When I Take My Sugar to Tea

1931
The Boswell Sisters
albums: various

Notes: The Boswell Sisters (Martha, Connie and Helvetia, aka Vet) accompanied by The Dorsey Brothers and a segment of their orchestra for Brunswick Records (Brunswick 6083, recorded "When I Take My Sugar to Tea, March 19, 1931. The sisters were at their height from 1930-1936. They went on to a career of great success, admired by fans as well as fellow performers like Ella Fitzgerald and The Andrews Sisters. Their version of "When I Take My Sugar to Tea includes the verse, and the lead is sung by Connie who does not change the lyric to accommodate a female singer keeping the original gender for the pronouns.
(Please complete or pause one
video before starting another.)

1931
King Oliver and The Chocolate Dandies
album: Shake it and Brake It

Notes: Dixieland recordings of "When I Take MY Sugar to Tea" from the earliest days of the song through the present have been made throughout the history of the song. The progenitor of these is most likely this 1931 King Oliver (with the Chocolate Dandies) recording -- made at Oliver's final recording session.

"Jazz Hour's Shake It & Break It contains 22 old-fashioned jazz records that were cut for Brunswick, Victor and Vocalion during the last 15 months of King Oliver's recording career. Beginning with a pair of tunes from the session of November 6, 1929 which featured James P. Johnson at the piano, this collection samples most of Joe Oliver's late period recordings, right through to his very last session, a Vocalion date with the Chocolate Dandies on April 15, 1931. By late 1929, King Oliver's chops had deteriorated to the point where trumpet solos were performed by others, most notably Oliver's nephew Dave Nelson, Bubber Miley and Henry 'Red" Allen.' The scat vocals featured in "When I Take My Sugar to Tea" is most likely by trumpeter Wand Pinkett. (quotation above from arwulf arwulf at CDUniverse.com.)
(Please complete or pause one
video before starting another.)

1947
Nat King Cole Trio
album: The Chronological Nat King Cole
1947

same track as on album referenced above
(remastered)

Notes: The remastered track for "When I Take My Sugar to Tea" is available on several albums including the The Complete Capitol Recordings of the Nat King Cole Trio and The Chronological Nat 'King' Cole 1947 on the Classics label. The following notes are relevant to the 1947 sessions during which "When I Take My Sugar to Tea" was originally recorded in Los Angeles during the period 07/03/1947-08/13/1947 with Nat King Cole on piano and vocal and Oscar Moore on guitar:

"Nine volumes into the Classics Nat King Cole chronology, it is the summer of 1947 and the King Cole Trio is in the process of mutating into pop singer Nat King Cole "at the piano with rhythm accompaniment." Capitol was a growing enterprise, business was brisk and the 23 tracks on this compilation [1947 volume] were recorded during a relatively short span of time -- between July 3 and August 13. Irving Berlin had composed 'What'll I Do' in 1924; soon after Cole revived it with this recording, Frank Sinatra came out with a cover version on Columbia. Cole's warm and personable rendering of Richard Whiting and Johnny Mercer's 'Too Marvelous for Words' is as magical and intimate as those recorded for producer Norman Granz by Billie Holiday and Lester Young. A wordless "Rhumba Azul" is an excellent example of the King Cole Trio's cool approach to early modern jazz. The final eight tracks are also entirely instrumental. This is a special treat for those who love the way this man handled the piano. Eventually he would practically abandon the instrument in order to focus entirely upon the art of crooning." ~ arwulf arwulf at CDUniverse.com.
(Please complete or pause one
video before starting another.)

1956
The Dave Pell Octet
albums: Jazz Goes Dancing
and
Young and Healthy

same track as on albums referenced above

Notes:
"Shortly after it was formed in 1953, the Dave Pell Octet won best new combo of the year in polls conducted by America s Daily News and Mirror newspapers. Six of its eight members were included in Down Beat magazine s 1953 poll of the top musicians in the country. Pell and his group flipped fans every- where they appeared, specializing in Proms and School Dances, and becoming the first name jazz group ever to play for dancing at one of the top Sunset Strip clubs, The Crescendo, and also the Hollywood Palladium. Its jazz was described variously as tasty, sophisticated, subtle, warm, bright, clean, friendly, inventive, happy, and a complete show and concert rolled into one. One successful Octet approach was to have the crowd gather around the bandstand to watch it play a fast jive number featuring the band s excellent soloists. An essential contributing factor in the Octet s success was that Pell hired the West Coast's finest arrangers to write the beguilingly melodic and always attractive, danceable band charts; people of the calibre of Marty Paich, Bill Holman, Shorty Rogers, Jack Montrose, Med Flory, John T. Williams. And it was this canny combination of quality and accessibility that really made the Octet s name and gave the music its enduring flavour. In Dave's own words: 'Here's hoping you enjoy our combined dance-and-jazz Campus Hop'!" (from CDUniverse.com).
(Please complete or pause one
video before starting another.)

1961
Frank Sinatra
album: Ring-a-Ding Ding!

Notes: "Unlike many of Sinatra's Reprise and latter-day Capitol releases, there's no real thematic link connecting the songs on this album. Ring-a-Ding Ding! is more a case of Sinatra stepping into the studio with arranger Johnny Mandel* (former trombonist for both Jimmy Dorsey and Count Basie) and a batch of great songs and doing what he does better than anyone else in the world. While the jaunty title tune provided the media with one of many famous Sinatra catch phrases, it's the cool assurance he displays on "A Foggy Day," 'You'd Be So Easy To Love' and others that makes this album an example of the singer in his prime."
*As Will Friedwald, in his book Sinatra! The Song Is You A Singer's Art points out, for the arrangement of "When I Take My Sugar to Tea," (as well as for "Easy to Love") Mandel did the "intros, codas and instrumental portions while Dick Reynolds . . . wrote the actual backgrounds behind the vocal" (Friedwald p. 375, hardcover Ed.). Mandel explains in another place that he is "a slow worker" and writing/arranging the music for an entire album required more time than he had to do it right and that is why he needed some help with some of the songs on Ring-a-Ding Ding!.

(Please complete or pause one
video before starting another.)

1967
Joe Williams
with the Thad Jones / Mel Lewis Orchestra
album: One More for My Baby

Notes: Originally the above track was for the 1967 Joe Williams LP Something Old and Something. New. It is found here on the 1998 compilation CD One More for More Baby.
"After leaving RCA Victor Records in 1966, Joe Williams began performing with the recently formed Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra, which had some of the rhythmic impetus he had enjoyed with Count Basie. Contracted to Solid State Records, they cut two albums, a blues collection called Presenting Joe Williams And The Jazz Orchestra (1967) and a ballad set, Something Old, New And Blue ([1967] /1968). This budget-priced compilation selects a mere four tracks from the former and 11 of the 12 tracks from the latter (the missing one is "Everybody Loves My Baby"). While a more complete collection might have been hoped for, the music is still impressive, as Williams re-lives the kind of sound he achieved with Basie and the Jones-Lewis organization proves itself an effective neo-swing unit. ~ William Ruhlmann at CDUniverse.com.
(Please complete or pause one
video before starting another.)

1980
Harry Allen, Jr.-Keith Ingham Quintet
album: Are You Having Any Fun?: A Celebration of Sammy Fain

Notes: album personnel: Harry Allen (tenor saxophone); John Pizzarelli (guitar); Keith Ingham (piano); Oliver Jackson (drums).
Arranger: Keith Ingham.
". . . Harry Allen, Jr. and British pianist Keith Ingham hold forth on no less than 17 Fain strains. John Pizzarelli is the superb guitarist, harmonizing with Ingham as if turning the key in a series of small treasure chests. Rounding out the rhythm section, drummer Oliver Jackson proves his affinity for both pianists and saxophonists while bassist Dennis Irwin counts his chord changes like tour revenue. The songs are given compact performances, 'Something I Dreamed Last Night' suggesting that only a subject related to sleep would inspire this combo to head toward the five-minute mark on a recorded track. Ingham's career began in Hong Kong, where Tin Pan Alley standards such as the deceptively amorous 'Secret Love' and the darkly gentle 'Tender Is the Night' were no doubt standard fodder in piano lounges. The saxophonist, son of big-band drummer Harry Allen, Sr., plays the melodies of this program as if familiar with the words, all of them, even the ludicrous "A High Hat, a Piccolo and a Cane" -- perhaps following the advice of one of the great instrumentalists, tenor saxophonist Lester Young." ~ Eugene Chadbourne at CDUniverse.com.
(Please complete or pause one
video before starting another.)

1991
Leon Redbone
album: Sugar

Notes: Leon Redbone entered the 1990s with the baker's dozen of selections on Sugar (1991), one of his best overall efforts to date. His unique and unmistakable interpretations of obscure jazz and early popular melodies are augmented by the occasional and equally singular original composition. The tunes are carefully crafted in such a way that they ably augment Redbone's distinct vocals, which vacillate between a gravel-voiced mumble and full-bodied bellow. In keeping with the musical persona he'd established for himself, the arrangements are often a synthesis of the refined jazz stylings of the Quintet of the Hot Club of France, with essential nuggets of traditional American folk, blues and pop. . . . the title track "Sugar," and a standout cover of "When I Take My Sugar to Tea," . . . are a rousing mixture of freewheeling ragtime and the playfulness of Django Reinhardt's days in the aforementioned Quintet of the Hot Club of France." from Lindsay Planer at CD Universe.com.
(Please complete or pause one
video before starting another.)

1994
Judy Carmichael
album: Judy

Notes: "Although she could certainly re-create the recordings of James P. Johnson and Fats Waller if she wanted to, when talented pianist Judy Carmichael plays stride it is not as a precious museum piece but rather as a natural part of her musical vocabulary. On this excellent release, she is teamed successfully with electric guitarist Chris Flory, whose solos greatly recall Charlie Christian. Carmichael is in particularly wonderful form on the slower pieces (such as "Gee Baby, Ain't I Good to You?" and "Lazy River"), but she also includes several stomps for variety, making this an easily recommended CD." Scott Yanow at CDUniverse.com.
(Please complete or pause one
video before starting another.)

2008
Marcus Goldhaber
album: Take Me Anywhere

Notes: In 2006, Marcus Goldhaber made a strong impression with his recording debut, The Moment After. The cool-toned but highly expressive singer displayed a real affinity for vintage standards, tunes taught to him as a child by his mother who was a professional pianist. He has always remembered those times, even while he became involved in theater, musical shows and acting. After five years of steady work as an actor, he realized that singing was his main passion, and that has become the focus of his professional life. Take Me Anywhere not only features Marcus' singing but his debut as a songwriter. While writing his first lyrics, he often remembered an old trick of Irving Berlin's; simply think of another way to say "I love you." Seven songs, including several that have the potential to become standards, were co-written by Marcus and pianist Jon Davis. With Davis, bassist Martin Wind and drummer Marcello Pellitteri forming a very supportive rhythm section and contributing melodic solos, Marcus Goldhaber is free to express himself, both through his words and his singing. The music on Take Me Anywhere forms a unified suite that traces the stages of a love affair. "No Moon At All" has ironic lyrics and serves as a fine introduction for the quartet. "I Get Along Without You Very Well" features unusual words that say the complete opposite of what they really mean. Read the full commentary by Scott Yanow at CDUniverse.com.
(Please complete or pause one
video before starting another.)

2008
Shauna Antoniuc Trio
album: In the Moonlight

Notes: This is the Shauna Antoniuc Trio's 2nd CD, Jazz vocals accompanied by acoustic guitar and saxophone. The Trio's first CD, from 2002 is The Dreams On Me.
(Please complete or pause one
video before starting another.)

2015
Konrad Paszkudzki · Martin Pizzarelli · Bucky Pizzarelli · Ricardo Baldacci
album: Brothers in Swing