Don't Go to Strangers

by Etta Jones

Overview

Don't Go to Strangers was Etta Jones' first album for the independent jazz label Prestige when it was released in 1960 (having been recorded in a single session on June 21 of that year), and although Jones had been releasing records since 1944, including a dozen sides for RCA in 1946 and an album for King Records in 1957, she was treated as an overnight sensation when the title tune from the album went gold, hitting the Top 40 on the pop charts and reaching number five on the R&B charts. An elegant ballad on an album that had several of them, including the masterful "If I Had You" and a marvelous reading of "All the Way," a song usually identified with Frank Sinatra, "Don't Go to Strangers" featured Jones' airy, bluesy phrasing and uncanny sense of spacing, and was very much a jazz performance, making its success on the pop charts all the more amazing. Listen to Jones' restructuring of the melody to the opening track, the old chestnut "Yes Sir, That's My Baby," to hear a gifted jazz singer sliding and shifting the tone center of a song like a veteran horn player, all the while leaving the melody still recognizable, but refreshing it until it stands revealed anew. Apparently there were no additional tracks cut at the session, since bonus material has never surfaced on any of the album's subsequent reissues, although that's hardly a problem, because as is, Don't Go to Strangers is a perfect gem of a recording. ~ Steve Leggett

Product Details

Release Date:	01/12/2024
Label:	Destination Moon
UPC:	8055515234244
Rank:	61633

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Etta Jones   Primary Artist,Vocals
George Duvivier   Bass (Upright),Guest Artist,Bass
Roy Haynes   Guest Artist,Drums
Frank Wess   Guest Artist,Flute,Sax (Tenor)
Skeeter Best   Guitar
Richard Wyands   Piano

Technical Credits

Rudy Van Gelder   Audio Engineer,Engineer,Remastering
Esmond Edwards   Audio Production,Cover Art,Supervisor
Howard Dietz   Composer
James Van Heusen   Composer
Nick Phillips   Reissue Producer
Reginald Connelly   Composer
Ray Henderson   Composer
Redd Evans   Composer
Stuart Kremsky   Research,Production Assistant
Gillian Gilbert   Composer
Dave Mann   Composer
Arthur Kent   Composer
Arthur Schwartz   Composer
Gus Kahn   Composer
Bernard Sumner   Composer
Richard Rodgers   Composer
Phil DeLancie   Remastering
Sammy Cahn   Composer
LeRoi Jones   Liner Notes,Original Liner Notes
Terri Hinte   Project Assistant
James Campbell   Composer
David A. Mann   Composer
Rikka Arnold   Project Assistant
Jimmy Campbell   Composer
Kevin Connelley   Composer
Lorenz Hart   Composer
Frederick Loewe   Composer
Stephen Morris   Composer
Ted Shapiro   Composer
Triumph   Composer
Billie Holiday   Composer
Cole Porter   Composer
Alan Jay Lerner   Composer
Mort Dixon   Composer
Walter Donaldson   Composer
Peter Hook   Composer