I have to confess that I've never been that moved by this story, and my lukewarm response to the audio version is undoubtedly colored by that. Executed in 1983, this is the first recording in which Ellison's boyish voice can be heard to crack with age (or at least overuse). He does fine with the tale dramatically, moving from a fairly restrained first person narration to convincing desperation during the "lagniappe!" scene. His voice drops to a rasping, crushing whisper for "infuriated me" when the flamenco dancer flirts with Lizette.
Ellison's Southern Belle voice for the girl is mostly good, and his French pronunciation usually accurate, though he insists on dropping the final "d" in "Cafe du Monde" in a French style, though proper French would call for it to be aspirated because it's followed by an "e." (Who knows, maybe they mispronounce it that way locally in New Orleans?) He plays delightfully with the name of the cemetery, switching from the English "Saint LOO-wiss" to French (or Creole) "Sa(n) Loo-EE" and back again.
Elise Morris provides both more and less musical accompaniment than Brad Kay on Jeffty. Her solo piano and occasional synthesizer swooshes are more spare, more atmospheric beneath the narration, but the recording opens with a 40-second musical intro and ends in a full 3-minute song delivered in her rich alto with the piano and simple synth harmony at the end of the story -- a nice addition to the enterprise. The cover painting by Don Ivan Punchatz is awesome.
Still, I for one would be more interested in hearing about Ellison's 1971 date with a Mardis Gras queen whose soul was "a foul and disgusting thing," according to Gil Lamont's liner notes, and which inspired this story.
