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The American jazz and pop singer Toni Harper was a remarkable performer, beginning her career as a child star, and first appearing on stage as a dancer at the age of 12, then starting to sing with noted jazz orchestras a couple of years later, immediately having her first hit 1948 when she was 14. After a few quiet years, she started recording albums in the mid-1950s and made some high-quality jazz and sophisticated pop collections before retiring from the business in 1960 in her early’30s. This 73-track 3-CD collection comprises a significant proportion – around 70% - of her career recorded output, and includes singles for Columbia and Verve with the bands of Eddie Beale, Herb Jeffries, Dizzy Gillespie and Buddy Bregman, plus the tracks from her album “Toni” on Verve, and the albums “Lady Lonely” and “Night Mood” on RCA. It includes her 1948 R&B hit single “Candy Store Blues”. On her Verve album she is accompanied by Oscar Peterson, Herb Ellis, Ray Brown and Alvin Stoller. She was an unusual, distinctive and stylish performer, and this selection of recordings from across her career is an enlightening showcase for her often unheralded talents.
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