Beverly Kenney—”Life Can Be Beautiful” (1958)

Looking out of my window to the sunlit surroundings I’m thinking “Life Can Be Beautiful.” Which is title of a classic jazz ballad composed in 1948 by Jimmy McHugh, with lyrics by Harold Adamson. Between December 2, 1957 and January 28, 1958, 25-year old jazz singer Beverly Kenney (1932-1960) recorded it in New York City for her Decca album “Beverly Kenney Sings for Playboys.”

Steve Allen’s opening paragraph for the album’s liner notes reads: “The adjective that suggests itself, above all others, as descriptive of Beverly Kenney’s singing, is honest. There are no tricks to Beverly’s style. She “does” nothing to the numbers she sings except the one thing that will endear her to the songwriters whose work she chooses to offer, and that is the presentation of a straight, earthy, brass-tacks rendition.”

Beverly Kenney, with her distinctive sophisticated phrasing and cool jazz sensibility, sounds tender and sensitive and seems to understand what the lyricist had in mind. Allen observes that it is “a pleasure to hear a girl who gives an equal shake to the words and music.”

No small part of the comfortable groove of this session has been scooped out by the sure hands of Maryland-born jazz pianist Ellis Larkins (1923-2002) -- who was the first African American to attend the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore. His piano accompaniment seems to have been created almost specifically for voices like Beverly’s, Chris Connor and Ella Fitzgerald. The able jazz bassist is New Jersey-born Joe Benjamin (1919-1974), who, before working with small groups, had worked with the orchestras of Ellington, Henderson, Oliver and Shaw.