CD1
1. Have You Met Miss Jones? (Have You Met
Sir Jones?)
2. You Took Advantage Of Me
3. A Ship Without A Sail
4. To Keep My Love Alive
5. Dancing On The Ceiling
6. The Lady Is a Tramp
7. With a Song In My Heart
8. Manhattan
10. Johnny One Note
11. I Wish I Were In Love Again
12. Spring Is Here
13. It Never Entered My Mind
14. This Can't Be Love
15. Thou Swell
16. My Romance
17. Where Or When
18. Little Girl Blue
19. Give It Back to the Indians
20. Ten Cents a Dance
21. There's A Small Hotel
22. I Didn't Know What Time It Was
23. Ev'rything I've Got
CD2
1. I Could Write A Book
2. Blue Room
3. My Funny Valentine
4. Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered
5. Mountain Greenery
6. Wait Till You See Her (Wait Till You See
Him)
7. Lover
8. Isn't It Romantic?
9. Here In My Arms
10. Blue Moon
11. My Heart Stood Still
12. I've Got Five Dollars
13. It Might As Well Be Spring
14. People Will Say We're In Love
15. Someone To Watch Over Me
16. My One And Only
17. But Not For Me
18. Looking For A Boy
19. I've Got A Crush On You
20. Nice Work If You Can Get It
21. How Long Has This Been Going On?
22. Soon
23. Maybe
Ella Fitzgerald - Vocals
Orchestra conducted by Buddy Bregman (CD1,
tracks 1, 3, 5, 6, 8-21; CD2, tracks 1-3,
5, 7-12)
Orchestra conducted by André Previn (CD2,
track 13)
Paul Smith - Piano (CD1, tracks 4, 7, 22;
CD2, track 4)
Barney Kessel - Guitar (CD1, tracks 4, 7,
22; CD2, tracks 4, 6)
Joe Mondragon - bass (CD1, tracks 4, 7, 22;
CD2, track 4)
Alvin Stoller - Drums (CD1, tracks 4, 7, 22;
CD2, track 4)
Ellis Larkins - Piano (CD2, tracks 14-23)
This is more like it! The second of three
albums by Ella Fitzgerald that I have received
for review avoids the faults of the first
one (e.g. making a poor selection) and instead
gives us the whole of Ella's recordings of
the Rodgers & Hart Songbook, plus nine
tracks from her versions of Gershwin songs.
You also get two songs written by Rodgers
& Hammerstein: It Might as Well be Spring
and People Will Say We're in Love. The former
has lush orchestration by André Previn;
the latter simply has accompaniment from Ellis
Larkins. Ellis also supplies the backings
for the Gershwin songs (the final nine tracks).
It's a real pleasure to hear the way that
Larkins accompanies Ella: providing discreet
prompting but never overpowering the singer.
In fact Ellis's recordings with Fitzgerald
are among his finest - equalled only by his
marvellous duets with cornettist Ruby Braff.
Buddy Bregman also deserves a word of praise
for his orchestral accompaniments, which support
Ella without swamping her.
Ella Fitzgerald's recordings of songs by
composers like these actually gave them some
well-deserrved exposure and probably introduced
or at least vitalised the concept expressed
in the album title: the Great American Songbook.
Before Ella made these recordings, people
were less aware of the body of work produced
by Gershwin, Porter, Kern, Rodgers & Hart
and other great American songwriters. The
special quality of Rodgers & Hart was
their unique blend of Richard Rodgers' romantic
melodies and Lorenz Hart's often acerbic lyrics.
To Keep My Love Alive is a notable example
of Hart's biting irony, callously enumerating
the number of husbands that a woman has murdered
"to keep my love alive". And I Wish
I Were in Love Again has such glorious lines
as "The conversation with the flying
plates" and "When love congeals,
it soon reveals The faint aroma of performing
seals, The double-crossing of a pair of heels".
Ella's good nature conveys these words without
any sense of malice. For these songs and many
others, Ella gives us the often-neglected
introductory verses which add much to our
enjoyment.
Throughout all 45 tracks, Ella's intonation
is perfect and she interprets every song with
clear understanding but without any of those
tricks that lesser vocalists use to convince
us they are jazz singers. Ella doesn't have
to justify herself: the evidence is clear
on her manifold recordings. Her apprenticeship
with Chick Webb's orchestra matured her natural
talent into a thing of beauty - and these
tracks are a joy for ever.
.
Tony Augarde
CD Reviews
Avid
AVC 906
