Mel Torme – Swings Shubert Alley (Verve Vault Series)

Mel Torme9's Swings Shubert Alley catches him in 1960, turning Broadway material into a proper jazz-swing set at a point when his Verve work was in especially strong form. Rather than treating these songs as theatre keepsakes, Torme9 brings quick wit, sharp phrasing and real momentum to music associated with New York's Shubert Alley stage culture, backed here by the Marty Paich Orchestra.

The album's appeal is in that meeting of polish and drive. Standards by Lerner and Loewe, Rodgers and Hammerstein, and Cole Porter become vehicles for Torme9's rhythmic precision and easy authority, with songs such as On the Street Where You Live, Hello, Young Lovers and Too Darn Hot showing how naturally he could move between show-tune elegance and jazz phrasing. Sources also place this among the most admired studio albums of his Verve period, and it still stands out for how confidently it bridges Broadway and big-band sophistication.

This Verve Vault edition makes that history count on vinyl: it is cut from the original analog tapes by Ryan K. Smith at Sterling Sound and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal in Germany, giving a well-chosen reissue series to one of Torme9's most enduring early-1960s recordings.

Features

• LP, 180g, Stereo, Verve Vault Series
• Cut from the original analog tapes by Ryan K. Smith at Sterling Sound
• Pressed at Optimal in Germany