Ella Fitzgerald

Best Of Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong
$11.98
The past will last. Clearly superior - Others can learn a lot from this CD - especially modern musicians. Just so everyone will know - There are many more like this one. The past will last. We don't know that we have the future but we know that we have the past. We have Ella and Louie. I suggest that all modern jazz musicians buy and pay very close attention to this and other similar recordings.

Ella Fitzgerald Sings The Cole Porter Songbook
$33.98
She is indeed our "First Lady of Song", and no one will ever take that
spot from her.

From her first to last song on this CD, she brings life to each Cole Porter treasure, and as usual,
turns each one into a hit. Her rendition of "Miss Otis Regrets", to her light and fun
"Let's Do It" is a real treat and not too be missed.

This is a "must have" for anyone's music library, and too be enjoyed again and again.

Twelve Nights in Hollywood
$69.98

Pure Ella
$11.98
This CD contains...pretty much exactly..."Ella Sings Gershwin" and "In a Mellow Mood", the two Decca LPs she recorded with Ellis Larkins on piano. If you bought those two import CDs separately, you'd be out $80, but you can still pick up pretty worn LP copies of "...Gershwin" at least for under $10 each.

Prior to the Verve records, she already has a beautifully seductive and sophisticated approach. The vibrato, the pure tone, the deep reaches, innocence + savvy...it's all there. Pure, yes, because we don't get the trappings of the orchestral arrangements of so many of her other stuff, great though the songbooks are. Just blazing, ground-breaking torch-singer stuff here. If anything, the material is too weak for her! George Gershwin should have really tried a bit harder, she is so good. These renditions are much preferable, in my opinion, to "...Sings the Gershwin Songbook", although that is more of a classic.

Ellis Larkins, arguably not an A-list jazz piano player by today's standards, but he excelled at this type of comping. Inspired, spontaneous, full mastery of the harmonies.

I'd recommend this one right after "Best of Songbooks" but before "Here Comes Charlie" (much more upbeat) and then maybe "Ella Swings Lightly".