"The Velvet Fog : Early Hits 1944-49" by Mel Tormé

I have loved smooth-voiced Mel Tormé from the first moment and have collected his records for the longest time, but so far never had a chance to hear his earliest music from 1940s when he was still considered a pop singer. His 1950s albums for "Betlehem" and "Verve" are constantly kept in print and being re-issued   as they should be, since he is major Jazz vocalist and in my books rate higher than any other guy in the genre, but for some reason his beginnings were being neglected and to my knowledge could be found only on luxurious and hard to find CD Box "The Mel Tormé Collection 1944-85" that I always wanted but never managed to purchase and was only admiring it from a distance. That box was released by "Rhino" in 1996 and just a few years later British ASV/Living Era (specialised in old Jazz recordings) came with this beautiful compilation - music they released always appealed to me and I am genuinely sad they don't exist anymore, as it opened my eyes and ears to rare gems of American songbook. 

What is collected here is a pure treat for Tormé fans - back in the 1940s this was still pop music, though today we would call it Jazz, it was still a time when music by Cole Porter, Irving Berlin and Gershwin brothers was played at dances by Big bands and young, incredibly seductive and hip Tormé was a swinging hipster who probably wore zoot suits, dated flashy blondes and dined at Ciro's on Sunset Boulevard. From the very start he had this instantly recognisable Mel Tormé sound, whispery cloud that music critics loved to call "Velvet Fog" (and he detested it as a gimmick, referring to himself as a "Velvet Frog" instead) - it was clearly modelled after croon of Bing Crosby who first came with this intimate approach as a contrast to belters before him, but Tormé brought it to another dimension and his tender smooch was than completely unprecedented (much softer than Sinatra, to whom he was often compared). I am familiar with 1940s pop music so orchestration and elegant choruses are not new to me, however Torme shows far more imagination than other singers from the same era since he often toys with melodies and occasionally enthusiastically scats, which points at his future work. Even at this early stage he seems to have been a fully grown artist and for the rest of his life you can hear variations on the singing recorded here. To me it sounds like pure Film Noir music and I am stating this as a biggest compliment.