Mercury Records Collection: MG-20568: Miyoshi

MG-20568: Miyoshi / Miyoshi Umeki

Label Type :	black Mercury type A
Matrix Number :	SIDE-A	MG 20568A MS1 FF
	SIDE-B	MG 20568B MS1 FF

Comments

Equivalent release: Mercury SR-60228 (stereo).

Inside The Groove

A Japanese female Jazz vocalist's second album on Mercury.

Personal Impression (and brief notes)

Miyoshi Umeki, also known as Nancy Umeki, get several attention in 1948-1950, as a Jazz vocalist in Japan. However she made her mind to go to the United States to enter a new world. Since then, she recorded several albums, and even got popular as an actress, for she won the Academy Awards (performance by an actress in a supporting role).

Anyway, the album. Compared to her first album “Miyoshi Sings For Arthur Godfrey” (MG-20165), this second disc sounds very popular and conservative as Jazz vocal. I don't know how the people in the U.S. in the 1950s felt on her voice and her music, while most of us Japanese may think such orthodox but unique vocal.

You say you like some Exisotism in the 1st album? But wait, if it's exotic for you, it's NO exotic for us Japanese :-P The word “Exisotism” is, such a vague word. Yes you, European or American, created such term long long ago....

Strictly Personal Rating (to what extent I could enjoy this album)

7 out of 10

Track Listing

SIDE-A
A-1	18765 (PB2152)	My Heart Stood Still (Rodgers - Hart)	2:56
A-2	18769 (PB2156)	My Ship (Durt Weill - Ira Gershwin)	3:06
A-3	18770 (PB2157)	You Make Me Feel So Young (Josef Myrow & Mack Gordon)	2:17
A-4	18763 (PB2150)	They Can't Take That Away From Me (George & Ira Gershwin)	2:30
A-5	18766 (PB2153)	Sometimes I'm Happy (Caesar - Youmans)	2:09
A-6	18772 (PB2159)	I'm Old Fashioned (Johnny Mercer & Jerome Kern)	2:10
SIDE-B
B-1	18762 (PB2149)	That Old Feeling (Lew Brown & Sammy Fain)	3:16
B-2	18767 (PB2154)	Gone With The Wind (Allie Wrubel & Herb Magidson)	2:55
B-3	18764 (PB2151)	Jeepers Creepers (Mercer - Warren)	3:06
B-4	18771 (PB2158)	Wonder Why (Nicholas Brodszky & Sammy Cahn)	3:19
B-5	18768 (PB2155)	I Could Write A Book (Richard Rodgers & Lorenz Hart)	2:23

Personnel

Personnel/recorded date/master numbers confirmed with the Ruppli's discography.
(“The Mercury Labels - A Discography” by Ruppli and Novitsky, Greenwood Press, 1993)

Miyoshi Umeki (vo) with unknown orchestra.
Recorded in New York City, 1959.

Recording director: Hal Mooney.

The Artist Also Appears on...

Miyoshi Umeki (vo) :

Mercury MG-20165 : Miyoshi Sings For Arthur Godfrey
Mercury MG-20568 / SR-60228 : Miyoshi
Wing MGW-12148 : Miyoshi - Singing Star Of Rodgers And Hammerstein's Flower Drum Song