Ella Fitzgerald & London Symphony

Ella Fitzgerald’s iconic vocals are given new life by marrying newly recorded string arrangements from the London Symphony Orchestra. Recorded at Abbey Road Studios, and conducted by James Morgan and Jorge Callandrelli, this new approach to Ella’s timeless music reinvigorates her catalog and is sure to excite and please long time Ella fanatics and classical music connoisseurs at the same time. Guest vocalist Gregory Porter also lends his incredible talent to "People Will Say We're in Love.”

This nearly forgotten, adventurous record features "Ella" taking plenty of risks with modern music. She breaks outside the boundaries of established jazz, covering atypical selections such as “Yellow Man”, by Randy Newman and "Savoy Truffle" by The Beatles. This is the late 60's Ella, natural, direct and in rare, uninhibited form.

On 7 February 1956, Ella Fitzgerald was at the Capitol Studios in Hollywood to begin one of the most remarkable series of recordings in the history of modern music. Joining her was Norman Granz, the founder and guiding light behind Verve Records and his arranger and A&R man, 15-year-old Buddy Bregman. They were there to start work on Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook, it was to be the first in a series of albums where Ella explored the Great American Songbook, songwriter by songwriter.

In 1962, Ella Fitzgerald was at the height of her powers, about midway through recording her now-iconic series of "songbook" albums and, two years earlier, having released a barnstormer of a live album, Ella in Berlin, that solidified her position as one of the most talented and popular musicians working in the jazz idiom.

Considered one of Ella's greatest recordings, she's backed on this 1960 release by pianist Paul Smith. "Let No Man Write My Epitaph" was a 1960 Hollywood movie featuring Fitzgerald. The album hits at a depth of emotional understanding that critics often complained was missing in Ella's reading of jazz lyrics, and once again establishes her as one of the supreme interpreters of the Great American Songbook.

Recorded in 1964, "Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Johnny Mercer Song Book" was recorded at Radio Recorders Studio 10-H in Los Angeles, California with Nelson Riddle and his Orchestra. The album was the only songbook collection Ella recorded that concentrates on the work of a lyricist instead of a composer. Riddle created wonderfully lush arrangements, and the album was Ella's fifth and final collaboration with the conductor and arranger during her years on the Verve label.

Released in 1961, this volume in Ella Fitzgerald's essential Songbook series spotlights composer Harold Arlen and features such beloved classics as Over The Rainbow, Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive and That Old Black Magic, arranged and conducted by Billy May and produced by Norman Granz.

This 1959 six disc set from Ella Fitzgerald is the largest and most ambitious in her celebrated Song Book series, consisting of her interpretations of 59 Gershwin tunes, including her Grammy-winning version of But Not For Me. The album also marks Fitzgerald's first collaboration with arranger Nelson Riddle, a partnership that would yield further recordings in the 1960s.

A live album from the 1957 Newport Jazz Festival, this album combines individual performances recorded at separate shows two days apart from two of the most popular female singers of the era. Billie Holiday is backed by Mal Waldron on piano, Joe Benjamin on double bass and drummer Jo Jones; Ella Fitzgerald's band includes Don Abney on piano, Wendell Marshall on double bass and Jones again on drums.

A completely unreleased live album by the peerless Ella Fitzgerald, Ella At Zardi’s: Verve Records will close out their year-long celebration of jazz legend Ella Fitzgerald's centennial with the ultimate present for her 100th birthday. Rescued from the vaults: "Live At Zardi's" is the Verve Records' first live recording, and is being heard for the first time anywhere. The two sets from the evening, in front of a lively crowd, was captured February 2, 1956, a few days before Ella began recording Verve’s first album, "Ella Fitzgerald Sings The Cole Porter Song Book".