White Gardenia

Studio album by Johnny Griffin

Released

1961

Recorded

July 13, 14 & 17, 1961
at Plaza Sound Studios, New York City

Genre

Jazz

Length

38:54

Label

Riverside RLP 387 (mono), RS 9387

Producer

Orrin Keepnews

Johnny Griffin chronology

Blues Up & Down
(1961)

White Gadenia
(1961)

The Kerry Dancers
(1962)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Down Beat
Penguin Guide to Jazz
Allmusic

White Gardenia is an album by jazz saxophonist Johnny Griffin with brass and strings which was recorded in 1961 and released on the Riverside label. As a tribute album to jazz singer Billie Holiday, who had died two years earlier, all songs had been sung by her, except for the title track, which is the only original composition by Griffin on the album. The white gardenia was the flower Holiday often wore in her hair. The orchestral arrangements were written by Melba Liston and Norman Simmons.

Richard Cook and Brian Morton wrote in their Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD: "A delightful, smoothly orchestrated tribute to Lady Day that manages to be more than just pastiche" with the strings serving "mainly for depth of focus and harmony, rather than as emotional treacle." The Allmusic site awarded the album 2½ stars stating that the arrangements were "tasteful, and the lyrical music is well-performed, if not overly memorable. Worth checking out".

A review of White Gardenia in Down Beat from March 1962 indicates, that the album was in fact released not until about that time. Riverside also released the title track as a single with "Good Morning, Heartache" as B-side (R 4514), and a 7" EP with four tracks, adding "Detour Ahead" and "No More" (SE-2056). In 1973 the album was reissued on a double LP coupled with another recording by Griffin with Orchestra from May and June 1960, originally released as The Big Soul-Band (Big Soul on Milestone). White Gardenia was later reissued on CD as part of the Original Jazz Classics series on OJCCD 1877-2.

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Wikipedia