The Irving Berlin Songbook

While the 1960 live album Ella in Berlin: Mack The Knife will always be the peak of Ella Fitzgerald's solo recording career, this exciting discovery is yet another example of her voice and interpretative drive being pushed to new heights by her audience.

Released in 1958, "Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Irving Berlin Songbook" features arrangements by Paul Weston. The album was nominated for a Grammy Award for ALbum of the Year at the inaugural Grammy Awards. Fitzgerald won the Grammy Award for Best Vocal Performance, Female.

Sarah Vaughan and Billy Eckstine Sing the Best of Irving Berlin is a 1957 studio album featuring Billy Eckstine and Sarah Vaughan, and the songs of Irving Berlin.

Surprisingly (and temporarily) employed by Mitch Miller at the major label Columbia Records, Lee Wiley followed up the stunning Night in Manhattan with two further 10" LPs recorded in the late fall of 1951 and released simultaneously in 1952, discs that took off from her celebrated songbook albums for the Liberty Music Shop label back in 1939-40.

Long considered a jewel in Verve Records' very impressive crown, Fitzgerald's songbook collections of various composers–a series that was started by the success of this set–are all wonderful, but her natural wit and intelligence was at its most perfect with Cole Porter's erudite, urbane songs. While not as scat-oriented as her small group outings, these Porter sets offer her most realized pop performances. Also, the gold remastering does a fine job of bringing out the nuances in the arrangements, making this a treasure for the serious collector and the casual listener alike. A true American music gem.

Long considered a jewel in Verve Records' very impressive crown, Fitzgerald's songbook collections of various composers–a series that was started by the success of this set–are all wonderful, but her natural wit and intelligence was at its most perfect with Cole Porter's erudite, urbane songs. While not as scat-oriented as her small group outings, these Porter sets offer her most realized pop performances. Also, the gold remastering does a fine job of bringing out the nuances in the arrangements, making this a treasure for the serious collector and the casual listener alike. A true American music gem.

In the 1950s and early '60s, producer Norman Granz perfected the songbook approach to album production by having vocalist Ella Fitzgerald interpret large segments of the standard jazz repertoire. In a frankly stated effort to expand the listening audience for this great body of work, Granz also asked Canadian pianist Oscar Peterson to churn out numerous instrumental songbooks albums under his own name with various combos. By the end of the decade, these included Oscar's newly reconfigured trio with bassist Ray Brown and drummer Ed Thigpen. Like its companion albums, Peterson's Richard Rodgers Song Book was never intended as a set of exercises in soul-searching profundity. Instead what you get are simple, straightforward, well-played appreciations of great American songwriting.

Lyn Stanley, the Sultry Jazz singer of the decade, offers this collection of love songs where she'll spins tales of love's make ups and break ups. "The Moonlight Sessions" is the title of the newest chapter in Ms. Stanley's remarkable singing career. With this project, Lyn creatively offers a number of jazz standards with classical twists together with refreshingly new takes on iconic pop songs. The project was developed with the intention of creating a new take and approach to arrangements and was dedicated to the famous arranger, Sammy Nestico, best known for his swinging Count Basie arrangements but also worked for many other music greats. He was involved in the development of this project from its inception.

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.

"Let's Face The Music And Dance" is a stellar collection of studio performances by Willie Nelson. The album is the first in a series celebrating the artist's 80th birthday. Features the acclaimed musicians: Bobbie Nelson (piano), Paul English (drums), Billy English (electric gut string and snare drum), Kevin Smith (upright bass), Jim “Moose” Brown (B-3 organ), Micah Nelson (percussion) and Mickey Raphael (harmonica). This is an essential addition to the outlaw country artist's catalog of timeless recordings. It features a repertoire ranging from pop, rock, jazz and country classics including “Walking My Baby Back Home”, “You'll Never Know”, “Matchbox” and hits by Irving Berlin, Mack Gordon, Carl Perkins, Frank Loesser, Django Reinhardt and Spade Cooley, among others.