Liner Notes from the Fancy Faire FILM NOIR CD

AUDREY MORRIS

THE ARTIST AND THE ALBUM

by Joel Siegel

The bruised, deceitful leading ladies of film noir were usually empowered to alleviate the gloom, albeit briefly, with a song or two.  Had Audrey not been so determined to make her mark as a musician, she might well have turned up in one of those sequined gowns herself, singing a bittersweet ballad to Humphrey Bogart or Robert Mitchum.  In the late '50s, Warner Brothers offered her an exclusive contract requiring that she roll over control of her career to the studio.   Blessed with brains as well as beauty and talent, Audrey choose to remain a free agent, refining her art in jazz clubs and cabarets.  Her recordings have been too few.  Two albums in the '50s, for Label "X" and Bethlehem, which recently have been reissued, and an album on her own Fancy Faire in the mid-1980's.  But she has been a treasured fixture at the finest Chicago nightspots--Mr. Kelly's, The London House, The embers, and currently Toulouse--where she has introduced several generations of audiences to the glories of American popular music.

Audrey Morris is a songwriter's best friend.  Like the greatest cabaret singers--Mabel Mercer, Julie Wilson--She anatomizes every lyric to discover the subtlest nuances of meaning and phrasing.  And like the jazz instrumentalists who cherish her work--Oscar Peterson and George Shearing to name only a two--her musicianship is impeccable.  Each melody is framed in a spare, harmonically sophisticated setting.   Audrey's aristocratic approach doesn't attempt to knock your socks off with mannered vocal gyrations or ostentatious, speed-of-light pianowork--although I suspect she could easily do so if she wished.  Instead, she places her considerable gifts at the service of the composers and lyricists who created the songs she painstakingly selects.

An obsessive movie buff, and owner of one of the most comprehensive collections of sheet music, Audrey spent hundreds of hours compiling her repertoire for this album.  Her videotape machine ran incessantly for over a year, capturing a filmography of film noir.  Once informed of the project, her network of friends and devotees suggested tunes from their favorite pictures, stuffing her mailbox with lead sheets and audio and video cassettes.  Initially Audrey decided to record these songs backed by bass and drums, but after the first recording sessions, she altered that plan.   The intimate, highly personal nature of this program seemed best suited to solo performances.  Every few months for the better part of a year, she went into the studio to preserve a handful of songs, making sure the mood and feeling satisfied her before approving each track.

The harvest of all this research and hard work is a splendid collection of songs, some of which were standards before they entered the somber world of film noir, and others that have not been performed for several decades--a fascinating mixture of classics and rediscoveries.  Most of the selections are languid, moody ballads--little about film noir is sunny or sprightly--intended to be heard after midnight, when streetlights cast shadows of slatted blinds on the walls of your room.

With the release of this remarkable album, the term film noir takes on a new significance.  Those who are shrewd (and lucky enough to possess this recording) will hereafter associate those words with one of the most imaginative collections of songs ever assembled--a work of art that is also an invaluable piece of cultural history.

                                                                                   Joel Siegel is a film critic for the Washington, D.C. City Paper