Ella Fitzgerald Songbook

Simply a grand and eloquent performance put together by Verve records highlighting the best years of Ella Fitzgerald – that sassy, charming legendary singer in jazz. The Best of the Songbooks features a captivating lineup of some of jazz's greatest composers and arrangers. It is here that Fitzgerald records and sings songs of Cole Porter, Richard Rogers and Lorenz Hart, Duke Ellington, Irving Berlin, George & Ira Gershwin, Harold Arlen, Jerome Kern, and Johnny Mercer.

An appearance in Hollywood for a first-rate jazz vocalist was not necessarily an opportunity to broadcast the singer's visage and pander to everyone from Tacoma to Tallahassee. It could also include a date at the Crescendo. The Sunset Strip's best chance to find premier jazz, Gene Norman's nightclub hosted dozens of jazz legends (and a comic or two), and produced more than its share of excellent LPs recorded on location. Better even than Mel Tormé's 1954 classic, the Ella Fitzgerald LP that resulted from her May 1961 appearances generated one of the best (and certainly most underrated) live records in her discography. All of her hallmarks - technical wizardry, breakneck scatting, irrepressible humor and warmth - are on full display, with a small but expressive quartet backing her performance (including pianist Lou Levy, guitarist Herb Ellis, drummer Gus Johnson, and bassist Wilfred Middlebrooks)…

Though her career stretched from the '30s to the '80s and she's widely considered possibly the greatest female jazz singer or all time, Ella Fitzgerald will probably forever be best known for a mid-'50s collection of albums collectively called the Songbooks, where she devoted entire albums to the works of such composers as Harold Arlen, Cole Porter, and Duke Ellington. THE BEST OF THE SONGBOOKS: THE BALLADS is one of the many compilations based on these recordings, and one of the best. From its beautiful, informative packaging to its gorgeously remastered sound, this 16-track, 64-minute collection treats the material with the respect it deserves. The material, of course, is first-rate, wall-to-wall standards from Johnny Mercer's wistful "Laura" to Ellington's sly "Do Nothin' Til You Hear From Me." Fitzgerald's performances are equally outstanding, as are the mostly big-band arrangements. This is as good as jazz ballad collections get.

The cartoon drawing of Ella Fitzgerald on the cover of Gold may lead some to equate this with the parade of pitiful compilations foisted on the market by budget labels, but this two-disc set arrives from Verve, the home of Ella's finest recordings. Listeners wanting a brief overview of the most swinging female in history couldn't do much better than this - assuming, of course, that they don't need informed liner notes or full discographical information on these performances. Overwhelmingly from the '50s and early '60s, Gold compiles 39 excellent performances and wisely focuses on her songbook recordings of the era, heavy on Cole Porter, George & Ira Gershwin, Irving Berlin, and Rodgers & Hart. Not every song here comes from a songbook, though. Also included is Ella's stunning, legend-making 1960 performance of "Mack the Knife" at a Berlin concert.