Black Coffee With... - 2021 US Verve Acoustic Sounds Series Audiophile 180 gram 12-track LP Reissue

Black Coffee was Peggy Lee's album smash for Decca (she left Capitol in 1952 over creative, artistic differences) and it offered her an intimate stage with a small jazz combo, exchanging her usual jazz-pop style with a big band or orchestra. This smaller combination worked to perfection.

"Encouraged by longtime Decca A&R Milt Gabler, she hired a small group including trumpeter Pete Candoli and pianist Jimmy Rowles (two of her favorite sidemen) to record an after-hours jazz project similar in intent and execution to Lee Wiley's "Manhattan project" of 1950, Night in Manhattan. While the title-track opener of Black Coffee soon separated itself from the LP — to be taught forever after during the first period of any Torch Song 101 class — the album doesn't keep to its concept very long; Lee is soon enough in a bouncy mood for 'I've Got You Under My Skin' and very affectionate on 'Easy Living.' (If there's a concept at work here, it's the vagaries of love.) Listeners should look instead to 'It Ain't Necessarily So' or 'Gee, Baby, Ain't I Good to You?' for more examples of Lee's quintessentially slow-burn sultriness. Aside from occasionally straying off-concept, however, Black Coffee is an excellent record, spotlighting Lee's ability to shine with every type of group and in any context." — AllMusic

"Each step in our production process — from title selection to mastering, pressing and packaging — is designed to meet the highest standards, and we want everyone who hears these albums to feel the love and hard work we put into everything we do," says Chad Kassem CEO of Acoustic Sounds.

2021 Mastering by Ryan K. Smith at Sterling Sound from the original analog tapes - 180-gram LPs pressed at Quality Record Pressings - presented in a Stoughton Printing gatefold old-style tip-on jackets

"Each step in our production process — from title selection to mastering, pressing and packaging — is designed to meet the highest standards, and we want everyone who hears these albums to feel the love and hard work we put into everything we do," says Chad Kassem CEO of Acoustic Sounds.

Tracklisting:

Side 1:
1    Black Coffee    
2    I've Got You Under My Skin    
3    Easy Living    
4    My Heart Belongs To Daddy    
5    It Ain't Necessarily So    
6    Gee Baby, Ain't I Good To You    

Side 2:
1    A Woman Alone With The Blues    
2    I Didn't Know What Time It Was    
3    (Ah, The Apple Trees) When The World Was Young    
4    Love Me Or Leave Me    
5    You're My Thrill    
6    There's A Small Hotel

Lacquer cuting and mastereing Sterling Sound, Edgewater, New Jersey.
Pressed by Quality Record Pressings, 543 N. 10th St., Salina, Kansas 67401
Cover printed by Stoughton Printing Co., 130 North Sunset Avenue, City of Industry, CA 91744-3595