That's Where I Came In: The Modern Recordings 1946-47

Personnel: Hadda Brooks (vocals).
Liner Note Author: Tony Rounce.
In the course of researching a previous CD of Hadda Brooks' instrumentals on Modern Records, the Ace label came across a lot of unreleased acetates that she recorded for Modern between 1946 and 1948. Those acetates make up the bulk of this collection of two dozen of her Modern vocal recordings, 18 of which were previously unissued. Although these were passed over for release at the time they were cut, they really aren't notably inferior to what she did put out on Modern in the late '40s, though perhaps they were judged to be less commercial. They are a little more old-fashioned than some of the harder-hitting stuff she was waxing during the period, with much of the repertoire taken from Tin Pan Alley and Broadway songs, many of them predating the 1940s. In fact, "Out of the Blue" (actually an Ike Carpenter & His Orchestra recording, with Brooks on vocals) is the only number here that had not been previously sung elsewhere. But this material isn't that much less R&B in orientation than Brooks' more commonly circulated Modern output. Brooks gave these tunes a nice sensual jazz bluesy spin, and her own piano work combined with the small-combo backing to place these into early just-out-of-jazz R&B territory, albeit on the milder side of that field. The sound quality is very good, especially considering that most of it was taken from acetate. ~ Richie Unterberger