The second set at the Leopard Lounge tonight opens with Bobby Darin’s classic ‘Beyond The Sea’. Pop culture connoisseurs will relish the immortalisation of this gem on the soundtrack to cinema’s greatest homage to the golden era of cool, ‘Goodfellas’. Newcomers cannot fail to be seduced by Darin’s soaring, big band-style paean to romance in foreign climes.

Refreshments imbibed, it’s time to cut a rug to Barney Kessel’s groovesome take on the Gershwin standard ‘It Ain’t Necessarily So’. The cool bop twist on this track, from 1961’s Bossa Nova, is enough to shake the walls down in any illegal, cellar-based speakeasy. So get stompin’!

And keeping with that Big Apple musical beat, here comes Mel Tormé’s impeccable version of ‘Forty Second Street’, backed to the hilt by the Shorty Rogers Orchestra and arranged by the all-knowing Dick Hazard. When this track was originally released as a single in 1963, jazz bible Downbeat described Tormé’s style as: “Flawless, which is to say that he demonstrates quite the best heard male jazz vocalising.” We dig it to this day.

Staying downtown for the moment, let’s head ‘On Broadway’ with the inspired coupling of Eddie Cano and Nino Tempo. Pianist Cano was a well-established cool jazz star when he hooked up with Nino for this 1966 Atco album. The title track, said Cano, “used the old, original Afro beat. I had a very happy time making this album,” continued the bandleader. “Nino’s beautiful playing was a delightful surprise to us all - not that we should have ever forgotten he could play this way.”

Now let’s break from the Apple with a farewell ‘Bye Bye Blackbird’ from the inimitable Sammy Davis Jr.. Taken from the 1967 album That’s All!, this cut demonstrates Sammy’s much-overlooked abilities as a pop performer. With only finger snaps and string bass as a guide, Sammy carves out a sumptuous vocal, which builds on its impact as the rest of the band slowly creep in. Now he’s swingin’.

There’s blue smoke on the air as torch singer Chris Connor slides into her silky reverie. ‘You Make Me Feel So Young’, from the 1956 album Chris Connor is proof of the jazz maxim that less is more, and Connor’s delicious manner of subtle vocal restraint. Like an ice-cold martini, this refreshes the parts others cannot reach.

Little-recognised at the time, despite working with Charlie Parker and Lionel Hampton in the ‘40s, Jackie Paris had a similar way of making a big impact out of the most modest of inferences. ‘Slow Boat to China’, from the 1958 Atlantic album The Jackie Paris Sound, highlights why the superbly suave singer has, however, remained a cult secret amongst hipsters. Shhh!

A true radical, Betty Carter never cared much for avant-garde jazz, yet her vocal interpretations of standards and originals are so out there it’s difficult to describe her any other way. Just witness her spine-tingling version of ‘’Round Midnight’ and get lost in an unworldly landscape of shadows and fog, shape-shifting and intrigue. Sheer film noir.

Otherworldliness also underlines Esquivel’s percussive, exotica excursion into ‘One For My Baby (And One More For The Road)’. The lonesome whistle’s call becomes a Mariachi cornet player’s ode, tuning into the Vegas floorshow intermittently from somewhere over Venus. The original meaning of taking a trip.
Which means it might be time for some ‘Black Coffee’ - but only the blend brewed up by Ella Fitzgerald. Her heady revisit of the Peggy Lee classic was recorded for the 1971 album Things Ain’t What They Used To Be (And You Better Believe It), produced by Verve founder Norman Grantz.

Another twist of something sharp from the Esther Phillips’ repertoire, ‘Makin’ Whoopee’, taken from the 1964 Atlantic album And I Love Him is an unexpectedly refreshing version of a standard. The resonance of her sassy vocal can be heard down the ages as a template for modern hip hop performers and any female who doesn’t want to fit into her pre-ordained role. Seriously hot, and not for the reasons you’d expect.

For most of the second half of the ‘60s, Sergio Mendes was the top-selling Brazilian artist in the United States. Which makes the classically trained pianist’s ultra-hip lounge take on The Mamas And The Papas’ ‘Monday Monday’ all the more satisfying. From the 1966 Atlantic album The Great Arrival, this is urbane, cocktail jazz at its most louche and beguiling.

In a complimentary vein, Herbie Mann & Tamiko Jones ‘A Man And A Woman’ is probably the ultimate in bachelor pad sound from the stereo age. Taken from the 1967 Atlantic album A Mann And A Woman, the title tune of the French movie of the same name, despite being conjured up by an American flautist and a Japanese/American singer, manages to define effortless Gallic cool.

Drummer and bandleader Shelly Manne also succumbed to the lure of foreign climbs when he penned the soundtrack to the hit TV series ‘Daktari’ in 1967. For the Serengeti-setting, Manne penned a funky, Afro-funk score, reminiscent of Lalo Schifrin’s film music from the same era.

Antonio Carlos Jobim and Joao Gilberto were the ‘60s swinging kings of Brazilian music, the guys who took bossa nova into the skyscraping heights of popular music. From the suave-defining 1967 album A Certain Mr Jobim, ‘Surfboard’ epitomises Jobim’s graceful compositional style.

Finally, settle back and discover the true beauty of the 1967 theme song to ‘Alfie’, as performed by composer Burt Bacharach’s muse, Dionne Warwick, who sets a standard for this era-defining tune.

We trust that you are now refreshed and revitalised.
The leopard Lounge thanks you for the openness of your ears.