In 1960, pianist Tommy Flanagan recorded The Tommy Flanagan Trio, an album of easy-going jazz for Prestige's Moodsville line. Joining Flanagan was the exceptional Tommy Potter on bass and the superb Roy Haynes on drums. By then, Flanagan had made a name for himself as a first-call sideman and would soon become Ella Fitzgerald's accompanist.
While the entire album is top-notch, the track that has always stood out for its sheer elegance and beauty is In the Blue of Evening. The song by Tom Adair and Alfonso D'Artega was first recorded by Frank Sinatra in 1942 and was probably written for him. It was one of the last songs performed by Sinatra while he was with Tommy Dorsey, before he went out on his own as a solo act and movie star.
Here's the Tommy Flanagan Trio playing In the Blue of Evening in 1960...
And as a Perfection bonus, here's Sinatra's plush studio recording in June 1942...
Other Perfection tracks in this ongoing series...
- Paul Desmond and Jim Hall: Any Other Time, go here.
- John Coltrane: You Say You Care, go here.
- Quincy Jones: Funk Junction, go here.
- Art Farmer's Work of Art, go here.
- Miles Davis: A Gal in Calico, go here.
- Gene Krupa: Mulligan Stew, go here.
- Dave Brubeck: The Duke, go here.
- Horace Silver: The Back Beat, go here.
- Horace Parlan: Up & Down, go here.
- Dexter Gordon: Society Red, go here.
- Barney Kessel: You Go to My Head, go here.
- Count Basie: Corner Pocket, go here.
- Herbie Mann: Manteca, go here.
- Donald Byrd: Bronze Dance, go here.
- George Shearing: I'll Be Around, go here.
- Ammons & Stitt: You Talk That Talk, go here.
- Count Basie: Blues in My Heart, go here.
- Moonlight in Vermont, go here.
- Johnny Griffin / Matthew Gee, Here, go here.
- Jimmy Smith / Stanely Turrentine: When I'I Grow Too Old to Dream, go here.
- Chet Baker: Estate, go here.
- Jazz Studio 1: Tenderly, go here.
- Herb Pomeroy: Down Home Outing, go here.
- Frank Sinatra: There's a Small Hotel, go here.
- Bill Harris Herd: Blackstrap, go here.
- Gerry Mulligan: Westwood Walk, go here.
- Red Garland/Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis: We'll Be Together Again, go here.
- Bill Evans: Reflections in D, go here.
- Ted McNabb & Co.: Mountain Greenery, go here.
- Maynard Ferguson: Fox Hunt, go here.
- Serge Chaloff & the Herdsmen: The Most!, go here.
- Maynard Ferguson: Starfire, go here.
- Urbie Green, Please, go here.
- Machito, Conversation, go here.
- David Allyn, Love Is a Serious Thing, go here.
- Lennie Tristano, Wow, go here.
- Teddy Charles, Borodin Bossa Nova, go here.
- Gerry Mulligan, Night Lights, go here.
