Louis Armstrong (t, v), Ella Fitzgerald (v), Trummy Young (tb), Ed Hall (cl), Oscar Peterson, Billy Kyle (p), Herb Ellis (g), Ray Brown, Dale Jones (b), Buddy Rich, Louie Bellson and Barrett Deems (d), plus Russell Garcia Orchestra. Keith ShadwickĮlla and Louis: The Complete Norman Granz Sessions Nobody did it better, even though it could be said that Sinatra’s studious avoidance of such anthologies produced the greater individual legacy. The idea caught on and Ella kept doing composer songbooks well into the 1960s. His first project for her was to record as many Cole Porter songs as they could lay their hands on in large ensemble style and release them (initially as volumes one and two) on an unsuspecting but quickly enraptured public. Norman Granz had long cherished the ambition to have Ella recording for his label but had to wait until 1956 to make the signing. Peter QuinnĮlla Fitzgerald Sings The Cole Porter Songbookįitzgerald (v) and the Buddy Bregman Orchestra. From swing to bebop, and from calypsos to bossa nova, Ella could do it all – brilliantly. With over 200 newly remastered studio (CDs 1-8) and live tracks (CDs 9-10), the beautifully packaged box set includes a 96-page hardback book with an extensive essay on the singer’s career, illustrations, Ella Fitzgerald album covers and photos, as well as complete track information and credits. Tracing an entire lifetime’s devotion to the art of the song, we hear everything from the eighteen-year-old Ella’s first studio recordings made with Chick Webb and his Orchestra in June 1935, ‘I’ll Chase The Blues Away’ and ‘Love and Kisses’ – the singer having landed the job just three months previously – right up to the title track of her final studio album, the appositely titled All That Jazz recorded in 1989. 1935-1989įeaturing over 12 hours of music, this 10CD retrospective from Verve Records presents some of the finest jazz singing ever recorded. Peter QuinnĮlla Fitzgerald (v) plus various personnel. An additional Gershwin duet (‘Nice Work If You Can Get It’), recorded by Fitzgerald and Larkins in 1954, rounds off this unmissable, landmark set.
In addition to the original 59 songs included on the 5LP set, we also get to hear the singer’s first attempt at recording a Gershwin songbook, namely the 1950 10-inch Decca LP Ella Sings Gershwin featuring eight sparkling duets with pianist Ellis Larkins. Coupled with Nelson Riddle’s brilliant charts, it’s little wonder that the collection led Ira Gershwin to say that he’d “never known how good our songs were until I heard Ella sing them”. It finds the vocalist at the height of her considerable powers, whether scatting on a scintillating ‘I Got Rhythm’ (the one occasion the singer gets to scat during the entire songbook), effortlessly navigating the waltz-time ‘By Strauss’, or melting the heart with ballads such as ‘But Not For Me’. Featuring 59 songs recorded over an eight-month period, reissued here as a 3CD set, the Gershwin songbook was to be the largest single recording project that Fitzgerald worked on.
#Ella fitzgerald discography complete series#
various datesĪs far as vocal jazz goes, Ella Fitzgerald’s series of songbook albums recorded for Norman Granz’s Verve label in the 1950s represent something of a high-watermark. Ella Fitzgerald Sings The George and Ira Gershwin Song BookĮlla Fitzgerald (v), with various personnel including Ellis Larkins (p) and Nelson Riddle (cond, arr), plus orchestra.