1954, December recording - NYC

Carmen Mc Rae with Tony Scott Quartet

Liner Note by Bill Simon

In the late months of 1953 the clarinetist Tony Scott was runninh up a record stand of 18 weeks at Minton's Playhouse in Harlem (twelve years earlier Kenny Clarke's klu-bops had stimulated the bop movement at this very spot, in concert with Bird, Dizzy, Monk, Charlie Christian and such)

At one point the great modern clarinetist needed a drummer, and Carmen reccomended Osie Johnson, whom she had met in the hintherlands. One good turn deserved another, and Tony prevailed on propietor Teddy Hill to give Carmen a trial om " guest night."

This was to be the first time Carmen sand in a club solo, standing, without her own piano.
I was there, alone with the rst of our intimate McRae fan club, and we managed to make the small joint look crowded.
Mundell Lowe came up and sat on guitar, alone with Tony's regular crew - Dick Katz on piano, Earl May on bass, and Osie Johnson on drums.
Carmen fractured everyone, of course, and Teddy hired her. That was the beginning. She worked out the kinks there, worked up some repertoire, and she was on her way.

Jack O'Brian of the Journal-American flipped over her recordings and other journalists folowed suit.
Came Down Beat's Annual Critic's Poll, and Carmen was voted "New Vocal Star of 1954" In Metronome she was named "Singer of the Year" (Frank Sinatra was the winner in '53) .

Engagements followed at Basin Street in New York, the Rendezvous and the BLue Note in Philadelphia, The Hi-Hat in Boston, The Streamlinerin Chicago, The Rouge Lounge in Detroit and so on....

1954-December by Nat Hentoff
Carmen Mc Rae, Baby Lawrence Minton's New York
( Minton's Playhouse concert with Tony Scott Quartet)

This is the girl whose tasteful, ungimmicked debut on records (Down Beat Dec.2) has been provoking considerable airplay. In person, Carmen is even more subtly compelling. The echoes of Jeri Southern and Sarah Vaughan that many found on her records are absent, and a strongly individuated Carmen McRae style becomes clear. The style is completely musical. The former pianist sings with easy command on intervals, and her phrasing is as if she were delicately playing a horn. her hand gestures are a model of low-keyed expressiveness, so that everything combines to communicate the mood and story of the song. And Carmen chose her songs with care. Foggy Day, You're My Thrill, In Love In Vain, and a rollicking up-tempo, Sometimes I'm Happy, are characteristic of her taste. Carmen assembles them with a keen sense of tempo change and feeling contrast. All in all, Carmen McRae is a rare vocal shelter in the current nitery storm of thunder, lightning, and singers whose resonance, as Anna Russel says, is where their brain ought to be. On the same bill is dancer Baby Lawrence. Like Carmen, he is accompanied by the expert TONY SCOTT QUARTETt, except for a number which he dances all alone to a room quietized in awe. Baby Lawrence is a jazz dancer, improvising to whatever music is behind him or what he generates in his imagination. He is without exaggeration the greatest jazz dancer anywhere. This man's a natural for TV.- Nat