Blossom: Unpacking Her Story

"She has a tiny voice, Without a microphone it wouldn't reach the second floor of a doll's house." - Whitney Balliett 

    I grew up on a lot of good television on the suggestion of my mother; Tom & Jerry, Looney Tunes, and Schoolhouse Rock. I tell ya, I wouldn’t have been able to count my fives tables without that catchy song. Regardless, many of the Schoolhouse Rock songs were performed by jazz artists from the 50’s and 60’s, such as Bob Dorough, Jack Sheldon, and Grady Tate. a while back I was listening to a Verve Records compilation of Gershwin songs, and one song struck me funny. It was a recording of “Someone To Watch Over Me”, and it was performed by someone named Blossom Dearie. While listening, I thought that I must have heard this recording somewhere before. That voice was so distinctive, almost as though I knew the voice all my life, but that name didn’t ring a bell. After a quick search on the internet and a quick skim though the book Verve: The Sound Of America, I realized that Blossom Dearie was the singer on the Schoolhouse Rock song, “Unpack Your Adjectives”.  I hadn’t  come across any recording of a singer who performed on Schoolhouse Rock before, except for Grady Tate, who was the drummer for the Jimmy Smith Trio.  It also struck me funny that Dearie’s first album for Verve was released in 1957, during the golden decade of this great Jazz label, and being very familiar this great label, I had never heard of her prior. To make a long story short, I was completely blown away by her soft, light vocals as well as her earnest delivery. So, I took it upon myself to find out who is Blossom Dearie, and why is she such a forgotten figure of Jazz.

    I haven’t seen many interviews with Blossom Dearie, but the few I have seen show that she was reluctant to disclose anything about her life. Once asked by NPR’s Karen Mitchell, she responded with "I'd rather not go into this biography, It's just — it's — I find it boring." I find that an interesting statement because her life was anything but boring. She was born Margrethe Blossom Dearie in East Durham, New York, on April 28th, 1924. Like many musicians of her era, she started as a classical pianist, but soon found the world of Jazz and decided to pursue that path instead. After she graduated from school, she went to New York to continue pursuing music, meeting the likes of Dave Lambert (as in the Lambert that’s with Hendricks & Ross), who introduced her to Gil Evans. Dearie would be present in the same get togethers that would inspire a young Miles Davis to make his “Birth of the Cool” recordings (Miles Davis of Blossom Dearie;"the only white woman who ever had soul.”)  After singing around with Big Band vocal groups, she moved to Paris to start a solo career.  While there, she would record with, and share an apartment with, Annie Ross (the Ross of the aforementioned singing group), fall in love and subsequently marry for a short time a French Saxophonist, and also catch the eye of a well to do jazz impresario and producer, Norman Granz. Blossom Dearie would record six albums for Granz’s label, Verve; Her best known recordings. 

    Looking at her first of her albums, simply titled Blossom Dearie, the thing to hear is how distinguishing her vocals are. Without trying to sound repetitive, her voice is light, soft, childlike and contained, all of which is not to speak ill of. She has a way to lightly dabble upon the lyrics of a song, without any sort of extra emphasis, to deliver a light, lofty, and yet, articulate rendition of the words. Comparing her to other vocalists of her day, I can't think of a jazz vocalist with a lighter touch, others had there moments, but never for an entire album. The other thing to notice is her eclectic choice of material. Although there are better known songs, like "Lover Man" and "It Might As Well Be Spring", Dearie chose to dig deeper into the Rogers and Hart catalogue as well, with "Wait Till You See Her" and "Thou Swell" (both of which are great songs I don't hear played much today). She even performs a couple tunes in French (“It Might As Well Be Spring” and “Tout Doucement”).

    After her tenure with Verve, Blossom Dearie would record for other labels, as well as forming and releasing albums on her own label, Daffodil, from 1974 onwards.  She would frequent many of New York’s supper clubs and continue to travel and play around the world, making a return to Paris, and made appearances at London's premier jazz destination, Ronnie Scott’s. As mentioned previously, many of us know Dearie from her few appearances singing songs for “Schoolhouse Rock”, singing  the aforementioned “Unpack Your Adjectives”, and “Figure Eight”.  Blossom Dearie continued to play the New York clubs until 2006, and sadly passed on February 9th, 2009. 

    In an age where society is searching for more important female figures, Blossom Dearie is one that often gets overlooked. And why should she? She had her own distinctive voice in jazz, was signed to one of the premier labels of the day, and could play and write as well as any of her male contemporaries.  If anyone does remember her, it’s mainly for her work with Schoolhouse Rock, and that seems wrong to me, because her body of work prior is so good and she is very much more an original then her contemporaries. Do yourself a favor and find any of her Verve LP’s and give a listen. Even more so, listen to her sing this song that best represents her, because Blossom Dearie is, and always should be, an Important voice in jazz music and as hip as anyone before or after her.