Porter

A4 Fine And Mellow

Written-By – Billie Holiday

A5 Where Or When

Written-By – Richard Rodgers

B1 If I Had You

Written-By – Campbell*, Connelly*, Shapiro*

B2 On The Street Where You Live

Written-By – Lerner & Loewe

B3 Something To Remember You By

Written-By – Harry Schwartz*

B4 Bye Bye Blackbird

Written-By – Dixon*, Henderson*

B5 All The Way

Written-By – Cahn & Van Heusen*

Record Company – Prestige Records Inc.

Lacquer Cut At – Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey

Bass – George Duvivier

Drums – Roy Haynes

Flute, Tenor Saxophone – Frank Wess

Guitar – Skeeter Best

Lacquer Cut By – RVG*

Liner Notes [Notes] – LeRoy Jones*

Photography By – Esmond Edwards

Piano – Richard Wyands

Recorded By [Recording] – Rudy Van Gelder

Vocals – Etta Jones

For free catalog send to Prestige Records Inc., 203 So. Washington Ave., Bergenfield, N.J.

Reissue circa 1968-70

Matrix / Runout (Side A runout, etched [stamped]): PRST-7186•A [RVG STEREO]

Matrix / Runout (Side B runout, etched [stamped]): PRST-7186•B [RVG STEREO]

GOLDMINE GRADING

MINT ---- It should appear to be perfect. No scuffs or scratches, blotches or stains, labels or writing, tears or splits. Mint means perfect.

NEAR MINT ---- Otherwise mint but has one or two tiny inconsequential flaws that do not affect play. Covers should be close to perfect with minor signs of wear or age just becoming evident: slight ring-wear, minor denting to a corner, or writing on the cover should all be noted properly.

VERY GOOD PLUS ---- The record has been handled and played infrequently or very carefully. Not too far from perfect. On a disc, there may be light paper scuffs from sliding in and out of a sleeve or the vinyl or some of the original luster may be lost. A slight scratch that did not affect play would be acceptably VG+ for most collectors.

VERY GOOD ---- Record displays visible signs of handling and playing, such as loss of vinyl luster, light surface scratches, groove wear and spindle trails. Some audible surface noise, but should not overwhelm the musical experience. Usually a cover is VG when one or two of these problems are evident: ring wear, seam splits, bent corners, loss of gloss, stains, etc.

GOOD ---- Well played with little luster and significant surface noise. Despite defects, record should still play all the way through without skipping. Several cover flaws will be apparent, but should not obliterate the artwork.

POOR ---- Any record or cover that does not qualify for the above "Good" grading should be seen as Poor. Several cover flaws.