Mel Tormé: All I Need is the Girl

Ring-a-Ding singing doesn't get any better than Mel Tormé with the Marty Paich Dek-Tette. Blending the lightness of Gerry Mulligan's pianoless quartet with Birth of the Cool sonorities, Paich shows why he was arranger of choice for with-it vocalists. And nobody was more with-it than Mel Tormé, whose musicianship was as immaculate as his tuxedo (here fitted by drummer Mel "The Tailor" Lewis with additional stitching from tenorman Bill Perkins). Plus, on this track we get Tormé's hilarious hipsterism, seemingly ripped from the pages of the Playboy advisor: "Got a sports car," he inventories. "Nutty Jaguarlike wow!" And how.