In a Sentimental Mood: Mathis Sings Ellington
| In a Sentimental Mood: Mathis Sings Ellington | ||||
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| Studio album by Johnny Mathis | ||||
| Released | 1990 | |||
| Recorded | February–June 1990 at Petersham Church, Petersham, London, Evergreen Studios, Burbank, California |
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| Genre | Vocal | |||
| Length | 54:42 | |||
| Label | Columbia | |||
| Producer | Mike Berniker | |||
| Johnny Mathis chronology | ||||
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| Allmusic |    |
In a Sentimental Mood: Mathis Sings Ellington is an album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released in October 1990 by Columbia Records and continues the studio album pattern that began with The Hollywood Musicals and In the Still of the Night in which the song selections adhere to a specific theme or focus.
In 1992 this project earned Mathis a Grammy nomination in the category of Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album, his first from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences in over 30 years. His only previous nomination was for "Misty" in the category of Best Male Pop Vocal Performance.
This is the first Mathis album whose release did not include the LP record format, which was discontinued earlier in the year.
As Mathis looked back at the vocalists that he admired the most, such as Nat King Cole and Lena Horne, he felt that some of their best performances were evoked by the music of Duke Ellington. "'I wanted,'" he said, "'to make an intimate, close, hands-on portrait of this great man and his great music. And I wanted to get it right -- to keep that feeling alive in a way that was completely honest and true.'"
Several elements came together to provide that feeling that Mathis was seeking for this project, one of the more blatant examples being the trumpet work of Bill Berry, a one-time member of the Duke Ellington Orchestra. There were, however, production factors to work around, especially with regard to the fact that the vocal track was not going to be recorded separately. "The London Symphony players that we wanted were only available to us five days in the morning at 10 o'clock." This created a different type of recording schedule for Mathis. "I had to get up at 5 or 6 AM just to get my voice in some kind of shape to sing that early. But there was such a warm, wonderful feeling... even at that hour of the morning -- that I knew we were making the right decision."
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Wikipedia