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Arbiter of Elegance

This was produced in 1963 on independent label, "Purist Records." Here, Charles delivers six of his songs in the most pristine, heart-felt renderings imaginable. Producer Elliot Wexler certainly "got it right" when he coined the phrase "Arbiter of Elegance," as the reference really does capture the very essence of Charles (and that of his music).

We would like to have included the remaining six lovely songs by Bart Howard from this album. Indeed, there are numerous single recordings and videos of Charles having performed music by other great American Songbook composers whom we wish we could include, however we do not, at this time, possess the required licensing. Hopefully this will come in a future iteration of this website.

Charles did record, on smaller labels, two additional albums of other composers' songs: One was "Day Dreams, Night Dreams" for Version Records, in 1954; the other was "Charles DeForest Sings Joan Crawford and Eleanor Powell," for Flax Records, produced by Earl Janson, in 1972.

Most notably, Charles performed a solo tribute to one of America's most remarkable song-writers, Harry Warren, for the series "The Great American Songwriters" at the "Corcoran Gallery of Art," in DC, on 10-4-81. This was
professionally recorded, and we have retained an excellent digitalized reproduction which we would love to present to you. So if you would like to hear samples from this concert, please be sure to go back to the Menu and click "Tribute."

Also, you may reference song samples from the album "Arbiter of Elegance" on "Performances" pages (5) and (6) which follow.

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