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Reviewers: Tony Augarde [Editor], Steve Arloff, Nick Barnard, Pierre Giroux, Don Mather, James Poore, Glyn Pursglove, George Stacy, Bert Thompson, Sam Webster, Jonathan Woolf



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ELLA FITZGERALD

Second Set:
Three Classic Albums Plus

Avid AMSC 1122

 

 

CD1

Like Someone In Love

1. There’s A Lull In My Life

2. More Than You Know

3. What Will I Tell My Heart?

4. I Never Had A Chance

5. Close Your Eyes

6. We’ll Be Together Again

7. Then I’ll Be Tired Of You

8. Like Someone In Love

9. Midnight Sun

10. I Thought About You

11. You’re Blasé

12. Night Wind

13. What’s New?

14. Hurry Home

15. How Long Has This Been Going On?

Ella Fitzgerald - Vocals

Frank DeVol – Arranger, conductor

Stan Getz – Tenor sax (tracks 1, 3, 9, 11)

Hello Love

16. You Go To My Head

17. Willow Weep For Me

18. I’m Thru’ With Love

19. Spring Will Be A Little Late This Year

20. Everything Happens To Me

21. Lost In A Fog

22. Tenderly

CD2

Hello Love (continued)

1. I’ve Grown Accustomed To His Face

2. I’ll Never Be The Same

3. So Rare

4. Stairway To The Stars

5. Moonlight In Vermont

Ella Fitzgerald - Vocals

Frank DeVol – Conductor

Ella Swings Brightly With Nelson

6. When Your Lover Has Gone

7. Don’t Be That Way

8. Love Me Or Leave Me

9. I Hear Music

10. What Am I Here For

11. I’m Gonna Go Fishin’

12. I Won’t Dance

13. I Only Have Eyes For You

14. The Gentleman Is A Dope

15. Mean To Me

16. Alone Together

17. Pick Yourself Up

Ella Fitzgerald - Vocals

Nelson Riddle – Arranger, conductor

Ella Swings Gently With Nelson

18. It’s A Pity To Say Goodnight

19. My One And Only Love

20. Body And Soul

Ella Fitzgerald – Vocals

Nelson Riddle – Arranger, conductor

At The Opera House

21. It’s All Right With Me

22. Don’cha Go ‘way Mad

23. Bewitched, Bothered And Bewildered

24. These Foolish Things

25. Ill Wind

Oscar Peterson – Piano

Herb Ellis – Guitar

Ray Brown – Bass

Jo Jones – Drums

Another Ella Fitzgerald collection from the Avid label – but who’s complaining? Ella hardly ever made a dud recording and I can’t hear any among the generous 47 tracks here. This double album contains three LPs: two from the late 1950s with backings by Frank DeVol and the third from 1962, with Oliver Nelson’s orchestra. Three tracks are added from another 1962 album with Oliver Nelson, plus five from a 1957 concert performance with a quartet led by Oscar Peterson. This album omits some of the bonus tracks which appeared on some CD reissues.

The Frank DeVol albums tend to swathe Ella Fitzgerald in a mass of strings, which are occasionally shrill, although several tracks on the first LP have the benefit of Stan Getz’s romantic tenor sax. Even though Ella’s voice is in danger of being swamped by Frank DeVol’s lush arrangements, her vocals are lovely: unforced and tenderly caressing the lyrics. Just savour the way she sings the introductory verse of More Than You Know, or her slightly ironical delivery of the marvellous Gershwins’ verse in How Long Has This Been Going On? This was the period when Ella was recording her renowned series of “Songbook” albums, so she avoided some of the better-known songs and included several rarities on these two albums.

Talking of the Songbooks, Oliver Nelson had accompanied Fitzgerald on The George & Ira Gershwin Songbook in 1959, and it was musically one of the most successful Songbooks. Ella Swings Brightly With Nelson is included here in its entirety, plus three tracks from Ella Swings Gently With Nelson (the remaining tracks were on Avid’s previous Fitzgerald compilation, AMSC 1118). Nelson Riddle adds a definite extra punch to the music with his jazzier arrangements, which seem to release Ella to sing with greater liberty. This can be heard in the way she draws out the phrases in Don’t Be That Way. Nelson Riddle uses a big band and reduces the dependence upon strings to create more potent accompaniments for Ella. This can even become rowdy, as in I Only Have Eyes For You but it is generally well-controlled.

But the last five tracks of this double CD capture Ella in her happiest habitat: singing before a responsive audience. Despite the good qualities of all the preceding tracks, I think Ella is at her best when backed by a small jazz group, as she is here – and Oscar Peterson is a fine accompanist. Hear the way that Ella embraces the words and music of Bewitched, Bothered And Bewildered: relaxed, yet totally in control. And the ending of These Foolish Things is a magical series of melismatic leaps.

Tony Augarde
www.augardebooks.co.uk

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