Lena Horne was on her way as the most prominent black actress in Hollywood when her leftist politics brought unwanted scrutiny during the McCarthy era. Although her film career was squelched, she continued to make music throughout the 1950s and ‘60s. A generous sampling of those years is found on The Essential LenaHorne (Sony Masterworks/Legacy) along with tracks from the start of her recording career in the ‘40s.
The two-CD set opens with her theme song. “Stormy Weather” (from the 1943 film) would follow her through life, the emotional turbulence of Harold Arlen’s melody caught in the rainy registers of her voice. Horne had one foot in the blues but polished those earthy influences to an obsidian gleam. Orchestras with jazz accented arrangements, some of them pushing the envelope, generally accompanied her. In the course of her career and this collection, Horne paged through the Great American Songbook several times over, leaving behind masterful interpretations of George Gershwin, Fats Waller, Cole Porter and Leonard Bernstein. Six of the tracks on Essential were previously unissued on CD. Horne died earlier this year just shy of her ninety-third birthday.
