The Doris Drew Story

Few listeners today have probably heard of Doris Drew, but in the 1950s she was a rather busy singer. She had a beautiful voice and a solid sense of swing and, although the majority of her recordings were of ballads, she could also excel on medium-tempo tunes.

Born as Doris Gruen in 1927, she sang in high school, became a professional in 1946 performing around her native San Antonio, Texas and by 1948 was working and touring with Frankie Laine. During the next 15 years she was a regular in nightclubs and on radio and television although surprisingly not in the movies. Later in the 1950s she often performed on shows with Tennessee Ernie Ford and sang jazz in Los Angeles with the Dave Pell Octet. But after 1963, she faded out of the music scene. Nothing much is known about her later years or whether she is still around although, since she would be 99, that is doubtful.

The Doris Drew Story is a single disc put out by the Spanish Fresh Sound label that definitively covers her career. Producer and Fresh Sound label head Jordi Pujol supplies lengthy and very informative liner notes along with a complete discography of her career. Despite her talents, Doris Drew did not record all that often, just 46 songs. The 28 most rewarding are on this CD. Dating from 1949-59, among the highlights are the heartbreaking “I Wish I Was Back In My Baby’s Arms,” arguably the best version of “Cabin In The Sky” since Ethel Waters, and a swinging “Side By Side.” There are six songs from a little-known session led by arranger Jack Fascinato (including very slow versions of “There Will Never Be Another You” and “ Tea For Two”) along with her one full album which resulted in a dozen songs with arranger Marty Paich and a group of West Coast jazz all-stars. The set closes with four numbers from 1958-59 that were released on various artist collections. Her versions of “Put The Blame On Mame” and an exhilarating “You’re The Cream In My Coffee” make one wish that Doris Drew had continued singing. She was only 38 in 1965 when she largely stopped.

The Doris Drew Story
Fresh Sound FSR 1170
www.freshsoundrecords.com

Scott Yanow

Since 1975 Scott Yanow has been a regular reviewer of albums in many jazz styles. He has written for many jazz and arts magazines, including JazzTimes, Jazziz, Down Beat, Cadence, CODA, and the Los Angeles Jazz Scene, and was the jazz editor for Record Review. He has written an in-depth biography on Dizzy Gillespie for AllMusic.com. He has authored 11 books on jazz, over 900 liner notes for CDs and over 20,000 reviews of jazz recordings. Yanow was a contributor to and co-editor of the third edition of the All Music Guide to Jazz. He continues to write for Downbeat, Jazziz, the Los Angeles Jazz Scene, the Jazz Rag, the New York City Jazz Record and other publications.