Mel Tormé cut this slice of suave in 1962, arranged by Claus Ogerman, that reproduces the atmosphere of the days’ hot New York nitespots The Leopard Lounge is modelled on. The “Velvet Fog” musta felt long gone that night, ‘cause he managed to swing into sophisticated vibrosity, in the space of less than three minutes.

Herbie Mann heard the lovely Tamiko Jones singing at the Atlantic recording studios in New York one afternoon in 1966 and was so taken by the sultry sweet sound of her voice that he immediately asked her to collaborate with him. The result was the effortlessly classy A Mann And A Woman LP, from which ‘Sidewinder’ is taken. Think sports cars travelling through the South of France, girls with the sun in their hair, iced martinis – you get the picture.

A word from the wise now, as Mose Allison imparts some home truths on ‘Your Red Wagon’, a beautiful lesson in how to stay on the acerbic piano man’s good side. With Ben Tucker’s bouncing bass and Ron Lendburg flexing his brushes at the drum stool, Mose plays out a jazz that is saturated with the blues.

A whole lot of love went into the making of this next track, Antonio Carlos Jobim’s ‘Hurry Up And Love Me’. Having tasted fame and the high life in America the year before, Antonio returned to his Brazilian home, travelled across the country looking for hepcats to play with, and found in the wilds three amazing percussionists and a 23-year-old drummer known only as Edson. The result of their collaboration is this symphony of magnificence, washed in swoonsome strings and dazzling brass.

Ananda Shankar was a classical master of the sitar, who came to America seeking to blend his expertise with the psychedelic sounds of the New World. His kaleidoscopic rendering of The Door’s ‘Light My Fire’ certainly imbues a song already steeped in legend with an otherworldly magic, the ancient strings of the sitar bubbling up against the most modern electronica of the age to make one potent brew.

At the dawn of the ‘70s, Ella Fitzgerald made Things Ain’t What They Used To Be (And You Better Believe It), an album that took her on a voyage through contemporary classics such as Bobby Hebb’s ‘Sunny’. With a propulsive band behind her, Norman Granz in the producer’s chair and a funky song to sing, Ella sounds sassier and hipper than ever, alchemising sweet pop into jazz.

Who remembers Clarence the cross-eyed lion, the shaggy head hepcat in the Daktari jungle who always looked like he’d had one Mai Tai too many? Well ‘Out On A Limb’ was Clarence’s soundtrack, scored by drummer Shelly Manne. You can hear that big cat’s feet pad across the jungle floor to this woodwind and percussion-led taste of exotica – see his tail twitching too to the sinuous beat.

Miss Esther Phillips may be describing the effect of her voice on the knees of her audience when she sings about the admirer of ‘The Girl From Ipanema’: sensuous, mysterious, self-possessed – “swings so cool and sways so gentle” only covers half the story of this incredible soul voice. This Antonio Carlos Jobim song had already been made famous by Astrud Gilberto when this version came out in 1964, but Esther will make you do a double take when she renders the bittersweet story in her own inimitable way.

And now, hepcats and kittens it’s time to raise you glasses for another legend, the one, the only Sammy Davis, Jr., and his heartfelt plea ‘Let There Be Love’. This is Sammy at his highflying best, soaring above the most swinging stylings of arranger Marty Paich. Sammy’s interest in Paich came as a result of the work he’d done with Mel Tormé, and when they hooked up in 1961, to record The Wham Of Sam, they weren’t foolin’. Paich had worked out that the more you mixed up brass, reed and rhythm away from their rigid sections, the more you could let a hepcat swing and that’s precisely the result you are hearing.

Just when you thought things couldn’t get any cooler, watch out, here comes The Duke. Ellington and his band are on magnificent form on this brooding slab of noir from 1963. Taken from the Afro-Bossa album in which Duke explored links in language between African rhythms and urban jazz, ‘Moonbow’ is Duke at his most magical, stalking like a panther somewhere between the Savannah and the equally sweltering Cotton Club.

In 1960 Playboy magazine paid homage to our next artiste over a four-page spread entitled Ann, Man! That the “Liz Taylor of the hip set” sounded every bit as good as she looked is more than proved by her sassy take on the 1940s Louis Jordan/Billy Austin hit ‘Is You Is?’ Lucky Stan Kenton married her just after her 20th birthday and the rest of Playboy’s readers cursed their luck.

When ace saxophonist Nino Tempo got together with the red hot Eddie Cano band in 1966 it was the first time he’d picked up his instrument in four years. The success he’d had as a pop singer and collaboration with his sister April Stevens had forced his time away from the instrument. But with Cano’s Latin band he rediscovered his schtick immediately: “All I had to do was run through a few chords and I felt at home again,” he said at the time.

And hipsters, this is why Barney Kessel was on a mission when he recorded ‘You Came A Long Way From St Louis’ in 1961, to make big bands come alive again to the sound of his twangin’ guitar. As you can hear for yourselves, Barney’s mission was righteous!

The choice of George and Ira Gershwin’s ‘It Ain’t Necessarily So’ was an inspired one for Bobby Darin, who had the perfect voice for such elegant wit. Taken from the 1959 album That’s All, this is Bobby at his shimmering best, making pop perfection from the heppest jazz and causing a million lovestruck teens to swoon simultaneously.

Also rethinking a classic is Chris Connor’s version of Cole Porter’s ‘I Get A Kick Out Of You’. Chris came up from the same fertile jazz soil as Charlie Parker and Count Basie in Kansas City and steadfastly refused to stand still. Though she initially cut her teeth with Claude Thornhill’s big band, it was as a solo artiste she really made strides, developing her distinctive vocals through a prism of pop and jazz. Here she is in full flight, utterly reshaping the song.

Now a trip out to the strip – 77 Sunset Strip, to be precise, the location for the 1950s Private Eye series that aimed to capture “the excitement of this fabulous boulevard of bright lights, where the good and the bad, the rich and the not-so-rich live their drama filled lives.”

Soundtrack maestro Warren Barker perfectly captures the sinsational pulse at the heart of Hollyweird with the suavely titled ‘Caper At The Coffee House’. The gleaming grin of Strip star Edward ‘Kookie’ Byrnes may have faded from memory, but this track still packs a kick stronger than anything served at Central Perk.

A double act now, and an inspired one: the rich baritone rumble of Jimmy Ricks rubbing up against the streetwise savvy of LaVern Baker for a very knowing lust song, ‘You’re The Boss’. This 1961 single, scripted by Leiber and Stoller, must be one of the sauciest duets of its time, and it’s bound to get your pulse quickening tonight, cats and kittens. Think about it.

Mr Mai Tai himself, the South Seas swinger Les Baxter was a man who could turn any occasion into a fantasy. He journeyed far into other lands and the myths they contained and was generous enough to take us along for the ride. ‘Peking Tiger’ for instance conjures shimmering pagodas filled with omnipresent emperors surrounded by menageries of animals with jewelled eyes. One listen to Les and you can make the rest of the story up yourselves.

Take out your hankies for the next act, the mournful-voiced Al Hibbler, who really brings a tear to the eye with this 1951 single, ‘Trav’lin’ Light’. So mysterious is this recording that posterity doesn’t recall the exact personnel of Billy Taylor’s Orchestra with whom Al cut this ditty, but they sure do sound like cats who’ve been around long enough to appreciate Al’s soulful rendering of the blues.

Master arranger Marty Paich makes a return to the stage with his orchestra and this 1965 cut from The Rock-Jazz Incident, in which Marty really pushed the envelope in restyling standards old and new into his own swinging sensibility. You may just recognise the outline of ‘Summertime’ but Marty’s filling is a noir-ish surprise.
Break for cocktails.

Break for cocktails....