| Helen Merrill | |
| Type: | studio |
| Artist: | Helen Merrill |
| Cover: | helenbrown.jpg |
| Released: | 1955 |
| Recorded: | December 22–24, 1954 |
| Studio: | Fine Sound Studios, 711 Fifth Avenue, NYC |
| Genre: | Jazz |
| Length: | 32:33 |
| Label: | EmArcy |
| Chronology: | Helen Merrill |
| Next Title: | Helen Merrill with Strings |
| Next Year: | 1955 |
Helen Merrill is the debut studio album by vocalist Helen Merrill, on which she is accompanied by trumpeter Clifford Brown in arrangements by Quincy Jones.[1] Brown had recorded a similar album with Sarah Vaughan only a few days previously, on December 16 and 18, 1954.[2]
In 1995, Merrill recorded a tribute album to Brown, who had been killed in a car accident in 1956, the year after their collaborative album was released.
The AllMusic review by Scott Yanow stated: "The music is essentially straight-ahead bop, yet the seven standards ... are uplifted by the presence of Merrill (in top form) and Brown."[1] In a review of a 2007 reissue of Merrill's first two albums by Lone Hill Jazz, David Rickert singled out the performance of "'S Wonderful" as "one of the best versions of the Gershwin tune I've heard in years" and called the two sessions "a vocal jazz feast well worth deserving of more renown."[3]