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Ella Fitzgerald - Love Letters From Ella
Concord Jazz
Arguably the best female jazz singer of all time,
Fitzgerald didn't earn the title "The First Lady of Song" for
nothing. Not only was the sound of her voice one of the most
beautiful and joyful sounds ever heard, but she had all of the
gifts that made singers great: perfect tone, great phrasing,
excellent diction, wide range, and the ability to make it all
sound easy. In fact, sometimes so easy she got the reputation as
being too "surfacy," and not getting all the true deep emotion
out of a song. Gosh, she even made her slower material sound as
if they were happy songs.
That she could muster up any happiness in her soul from
the midst of the poverty and homelessness from which she found
herself at the beginning of her career is a testament to the
strength of her dream and her huge reservoir of courage and
belief in herself. After winning a talent contest at the Apollo,
she soon had stints with the bands of Tiny Bradshaw and Chick
Webb, with the latter being the first to employ her on record
and not just live appearances. She had her first hit fronting
Webb's band, the enduring classic "A Tisket, A Tasket", which
was soon followed by another, "Undecided." While these were very
popular and are remembered today as being definitve versions,
her singing on these mostly novelty hits hadn't even started to
scratch the surface of what she would accomplish later. After
Webb died, Fitzgerald continued fronting the band until 1941,
when she decided to split up the band and go solo. It was at
this point she decided to stretch herself vocally and the true
style of Fitzgerald was born. She started havfing hits on Decca
and working with different bands and orchestras. While working
with Dizzy Gillespie's band, she began to appreciate bop and
started inserting exciting scat runs into her
performances. At this point, she started becoming a first-tier
jazz singer and was being seen as such by her peers, her run of
novelty hits having ended and her devotion to the American
songbook becoming more evident. She signed to Verve and started
recording many Songbooks of American composers, relying on the
melody of the songs and not improvising too much, although she
also recorded several very well-received jazz albums which
allowed her to take more liberties with melodies and phrasing.
Her Songbooks series, though, endeared her to the public and
were treated as very prestigious accomplishments by the singer.
Though the late '60's and early '70's found her trying to update
her sound with ill-advised pop covers, she returned to jazz by
the mid '70's and made a string of fine albums. She managed to
keep singing right up until her death in 1996, though troubles
with her heart, eyesight and vocal deterioration kept her from
working at the pace she was previously accustomed.
This album is a ten cut sampler featuring some of the
best of Fitzgerald's work over the years. Of special interest
and enjoyment will be the version of the song "Please Don't Talk
About Me When I'm Gone" recorded with the Count Basie Orchestra.
Fitzgerald sounds as good as she ever has and her reading is
simply elegant and wonderful. If any one could be used to show
someone what makes Fitzgerald great, this would be the song. And
it's just one of the ten on this CD! vGreat stuff!
Anyone who enjoys great jazz singing is going to like
this CD. A singer with the talents of Fitzgerald only comes
along once in a lifetime and, thankfully, her career has been
well documented so everyone can experience how good a singer can
be. With all the hoopla about American Idol and shows like that
where music fans seem to put a lot of stock in how many
syllables a singer can wring out of one word it's good to hear
someone who didn't need any of that to tell a story when she
sang. Sure, Fitzgerald could scat as well as anyonme, but she
had the wisdom to know when it was neceassary and when it wasn.t
Fitzgerald always used her gifts to sell the song, not herself.
If only more singers would follow her lead. Oh well, until the
tide changes, we have this and other albums by Fitzgerald to
listen to. Pick some up now. You won't be sorry. - Scott
Homewood
www.concordrecords.com
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