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BLUE STARS
LULLABYE OF BIRDLAND
Mercury 70742
No. 16 March 24, 1956
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Blossom Dearie–yes, that’s her real name–was the brains, if not the brawn, behind the short-lived Blue
Stars. She was born on April 28, 1926, in East Durham, New York. Daddy was a bartender in the Catskill
Mountains; Mommy a piano-toucher began Blossom’s musical instruction at age two. By age 10, Dearie
was dreaming of a life as a classical pianist. All would change when she heard Benny Goodman’s vocalist,
Martha Tilton. In the 40s, Dearie sang with the Penn State–Fred Waring group, Woody Herman’s Blue
Flames, and Alvino Rey’s Blue Reys. In 1952, after some wearying gigs as a cocktail piano player and after
an encouraging meeting with Nicole Barclay, an owner of Barclay Records, Dearie fled to Paris, where
her solo singing career flourished.
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Two years later, Dearie began thinking of forming an octet of French, jazzy vocalists. She dreamed up
some musical arrangements, and with an eye to her earlier bands, she labeled the chirpy eightsome the
Blue Stars–members included Bob Dorough and Christiane Legrand, Michel Legrand’s sister. Their
unusual scat rendition of George Shearing’s “Lullabye of Birdland”–sung in French and arranged by
Michel Legrand–caught the responsive ear of French and American audiences alike. The follow-up,
“Speak Low (Tout Bas),” plus other experimental excursions, fell flat saleswise. The language barrier
and what Dearie called the “mercurial French temperament,” lead to friction within the group. While
in Paris, she meet jazz impresario Norman Granz, who signed her to a solo contract with Verve. About
this time, Blossom fell in love with Bobby Jaspar, a Belgian flutist/tenor saxophonist. Months later,
the lovebirds married in Liege and took flight to New York, shelving the Blue Stars concept. Members.
later reformed the act as the Double Six of Paris, and still later as the Swingle Singers..
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After a half-dozen LPs for Verve, Blossom–feeling that her sophisticated music was being under–
appreciated by the existing labels formed her own record company, Daffodil. In 1985, she became
the first recipient of the Mabel Mercer Foundation Award, an annual accolade given to an outstanding
cabaret or super club per former. Bobby Jaspar–who went on to work with Miles Davis and J. J. Johnson
died in 1963, following heart surgery. Dearie never remarried.
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In the years since, when the whim strikes her, Dearie unpacks her baggage, hits the night spots, and
sings in her soothing one-of-a-kind style. “There have always been hard times financially,” said Dearie
recently, “but perhaps things will get off the ground now. I’d sort of like to become the rage for a while.”