Best of Ella Fitzgerald: First Lady of Song [3 CD Box Set] - 1993

Product Description: Ella Fitzgerald "First Lady of Song". A 3 CD celebration of Ella Fitzgeralds 75th birthday. This deluxe 3 CD set presents the records that have made Ella Fitzgerald the First Lady of Song. Contains more than 3 hours of music - 51 tracks of essential Ella Fitzgerald including 25 songs that have never before appeared on a CD. This three-CD compilation of Ella Fitzgerald's years with Verve covers the period from 1954 to 1966, with a single throwback to a 1949 Jazz at the Philharmonic concert for a jam session version of "Perdido" with Charlie Parker. The settings range from the almost spartan (intimate, beautiful versions of "Angel Eyes," with guitarist Barney Kessel, and "Lush Life," with pianist Oscar Peterson) to orchestras and big bands, while the material ranges from classic standards to bop tunes like "A Night in Tunisia" to the Lennon-McCartney "Can't Buy Me Love." What ties it all together, of course, is Fitzgerald's singular talent, her ability to find the potential in her material and expand it with her unique vocal abilities. This set is a tribute to producer Norman Granz as well, for he consistently worked to involve Fitzgerald in the fruitful collaborations that enliven this set. There are meetings with Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Count Basie, as well as excerpts from the Songbook recordings and a number of live performances.

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Best of Ella Fitzgerald: First Lady of Song [3 CD Box Set] - 1993

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Recording information: Crescendo Club On Sunset Strip, Hollywood, CA (09/18/1949-07/29/1966); Deutschlandhalle, West Berlin, Germany (09/18/1949-07/29/1966); Hamburg, W. Germany (09/18/1949-07/29/1966); Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles, CA (09/18/1949-07/29/1966); Jazz At The Philharmonic, New York, NY (09/18/1949-07/29/1966); Juan-Les-Pins, France (09/18/1949-07/29/1966); London, England (09/18/1949-07/29/1966); Los Angeles, CA (09/18/1949-07/29/1966); New York, NY (09/18/1949-07/29/1966); Newport, RI (09/18/1949-07/29/1966); Rome, Italy (09/18/1949-07/29/1966); Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, CA (09/18/1949-07/29/1966).

Review: Ella Fitzgerald was simply the best. No two ways about it; that's the best way to describe her. And this boxed set showcases nothing but her very best recordings, pulled from the best years of her career at the Verve Jazz label. Starting in 1949 and going through the late '60s, there are three CDs and nearly twenty years of pure perfection to enjoy here. All the ones you've always heard about are here. Her heartbreaking "Angel Eyes," "April in Paris" with Count Basie and His Orchestra, and the untouchable recording of "Summertime" with Louis Armstrong. You can't listen to that one and not think, "Wow." Satchmo and Lady Time do one of the greatest duets in jazz with "Can't We Be Friends." Her "Lady Be Good" is included, with the brassy classic "After You've Gone." The two best tracks from her concert set with Duke Ellington at the Cote d'Azur, Jobim's popping "Jazz Samba" and Duke's rowdy "It Don't Mean a Thing," are present also; listen to how saxophone-like she sounds in her scat session on "Samba," and how she wails like one of the trumpets and becomes one of the band on "Don't Mean a Thing." "Let it Snow" represents her 'Ella Wishes You a Swinging Christmas," one Christmas CD every jazz fan should own; and yes, the legendary live Berlin version of "Mack the Knife," where Ella forgets the words halfway through and goes through a mean scat before launching into her crowd-pleasing Louis Armstrong impression, as well as the unbelievable scatting on the track that followed it, "How High the Moon," which sealed that song into Ella's repetoire along with "Mack."

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Best of Ella Fitzgerald: First Lady of Song [3 CD Box Set] - 1993

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Good helpings of Ella's 'Great American Songbook' series are here. Her treatment of Cole Porter's "Too Darn Hot" matched with that great arrangement is jazz perfection. From her kingly Duke Ellington Songbook album, "Just a Lucky So and So" is one of Ella's best, bluesy and soulful, with letter-perfect solos by Duke and the marvelous Johnny Hodges. She has great fun on "Get Happy," and the beautiful arrangement of Arlen's "Heart and Soul" (you know, the song from 'Big'), with its heavenly waterfall of strings in the intro, gives Ella just what she needs to make this one a keeper. Irving Berlin's "Blue Skies" is Ella at her finest, swinging free and easy, as the song starts off light and builds to a screaming climax.

Along with the famous ones, this set is also notable for so many great Ella recordings that cannot be found on CD elsewhere. This includes the stomping eight-minute-plus Jazz at the Philharmonic All-Stars version of "Perdido," with Roy Eldridge, Charlie Parker, and a bandful of greats backing Ella, a gorgeous live "Lullaby of Birdland," a Latin cover of "A-Tisket, A-Tasket" from the 1950s, the breezy "Swingin' Shepherd Blues," and Ella's superb "Don't Be That Way." Other not-so-well-known treats are a smooth, poetic "Night in Tunisia" that rivals Dizzy's wild original; Ella blowing every other version of "Black Coffee" out of the water; sugar-rush scatting on "Air-Mail Special"; the blues with Wild Bill Davis on organ with "Hear Me Talkin' to Ya"; and a seductive and swinging "Hernando's Hideaway," with lyrics set to the tune of the popular tango melody. Ella's "Makin' Whoopee" is, I guarantee you, one of the funniest songs you'll ever hear. It goes on and on, drawing bigger laughs with each verse, and Ella sings it with a wink and milks it for every laugh, especially that last verse! Perhaps the best, and most sadly little-known, recording here is Ella wailing through a bold, brassy arrangement of "Can't Buy Me Love." While Ella's reading here is nowhere near the golden treatment she gave it on 'The Ed Sullivan Show' in 1964, the arrangement never fails to stun, and is still one of the best jazz arrangements I've ever heard.

There will never be another Ella. ~ Amazon Customer

Track Listing:

Disc 1

01 - Perdido - 8:30
02 - Lullaby Of Birdland - 2:27
03 - Too Young For The Blues - 3:16
04 - Too Darn Hot - 3:49
05 - Miss Otis Regrets - 3:04
06 - April In Paris - 4:43
07 - Undecided - 3:44
08 - Can't We Be Friends? - 3:48
09 - Bewitched, Bothered, And Bewildered - 7:05
10 - Just A-sittin' And A-rockin' - 3:35
11 - I'm Just A Lucky So And So - 4:15
12 - Air Mail Special - 4:21
13 - A Tisket, A Tasket - 2:22
14 - Baby, Don't You Go 'way Mad - 2:37
15 - Angel Eyes - 3:22
16 - I Won't Dance - 4:46 Disc 2

01 - Summertime - 4:57
02 - Oh, Lady Be Good - 4:04
03 - More Than You Know - 3:17
04 - Lush Life - 3:39
05 - Blue Skies - 3:46
06 - Swingin' Shepherd Blues - 2:42
07 - These Foolish Things - 3:35
08 - Travelin' Light - 3:14
09 - You're An Old Smoothie - 2:48
10 - Makin' Whoopee - 3:46
11 - How Long Has This Been Going On? - 3:49
12 - Detour Ahead - 3:23
13 - Mack The Knife - 5:09
14 - How High The Moon? - 7:20
15 - Black Coffee - 3:31
16 - Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow - 2:45
17 - Get Happy - 3:33
18 - Heart & Soul - 3:36 Disc 3

01 - (If You Can't Sing It) You'll Have to Swing It (aka Mr. Paganini) - 4:06
02 - A Night in Tunisia - 4:09
03 - I Can't Get Started - 3:33
04 - Don't Be That Way - 3:49
05 - After You've Gone - 4:12
06 - Hernando's Hideaway - 3:20
07 - A Fine Romance - 3:39
08 - 'Deed I Do - 2:46
09 - Hear Me Talkin' to Ya? - 3:04
10 - Can't Buy Me Love - 2:39
11 - Day In, Day Out - 2:57
12 - Something's Gotta Give - 2:35
13 - Here's That Rainy Day [Live] - 3:36
14 - (I've Got) Something to Live For - 3:38
15 - You've Changed - 3:18
16 - Jazz Samba - 5:50
17 - It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing) - 7:12

Recording Time: 198 minutes

Personnel: Ella Fitzgerald (vocals); Louis Armstrong (vocals, trumpet); Stuff Smith (vocals, piano); Freddie Green, Herb Ellis, Jim Hall, Al Viola, Barney Kessel, Mundell Lowe (guitar); Lou Levy (cello, piano); Frank Wess (flute, reeds, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone); Marshall Royal (flute, reeds, alto saxophone); Eric Dixon (flute, tenor saxophone); Harry Carney (clarinet, bass clarinet, bass saxophone); Russell Procope (clarinet, alto saxophone); Jimmy Hamilton (clarinet, tenor saxophone); Edmond Hall, Buddy DeFranco (clarinet); Frank Foster (reeds, tenor saxophone); Wilmer Shakesnider, Carl Davis, Les Taylor, Phil Woods, Bill Graham, Charlie Fowlkes (reeds); Herb Geller, Johnny Hodges, Sonny Stitt, Willie Smith, Bill Holman, Ronnie Lang, Bud Shank, Charlie Parker (alto saxophone); Ben Webster (tenor saxophone, trumpet); Bob Cooper (tenor saxophone, trombone); Coleman Hawkins, Flip Phillips, Illinois Jacquet, Lester Young, Paul Gonsalves, Stan Getz, Ted Nash (tenor saxophone); Chuck Gentry, Med Flory (bass saxophone); Bob Enevoldsen (trumpet, valve trombone); Clark Terry, Conrad Gozzo, Cootie Williams, Reunald Jones, Don Fagerquist, Don Rader, Ernie Royal, Flip Ricard, Harry "Sweets" Edison, Herbie Jones, Joe Newman , Joe Wilder, Al Porcino, Mercer Ellington, Pete Candoli, Ray Copeland , Ray Linn, Ray Nance, Roy Eldridge, Stu Williamson , Taft Jordan, Thad Jones, Bill Perkins, Al Aarons, Willie Cook, Sonny Cohn, Wendell Culley, Cat Anderson (trumpet); Vincent DeRosa (French horn); Milt Bernhart, Henry Coker, J.J. Johnson , Tommy Turk, Joe Howard, Kai Winding, Lawrence Brown , Melba Liston, Quentin Jackson, Urbie Green, Benny Powell, Bill Hughes , Trummy Young, Chuck Connors, John Sanders, Britt Woodman, Buster Cooper, Lloyd Ulyate (trombone); George Roberts (bass trombone); John Kitzmiller (tuba); Don Abney, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Ray Tunia, Hank Jones , Jimmy Jones , Jimmy Rowles, Oscar Peterson, Paul Smith , Tommy Flanagan, Billy Kyle , Bill Doggett (piano); Dick Hyman, Wild Bill Davis (organ); Frank Flynn (vibraphone); Grady Tate, Gus Johnson, Jo Jones , Louie Bellson, Mel Lewis, Alvin Stoller, Sam Woodyard, Shelly Manne, Sonny Payne, Barrett Deems, Buddy Rich (drums).