Mel Tormé: My Night To Dream

The Velvet Fog: What more need one say? This collection cherry-picks the best ballads from Torme’s 15 previous Concord releases. John Burk gets producer credit, but would probably acknowledge that he’s had tougher assignments in the course of his career. The fact is that Torme knows his way around a song-a quarter of the repertoire here are his arrangements-and he knows how to move an audience. And, that being the evident ambition of this release, one must mark it successful indeed. There are four pieces with George Shearing, a fine “Angel Eyes” with Cleo Laine, and three cuts pairing Torme with Rob McConnell and the Boss Brass. If there’s a need for mood music in your life, this one does the trick.

Originally Published May 1, 1998