Fred Astaire - Three Evenings With Fred Astaire

For the first time the sound track to three Fred Astaire Emmy-award winning TV specials are available on CD - the 1958 "An Evening with Fred Astaire", "Another Evening with Fred Astaire" (1959) and "Astaire Time" (1960). In 1958 the then 59 year old Fred Astaire was invited to star in a one-off TV special entitled 'An Evening with Fred Astaire'. His guests included jazz trumpeter Jonah Jones. The climax of the hour was a medley of ten of Astaire's greatest hits. The reaction to the special was overwhelmingly positive, with Newsweek branding it "one of TV's finest hours". Even better, the production walked off with nine Emmys. 'Another Evening with Fred Astaire' was commissioned the following year and met with equal success. Astaire was back again in 1960 for 'Astaire Time', this time with Count Basie and His Orchestra along with the blues singer Joe Williams. Complementing the soundtracks are eight rare tracks, many of them previously un-issued or alternate takes, from other periods in Astaire's career. Astaire's daughter, Ava, granted us an interview for this project and you can read about it in the CD booklet.