Release Date: 31 May 2005
Label: Naxos - Nostalgia / Naxos Nostalgic
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 636943280027
Genres: Classical
Composer/Series: KITT, Eartha
Description
EARTHA KITT C'est Si BonOriginal 1952-1954 RecordingsThat highly overused epithet,'sex kitten'somehow seems fresh again when it's applied toEartha Kitt, whose voice you're about to hear intwenty splendidly seductive selections.Not only is there something decidedly felinein the image she's always presented (Hear thatpurr! Watch those claws!), but she's actuallyplayed cats at several points in her career, mostnotably Mehitabel in Shinbone Alley andCatwoman in the TV series of Batman.As of this writing, she's 77 years old and stillappearing in cabarets and clubs around theworld. But this collection of songs was recordedover fifty years ago, when she was still near thestart of what has proved to be a very durablecareer.None of this seemed likely when she wasborn Eartha May Kitt into a life of extreme povertyon 26 January 1928 in the town of North, in thestate of South Carolina. For many years, Kittwasn't really sure of the place or date of her birthuntil the 1970s when some students at BenedictCollege finally found the relevant documents.She was illegitimate and her family were poorsharecroppers who told her that her name was atribute to the earth, because the harvest had beengood in the months just before she was born.Kitt's mother was black and her father wasmixed white and Cherokee. This made her analmost total outcast in the America of the 1930s,with no race willing to claim her. When herparents broke up and her mother remarried, herstepfather refused to accept her and she went tolive with her aunt in Harlem.Despite poverty so severe that she oftenexisted only on apples, Kitt made her way intothe N.Y. School of Performing Arts. At the age ofsixteen, she was discovered by the famous choreographerKatherine Dunham who took her underher wing and made her a part of her company.Soon, Kitt was touring around the world withDunham's troupe. When she arrived in Paris inthe late 1940s, she decided to stay there andsoon carved out a name for herself. In 1950, shebecame romantically involved with Orson Welles,who cast her as Helen of Troy in his reworking ofthe Faust legend, called Time Runs. He openedit in Paris, then toured it around Europe.But Kitt was finally homesick for the U.S.A.She returned to Manhattan in 1951 and hit thecabaret scene, with record-breaking runs at theBlue Angel and the Village Vanguard.It was while she was there that she wasdiscovered by producer Leonard Sillman. He wascasting the fourth in his series of seven legendaryBroadway revues called New Faces of ... Withthe date of the year they were performedfinishing the title.Eartha Kitt was to prove the star of NewFaces of 1952 when it opened on 16 May. Youcan hear two of the numbers that made herfamous: the charming Bal Petit Bal, which sheshared with Robert Clary (later to star in Hogan'sHeroes) and her showstopper,Monotonous, aslinky exercise in sensual ennui,written for herby the popular special-material team of ArthurSiegel and June Carroll (who was Sillman's sister).RCA Victor inst
Tracklisting
Various
Wisdom:Grenfell:Murray
Whiteman
Various Artists
Various Artists
Various Artists
Various Artists
Various Artists
Eartha Kitt
Original Broadway Cast Recordings
Eartha Kitt
Eartha Kitt
Eartha Kitt
Eartha Kitt
