by Les Line
In the 1960s Carmen McRae did several sessions for a public-service radio series called The Navy Swings. They were 15-minute shows, with Navy recruiting spiels between songs, so the performances are miniatures two or three minuts long. The repertoire is familiar from her LPs of the time (when her voice was in its prime), but the intimate setting of the piano trio rather than the orchestral backdrop makes the rediscovery of these tapes especially welcome.