During the last year or two of her Columbia Records contract Jo Stafford made several albums which contained some of her best recorded work.

Circumstances were such that these albums received considerably less attention than her previous efforts at Capitol and Columbia, and as a result they are still unfamiliar to many.

One of these albums was "SWINGIN' DOWN BROADWAY", which friends consider some of the finest Stafford singing ever recorded. Another is "JO + JAZZ". in which she worked with an all-star group of jazz artists with arrangements by the remarkably talented Johnny Mandel, who had yet to write "The Shadow of Your Smile", and who was just beginning his career as a Hollywood film composer.

Sixteen years after its original release, Corinthian Records made this fine album available again, and continues to offer this CD version. Several of the great jazz men are no longer with us, and the loss of Ben Webster, Johnny Hodges, and Don Fagerquist is keenly felt when their beautiful solos are heard.

As Leonard Feather remarked in the original liner notes: "This album is something very special. Three factors give this program its remarkable character. First, if was decided to surround Jo with several outstanding instrumental soloists, whose reputation in their field is comparable with Jo's in hers.
Second, tunes were selected that have built a long and honorable reputation in both popular music and jazz.
Third, all these components had to be tied together by an arranger with ideas sympathetic to Jo and the soloists. -This should reflect credit on Columbia's Irving Townsend, who dreamed up the idea, as well as on Johnny Mandel and the featured soloists; but first and foremost the kudos must go to Jo, for meeting the challenge, and for reaching a new musical milestone along a road paved with best-sellers."