Ella Fitzgerald Sing

10 CD box set of sixteen original jazz albums from the Godmother of female jazz, Ella Fitzgerald. Including the legendary Porgy and Bess with Louis Armstrong and milestone recordings like Ella sings Gershwin and Rhythm is My Business.

An amalgamation of two previous albums, the material here is predominately contemporary pop. Ella puts her Midas touch on compositions by Randy Newman, Bacharach/David, Harry Nilsson, and Lennon/McCartney, as well as some typical easy listening standards like "Black Coffee," "Things Ain't What They Used to Be," "Days of Wine and Roses," and "Manteca." Highlights are three Smokey Robinson compositions: "Get Ready" (where Richard Aplanalp's baritone sax replicates Melvin Franklin's bass part heard on the original by the Temptations), "The Hunter Gets Captured By the Game," and "Ooo Baby Baby." A rendition of Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong's "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" doesn't work as well, but she nails Eddie Floyd's "Knock on Wood" like a journeyman carpenter - proving, as she does on all 22 selections, that a classy voice like hers can sing anything and sing it very well.

This LP places Ella Fitzgerald (then 60) in an unusual setting. Joined only by organist Jackie Davis and drummer Louie Bellson, she tackles a wide variety of material that ranges from "I'm Walkin'" and "I Cried for You" to "Mack the Knife" (which did not need to be remade) and "And the Angels Sing." Not one of her more essential releases, Lady Time does show that even at this fairly late stage in her career, Fitzgerald could outswing just about anyone.

After a memorable performance in Berlin a year earlier, Fitzgerald was once again singing to a packed concert hall. Norman Granz, serious and to the point, introduced the musicians. Lou Levy had long been accompanying Ella. The quartet took the stage with the singer herself. In her fresh, almost girlish voice and that hint of characteristic impertinence, she launched into “Too Close For Comfort”, followed by “On A Slow Boat To China”. By now Ella had the audience firmly in the palm of her hand.

After a memorable performance in Berlin a year earlier, Fitzgerald was once again singing to a packed concert hall. Norman Granz, serious and to the point, introduced the musicians. Lou Levy had long been accompanying Ella. The quartet took the stage with the singer herself. In her fresh, almost girlish voice and that hint of characteristic impertinence, she launched into “Too Close For Comfort”, followed by “On A Slow Boat To China”. By now Ella had the audience firmly in the palm of her hand.

This admittedly pricey - but by all means mandatory - Grammy Award-winning box set is the final word on the "songbooks" recorded by Ella Fitzgerald between 1956 and 1964. The audio contents have been completely remastered and each title has been expanded - wherever possible - to include previously unissued material. In terms of packaging, the producers went to extreme lengths to create exact reproductions of all the vintage LP jacket artwork. Even going so far as to precisely miniaturize the entire hardbound text The Gershwins: Words Upon Music that accompanied their 1959 collection as well as the booklet that came with the Ellington anthology…

After a memorable performance in Berlin a year earlier, Fitzgerald was once again singing to a packed concert hall. Norman Granz, serious and to the point, introduced the musicians. Lou Levy had long been accompanying Ella. The quartet took the stage with the singer herself. In her fresh, almost girlish voice and that hint of characteristic impertinence, she launched into “Too Close For Comfort”, followed by “On A Slow Boat To China”. By now Ella had the audience firmly in the palm of her hand.

During the late '50s, Ella Fitzgerald continued her Song Book records with Sings the George and Ira Gershwin Song Book, releasing a series of albums featuring 59 songs written by George and Ira Gershwin…