Oh boy,do I love this album or what - with all Torme albums I have in my collection this is my favourite and everytime its been played my foot goes tapping,fingers clicking and before I know what happend it's sing-along time - its pure joy and honestly it makes me wonder who the real chairman of the board was. Just to make it clear,songs here have nothing to with Schubert as in classical composer but famous Schubert Alley where most famous Broadway tunes came from and they are swinging,hip,joyous ode to life. I played it once at my work and someone came along and said he could not focus on work with such great music,honestly its so good. I guarantee it will make you sing and dance along. Torme and his guys (Marty Paich!) turn this Broadway standards upside-down and shake their dusty shoulders into something that would make Fred Astaire dance on tables long after everybody went home and Joe had poured one for the road. Much has been said about Torme's voice and I can't think of any other compliment about this guy except that I found this truly brilliant and definitely life-saving,desert-island album.

Mel Torme is one of those names that, growing up in the sixties, you heard a lot but didn't know anything about. Then, by the time you got older, you couldn't work up the energy to find out anything about him because he was "so yesterday", man. Then, you get to the age where I am now where you discover all this good stuff you missed because you were too young. That's Mel Torme for me in a nutshell.

I'm a new jazz fan, a casual Sinatra fan, and I bought this CD on the recommendation of The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings: Eighth Edition (Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings). Mel is a real jewel. He has a tremendous, mellow voice, particular and steady phrasing, and of course, he swings. The songs on this CD are a good mix of familiar and not so familiar tunes, and while there isn't anything particularly adventurous or risky about any of the songs, I couldn't help but feel like Torme and the orchestra just decided to while away a Saturday afternoon in the studio and this was the result. Sound quality is fine, so this package really delivers. After starting my jazz vocalist collection with Ella, Frank, and Billie, this is a great addition to bring my CD collection into a whole different direction. I will get a lot of repeat playing with this CD, and I recommend it to all jazz fans.

I have just bought 'Mel Torme Swings Shubert Alley'. Words are useles in describing this amazing talent, and combined with the Marty Paich orchestra including awesome players, amounts to many hours of pleasure.

My advice is, BUY IT !!!

Happy listening.

Nicholas Cooper.

Mel Torme had a curiously erratic career - child radio star, professional drummer, singing, arranging, acting, best selling author - about the only thing he didn't do professionally was dance, and he may have done that too. This recording shows his voice in near the top form of his career, performing arrangements that were written specifically for him by Marty Paich and performed by an all-star group of musicians, including Al Porcino on trumpet, Frank Rosolino on trombone, Art Pepper on alto and Mel Lewis on drums, among others. With arrangements clearly cast in the West Coast Sound, this CD re-release of the original January 1960 recording was the last of the Marty Paich / Mel Torme pairings on Verve, and doesn't equal the earlier Bethlehem releases with the Marty Paich Dektette and Orchestra. Nonetheless, it showcases Mel's astonishing control and technical ability as a vocalist of very nearly unequaled jazz ability (and I'm leaving out no one). Buy this, but also consider buying It's A Blue World, Mel Torme With The Marty Paich Dektette, and Mel Torme Sings Fred Astaire, first.

I like jazz singing, and I like Broadway, and I like the kinds of records put out in the late '50's and early '60's, during my high school and college years. The only other Torme CD I owned was one he did with George Shearing live about 1990, and that is excellent also, but I wanted to hear the younger Mel. This is a nice choice to help the listener understand both why Torme was a favorite of other pro singers, and why he was not a mass appeal mega-star. Where he comes in behind Sinatra and say, Tony Bennett, is that those two could credibly "act" any lyric and make you believe they were living it. Mel sings well, but does not quite inhabit the situation in the songs. Where Torme outshines Bennett and Sinatra is in doing the songs with a true jazz sensibility rather than a "pop" approach. This CD is good for introducing people to Mel Torme. Fans of "Night Court" on TV who could not comprehend why Harry Anderson loved Mel so much will have a better idea after hearing this. The only one of the dozen songs which does not work is "Whatever Lola Wants" from "Damn Yankees"---never one of my favorites, but it always goes better if a woman is singing it. The rest of them, all good songs, are quite listener-friendly, not bland enough to be dull, and not scatted up so much they put one off.