6CD - Deluxe Edition Hardback Book / Box Set. The audio for the set has been remastered, or mastered in the case of the tracks being released for the first time, by Simon Gibson at Abbey Road. Features a stylish hardback book with an extensive new biographical essay by Jaime Smith, representing her Daffodil label.
Revered vocalist, pianist, and performer Blossom Dearie’s Fontana Records era of the 1960s will be anthologized on the six-CD boxed set Discover Who I Am (The Fontana Years London 1966-70), to be released on June 30.
Widely admired for her originality and taste and for her striking vocals, Blossom’s admirers and collaborators ran the gamut from Miles Davis, Bill Evans, Michel Legrand, and Georgie Fame to John Lennon, Kylie Minogue, Feist, Barbra Streisand, Christina Aguilera, and Elliott Smith. She was the first female artist to have her own successful independent record label, Daffodil and enjoyed a five-decade career from the 1950s onwards, variously based in New York, Paris, and London.
In the 1960s, she established her own publishing company, Blossom Dearie Music which still operates and represents her catalog. During this period, based largely in London, she recorded four albums for Fontana, Blossom Time At Ronnie Scott’s, Sweet Blossom Dearie, Soon It’s Gonna Rain, and That’s Just The Way I Want To Be. She became a regular on British television during this time, often appearing alongside the comedy duo of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, as appearances on the BBC helped her establish a worldwide following.
Discover Who I Am is a comprehensive document of that era, featuring all four Fontana albums, several singles, and 27 previously unheard tracks from her sessions of the late 1960s, discovered in the family home in East Durham, New York after her death in 2009.
These recordings were made with jazz great Ronnie Scott and his organization and include songs that appear nowhere else in her canon, such as renditions of early Blossom originals “Feeling Good Being Me,” “Inside A Silent Tear,” and “Long Daddy Green.” She also interprets George Harrison’s “Something,” Rogers & Hammerstein’s “My Favorite Things,” Bacharach & David’s “What The World Needs Now,” ‘”The Joker” by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley, and Buffy Saint Marie’s “Until It’s Time For You To Go.”
The audio for the set has been remastered, or mastered in the case of the tracks being released for the first time, by Simon Gibson at Abbey Road. Discover Who I Am also features a stylish hardback book with an extensive new biographical essay by Blossom’s friend Jaime Smith, representing her Daffodil label. There are many previously unseen photographs, provided by Blossom’s niece and nephew, who both preserve and curate Blossom’s songbook and whose work led to the discovery and presentation of this unreleased music.
Tracklist:
CD1: BLOSSOM TIME AT RONNIE SCOTT’S:
On Broadway
When The World Was Young
When In Rome
The Shadow Of Your Smile
Everything I've Got Belongs To You
Once Upon A Summertime
I'm Hip
Mad About The Boy
The Shape Of Things
Satin Doll
Wallflower Lonely, Cornflower Blue (single b-side)
CD2: SWEET BLOSSOM DEARIE:
Let's Go Where The Grass Is Greener
You Turn Me On Baby
Sleeping Bee
Sweet Lover No More
Sweet Georgie Fame
That's No Joke
Peel Me A Grape
One Note Samba
On A Clear Day You Can See Forever
I'll Only Miss Him When I Think Of Him
Big City's For Me
You're Gonna Hear From Me
Moonlight Saving Time (single A-side)
CD3: SOON IT’S GONNA RAIN:
A Wonderful Guy
Trains And Boats And Planes
Alfie
Meditation
How Insensitive
Soon It's Gonna Rain
Sunny
Watch What Happens
I Was Looking For You
Dindi
Once I Loved
The Folks Who Live On The Hill
The Music Played (single A-side)
Discover Who I Am (single B-side)
CD4: THAT’S JUST THE WAY I WANT TO BE:
That's Just The Way I Want To Be
Long Daddy Green
Sweet Surprise
Hey John
Sweet Georgie Fame
Both Sides Now
Dusty Springfield
Will There Really Be A Morning
I Know The Moon
Inside A Silent Tear
Yesterday When I Was Young
I Like London In The Rain
Hey John (single A-side)
59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy) (single B-side)
CD5: FEELING GOOD, BEING ME: THE LOST AND FOUND LONDON SESSIONS (PART 1):
Upside Down (Rings and Things)
Favourite Things
The Joker
What The World Needs Now
What Is
Long Daddy Green (instrumental)
The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)
Wave
Something
Long Daddy Green
Feeling Good Being Me
I Was Looking for You
Ask Yourself Why
CD6: FEELING GOOD, BEING ME: THE LOST AND FOUND LONDON SESSIONS (PART 2):
Now That We're Here
Didn't We
Windows of the World
Discover Who I Am
Hey John
While We're Lovin' Baby
Let it Be Me
Inside A Silent Tear
Woe Is Me
Inside Out
You Have Lived in Autumn
I'm Hip
If I Were A Bell
Until It's Time for You to Go