Discover Who I Am: Blossom Dearie In London, 1966-1970 (6CD Boxset)

• Deluxe 6CD boxed set comprehensively documenting the recordings this venerated yet enigmatic and under-appreciated pianist, singer and songwriter (1924-2009) made in the English capital
• Remastered at Abbey Road from the original analogue sources
• Includes 27 previously unheard tracks, an extensive biographical essay and unseen photos

Revered as a singular talent and performer, highly influential yet enigmatic and mysterious, pianist, singer and songwriter Blossom Dearie (1924-2009) was often described as ‘a musician’s musician’ and renowned for her originality, impeccable taste and striking voice, aptly characterised by The New Yorker as a “baby voice” singing “postgraduate lyrics.”

She was also allegedly once described by Miles Davis as “the only white woman who ever had soul’. But what soul she had, the genuine feeling she was able to impart via her renditions of the American songbook and the songs she wrote herself, came from her resistance to imitating others in favour of a sound that tied her neither to jazz precedent nor cabaret clichés.

Friends like Tony Bennett came to her when they needed advice about what to sing next, her playing influenced jazz greats like Bill Evans and her songs have inspired and been covered by artists such as Feist, Kylie Minogue and Norah Jones.

In the 1960s, Blossom spent much of her time in London, where she swapped songs with mutual admirers John Lennon and Georgie Fame, signed with Fontana Records and cut four albums (1966-70). Becoming a regular on British TV, the BBC was instrumental in her developing a worldwide following.

This deluxe package comprehensively documents that period, featuring the albums (and several singles) recorded during her stay in the English capital as well as 27 previously unheard tracks from her late ‘60s sessions that were discovered in the family home in East Durham, New York following her death.

These recordings were made with Ronnie Scott and his organisation (although exact details on dates and personnel have proved elusive) and include songs that appear nowhere else in her canon. There are renditions of early Blossom originals such as ‘Feeling Good Being Me’ and ‘Inside A Silent Tear’ as well brilliant interpretations of classics like ‘Something’ by George Harrison, Rogers & Hammerstein’s ‘My Favourite Things’, Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s ‘What The World Needs Now’, ‘The Joker’ by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley and Buffy Saint Marie’s ‘Until It’s Time For You To Go’.

The audio has been remastered (or mastered in the case of the tracks making their debut here) from the original analogue sources by Simon Gibson at Abbey Road.

The hard back book features an extensive new biographical essay by Blossom’s friend and confidant Jim Smith (who represents the artist’s estate and official archive) as well as many previously unseen photographs.

The first detailed exploration of this key period in Blossom’s life and career, this set also serves as a comprehensive introduction to a true original, an artist and performer deserving of much wider appreciation. And with the discovery and release of the previously unheard masters, Blossom’s time in London has now afforded her the opportunity to expand as a recording artist well into the 21^st century; something of which Blossom would have hopefully approved because Blossom always maintained that she hated the past and any skilful analysis of her must start today and then quickly reach into the future. And yet, as is outlined in this set, if her personal, performing and recording paths had not crossed at Ronnie Scott’s Club in early 1966, followed by those four Fontana albums and a decade of residencies, there might not have been a future to write about at all.

Blossom currently has just under one million monthly listeners on Spotify, up from half a million in 2019. With the release of this set, which joins the dots between her earliest recordings as a headliner on Verve and Capitol and her output for her own Daffodil label between 1973 and 1999, the time has never been better to discover who Blossom was.