The Lee Wiley Collection (1931-1957)

Lee Wiley was a jazz and big band singer whose career began in the sophisticated orchestral era of the early '30s and encompassed swing and small band work through the '30s and early '40s before hooking up with Eddie Condon's band in mid-decade, and going on to make some highly regarded albums in the '50s. She was at once both distinctive and versatile, her smoky contralto voice enabling her to range across moody small group blues and after-hours material, swinging up-tempo big band arrangements, and lush easy listening recordings alike. This great-value 70-track 3-CD collection, selects chronologically from recordings made in the core quarter-century or so of her career, beginning with work with the orchestras of Leo Reisman, Victor Young and Paul Whiteman in the early '30s. It includes titles from her highly-successful series of songwriter-based sessions for Liberty Music Shop and Schirmer with Max Kaminsky, Joe Bushkin, Eddie Condon, and Paul Weston at the turn of the decade, as wel