You're Getting Better: The Word Jazz Dot Masters

You might not immediately recognize the name Ken Nordine, but we bet you'd recognize the voice. He's done literally thousands of commercials, including Taster's Choice, Levi's, the Chicago Blackhawks, Fuller Paint, and tons of others. He is a frequent contributor to NPR, and has guest-starred on the Hal Willner Disney tribute album, Stay Awake. But the thing he is probably best loved for is a series of albums released in the late Fifties on Dot Records called Word Jazz. The four albums, recorded between 1957 and 1960, have been anthologized several times over the course of their history (including a vinyl collection on Blue Thumb and a CD on Rhino), but they have never before been made available on CD in their entirety. You're Getting Better: The Word Jazz Dot Masters contains all 49 tracks from the original albums, plus the bonus track from the Blue Thumb compilation, plus five previously unreleased tracks newly discovered in the vaults, on two compact discs. In all, 27 tracks make their CD debut. Not only was Nordine involved with the project at every step, he also invited some of his celebrated friends to contribute; both Laurie Anderson and Tom Waits have authored notes for the release, as has Nordine's long-time engineer, engineer, Jim Cunningham. Needless to say, Ken has also written some notes, and has provided some rare photos for the set. Painstakingly remastered in 2005 from the original master tapes, You're Getting Better also contains all of the notes from the highly collectable and extremely rare original vinyl releases.

Browse Our Catalog.

View More In Poetry.