Austin Cromer on Atlantic

[JSngry]

The band is Hubert Laws (on flute & guitar ), Chick Corea, Richard Davis, & Bruno Carr.

[Chas]

Jim , I don't have any answers for you , but FWIW , the record is currently up on EBAY with a 99-cents opening bid .

http://cgi.ebay.com/AUSTIN-CROMER-Sings-Fo...1QQcmdZViewItem

One track from this LP turned up on a Chick Corea compilation CD but thats it . I would like to know more about Cormer . What did he do between singing with Gillespie and cutting this side , and what happened to him after this record ?

[marcello]

I found this:

Austin Cromer, an enormously powerful singer, who was a member of The Ravens in the middle 'fifties, sang and recorded with Dizzy Gillespie in 1956-57, was rediscovered by Atlantic Records working on a labor crew in Columbus in 1965, released a solo album, then "disappeared". Is there any truth to the rumor he had to quit singing because of a broken jaw?

[JSngry]

Whoever's selling it on eBay is cheating themself by not mentioning the personnel.

[brownie]

Austin Cromer is also one of the chanters on Art Blakey's 'Holidays for Skins' BN session!

Never heard that Atlantic album.

[Stereojack]

I had the album years ago - didn't bother to keep it, even though the personnel is intriguing. Cromer is a deep-voiced balladeer a la Billy Eckstine & Arthur Prysock.

[JSngry]

As fate would have it, a good friend (not a board member, btw) came across this side recently and sent me a burn, which arrived yesterday.

I gotta tell you - I dig it quite a bit. Cromer's definitely out of Eckstine (& Earl Coleman), but his phrasing is less languid and more R&B rooted. I can only imagine him & Ricks onstage together w/the Ravens!

But he's definitely a "jazz" singer in that he works around the melody w/o losing it. Very attractive how he does it. And he's got a bigass voice, one of those booming ones that you could hear in a big, noisy hall without a mike. But he can caress, too. His range is broad, and his pitch excellent. Simply put, he's a helluva good singer.

The band is generic but excellent. Corea, Laws, & Carr were just beginning to make names for themselves (this side's from 1965, I believe), and had probably spent more than a few hours backing singers like this. That's the kind of apprenticeship that goes a long way towards making for a seasoned pro. Chick is all over the changes in his accompaniment, & Laws gets all the solos. He sounds damn good. Davis & Carr do what they need to do, and Davis does a little (just a little) of what he liked to do back then. All told, totally "in the style" w/o being cliched or boring at all. Joel Dorn produced the side, and he got a good band with a good chemistry to play the gig the way it needed to be played.

The program is mostly all ballads, none overly familiar, with a few obscurities. It's definitely not "pop" in orientation, and very much "singer's fare". My favorite is probably "The More I See You", but "This Love Of Mine" is a close second. Cromer just sings the hell outta these songs!

Jack, I can fully understand why you let this one go. At the time, singers like this were pretty common, as were programs like this. Cromer wouldn't have really stood out unless you were into this bag pretty hard. But I don't have to tell you that those times are long gone. Hearing this album last night was a refreshing treat for me, and I'll definitely be playing it several more times to come!

I just looked on eBay, and the side's still available w/a 99 cent opening bid. No takers yet. I don't know the seller, but I'm going to go on ahead and recommend this one to somebody. Hell, you can probably get it for a buck.

The only caveat is that you're gonna have to dig this style singing, which I know is not to everybody's liking. It's definitely a "niche", but it's a niche which I've come to both dig and appreciate (and both have taken time, believe me. But I'm there now). But if you like this kind of thing, all I can say is that even though it's nothing even slightly revelatory (the flip side of that is that it's totally unpretentious, unstrained, and/or compromised), it's a damn fine record by a damn fine singer of a type that don't hardly exist any more, and it's a little bit of a minor gem that there's no way in hell is ever going to be reissued. You'll have paid more and gotten less by some much bigger names.

Less than 11 hours left as of this writing. Carpe diem.

[rostasi]

You can find him on Roulette and on this disc too:

[JSngry]

What did he do on Roulette?

[rostasi]

In the late 50's he did a recording on Roulette -

I think it was with The Ravens.

The single is pretty hard to find,

but I think it shows up on a comp or two.

Not sure if it's simultaneous with his work with Diz

(Dizzy in Greece, in Chester PA, at Newport, et al.)

[marcello]

Roulette 4077 – Austin Cromer – I Think Of You / On One Finger Of One Hand – 1958

With Birks: Over the Rainbow

Edited November 10, 2006 by marcello

[Chas]

I just looked on eBay, and the side's still available w/a 99 cent opening bid. No takers yet. I don't know the seller, but I'm going to go on ahead and recommend this one to somebody. Hell, you can probably get it for a buck.

Less than 11 hours left as of this writing. Carpe diem.

Nice review Jim . Looks like Mike Weil thought so too , as he seized the day , and won the LP for 99-cents !

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Thanks for putting this up Jim, though I've only just seen it. Just up my street. Dare say I'll find one sooner or later.

MG

[mikeweil]

Nice review Jim . Looks like Mike Weil thought so too , as he seized the day , and won the LP for 99-cents !

[JSngry]

Spent about four hours last night letting this one repeat, and it got better every time. Cromer's way with a song is pretty damn convincing, and pretty damn musical. The cat is (was?) inside the songs in the way that only gthe best singers are. He understands how melodic contours need to be shaped in conjunction with harmonic and lyrical changes in order to make a pop song into a meaningful musical and emotional experience (and further listening revealed that chick's voicings and voice leadings set him up perfectly). The cat just knew how the shit needed to go. Repeatedly I wanted to shout out SING IT MOTHERFUCKER! but I was at work, so....

Anyway, I've become convinced that no matter how obscure he was, and no matter how deeply indebted to Eckstine he was, that Austin Cromer was one helluva singer. Mike, you got yourself a steal of a deal!

Now, speaking of nifty little reissues for the deep connoisseur that'll never happen but should, how's that Earl Coleman Love Songs side on Atlantic? Put that together with the Cromer and you might have something, Billy Taylor or not...

Did Dorn produce this one too? It's got "I Wish I Knew", as does the Cromer side, and as also does another Dorn-produced side, Jimmy Scott's The Source. Say what you will about Dorn, if he picked/suggested the songs for his singer's dates, his taste in material was pretty damn good.

Edited November 10, 2006 by JSngry

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Joel Dorn really loves mainstream black entertainment music and understands it very well. If he's given too much of a budget, I think he has a strong tendency to overproduce. But with a small band of competent musicians/singers, he can be as great a producer as Bob Porter or Francis Woolf. I wish Atlantic had signed Art Prysock during the Dorn years.

MG

Edited November 10, 2006 by The Magnificent Goldberg

[KOB]

After hearing a track from a comp CD, I searched and found the Sings For Her LP which contained the particular track in question.

This is an excellent LP all the way around. But, it's Cromer's voice that kills! Simply magnificent.

Not sure if Austin Cromer is still alive and if so, what he is doing these days. What a waste that he wasn't recorded more often.

[JSngry]

So...it appears that this has been reissued thru Japan. Now we can all has nice things!

https://www.dustygroove.com/item/688321

[Head Man]

So...it appears that this has been reissued thru Japan. Now we can all has nice things!

https://www.dustygroove.com/item/688321

Thanks for heads-up, JS...both that one and the Earl Coleman are also available at CDJapan.

[duaneiac]

Mal Sharpe used to have a Sunday night program on KCSM radio called "Back On Basin Street". Many years ago, at least a dozen years or more, he became intrigued by Austin Cromer after hearing his version of "Over The Rainbow". Somehow, he managed to track him down and at that time he was living, I think, in a mobile home park in Florida. Mr. Sharpe actually had a rather lengthy on-air interview with Mr. Cromer one night. I wish I had taped it.

[randyhersom]

There's some circumstantial evidence that the singer is the Austin Leon Cromer who was born Oct 7, 1930 and passed away November 10, 1999.  Newspapers.com has a Pensacola News Journal obituary that does not mention his singing, but he did have 4 children.  Ancestry.com has a Brazil Immigration card for Austin Leon Cromer with same birth date, listing his profession as musico and parents as Timothy and Gladys.  The date corresponds to the Dizzy Gillespie State Department tour of South America.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/537797

[randyhersom]

I have found no discographical evidence for Austin having recorded with the Ravens.  Anybody else have any?  This doesn't in any way suggest that he was not a member of the band.