Ella Fitzgerald - Something To Live For - 1999

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Ella Fitzgerald - Something To Live For - 1999

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Product Description: "SOMETHING TO LIVE FOR" is a companion 2-CD set to a PBS documentary with the same name which aired on AMERICAN MASTERS in December 1999. Recorded between March 24, 1937 & July 29, 1966. Includes liner notes by Stuart Nicholson. Digitally remastered by Kevin Reeves (Universal Music Studios East).

"SOMETHING TO LIVE FOR" was nominated for the 2001 Grammy Award for Best Long Form Music Video.

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Ella Fitzgerald - Something To Live For - 1999

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The First Lady Of Song is widely regarded as the finest female jazz singer of all time, and has exerted an influence over American popular music that is incalculable, though SOMETHING TO LIVE FOR gives it a shot. This 32-track, career-spanning double set serves as a companion to PBS's popular "American Masters" series and offers, for the first time on one collection, a retrospective of Ella Fitzgerald's two most important periods: the Decca years (1935-55), and her Verve years (1956-66).

"A-Tisket, A-Tasket" was the first of many hits she had with the Chick Webb Orchestra, while "How High the Moon" and a live take of "Goody, Goody" show off her remarkable gift for inventive and often humorous scat. There are five selections from her celebrated "Songbook" series, and other rare gems with Ella fronting the orchestras of Duke Ellington, Nelson Riddle and others. With her clear, pristine tone, masterful articulation, and the ability to out-swing anybody any time, Ella Fitzgerald was a singular musical force whose rich legacy continues to reward listeners.

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Ella Fitzgerald - Something To Live For - 1999

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Review: With a voice that could pretzel and scat and skitter and bellow, Ella Fitzgerald was bound to end up in myriad musical settings. The trouble with Ella's output is exactly its breadth, especially when creating an anthology out of three prime decades of her career. This two-CD set (released as a companion to the American Masters biography aired on PBS) anthologizes for the first time her work done for Decca (from 1935-65) and, later, Norman Granz's Verve Records. The early material, and lots of the later stuff, is infectious, with Fitzgerald chirping and leaping with all the vigor of her youth. "Perdido," a 1949 cut from Granz's Jazz at the Philharmonic, features a grainy but spry band with Roy Eldridge, Charlie Parker, and Fitzgerald singing away from the microphone before chiming in and driving the piece homeward. There are odd spots, like the obviously commercial Nelson Riddle-backed "Man I Love" and "Yesterdays" and the crisp "Angel Eyes" with Barney Kessel on guitar. Ella also freeplays her way through "Mack the Knife" from her fabled Berlin appearance in 1960 and then does wonders with "Duke's Place" backed by the Ellington orchestra. You might find yourself adjusting to the ever-changing instrumental contexts Fitzgerald sings in front of, but overall, you're likely to find yourself charmed by this set. It's bold, and in some ways faulty, in its reach. But at least it reaches high.

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Ella Fitzgerald - Something To Live For - 1999

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