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Ella Fitzgerald whose 100th birthday we celebrate this year, was unsurpassed as an expressive vocalist who dominated the musical scene, whether singing little ditties or the works of seasoned composers like Duke Ellington, Cole Porter or the Gershwins. To mark her many contributions in music across jazz & pop, we are proud to present 100 songs culled from the many recordings she made for Decca & Verve, often with some of the best musical units of the time. This extraordinary collection is bound to delight everyone with a deep abiding love for music in general & vocal music in particular.

Every now and then she brings out an album. Reflections Of A Voice is her latest. It features jazz standards and three of her own compositions, the most interesting of these being "The Voice Inside." Melander says the song is about "having the courage to listen to our inner voice and the voice of the heart, where truth is found." It could just as well describe the advice she gives to extract the best from her pupils. The song gets a little "stuck" melodically but her sincerity more than makes up for this and Anders Bergcrantz contributes a thoughtful trumpet solo.

Bernard Allison was born in Chicago, Illinois, United States. His father, Luther Allison, was a Chicago blues musician. Allison moved back and forth between Illinois and Florida, but remained close to his father's music whether with him or not, listening to his father's albums when they were apart. He accompanied his father to blues festivals in the early 1970s. There he was introduced to Muddy Waters, Hound Dog Taylor and Albert King, amongst others.Allison taught himself to play in Florida while his father was touring internationally and displayed his early skills to his father when he was 12. His father brought him a Stratocaster guitar but required him to remain in school, although he did allow his son to join him on stage at the age of 18 at the 1983 Chicago Blues Festival. A week after his graduation from high school, he was invited to join Koko Taylor's touring band. During that time, he furthered his skills under the tutelage of Johnny Winter, whom he had met when younger, and Stevie Ray Vaughan whom he met in the first year of his career.