Description

Blue Gardenia (2001) contains thirteen jazz standards from the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s arranged by pianist Cedar Walton. The album was produced by John Snyder. Between November 2000 and February 2001, Snyder and Walton assembled a group of jazz musicians to record tracks for the album in the absence of James, who was suffering from the flu. A few months later, James recorded vocals following her recovery. AllMusic’s Jonathan Widran described the album as having an “old school big band flavor” with a “bed of simmering brass”; instrumentation included bass, flugelhorn, guitar, piano, percussion, tenor saxophone, trombone and trumpet. Critical reception of Blue Gardenia was positive overall. An album from more than an hour by “One Of The Great Ones”.