With its progressive-leaning jazz and modernist blues vocals,
In the Night was the prototype for the piano-vocals collaboration record that
George Shearing would remake with
Peggy Lee,
Nat King Cole, and
Nancy Wilson while at Capitol (and many others afterwards). In July 1957, just after
Dakota Staton's immense success with "The Late, Late Show," Capitol recorded two of its biggest jazz stars together for what would turn out to be one of the finest teamings in either's career.
Staton appears on every other song, lending her blend of post-bop vocal prowess and late-night melodrama to a set of well-chosen songs including "In the Night" and "I Hear Music." (Ironically, the version of "The Late, Late Show" heard here is an instrumental.)
Shearing and
Staton are joined by the pianist's group at the time, including
Emil Richards on vibes, the splendid
Toots Thielemans on guitar, and a few features for Latin percussionist
Armando Peraza. The group's finest features are the opener, "From Rags to Richards," a fine
Shearing original with excellent solos from
Richards and
Shearing, and
Ray Bryant's "Pawn Ticket," with fine work from
Thielemans and
Richards. ~ John Bush