Author: Ella Fitzgerald
Format: Best of
Release Date: 06-07-2000
Details: Amazon.ca
Given the sheer scale of Ella Fitzgerald's career, no definitive compilation is possible, but the 77 minutes featured on this release are, as the title has it, "essential". In 1956 Ella moved to Verve, and her album
The Cole Porter Songbook was her first release for the label. It was such a success that for the next eight years Fitzgerald recorded a definitive series of songbooks, creating in the process a unique chronicle of the finest melodies of not only Cole Porter, but of Richard Rogers and Lorenz Hart, George and Ira Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern and others. It is from those great albums that this anthology has been compiled, and with such a treasure-trove of American song to chose from, every selection is a superbly performed classic. Fitzgerald can be warm and tender, sardonic and blue, but is always a dazzlingly "sophisticated lady" (a track which actually appears on Verve's lavish
For The Love Of Ella Fitzgerald double-set). Whether swinging or lamenting, and with every detail of the original tapes brought to life via exceptional remastering, Ella is in fine voice backed by impeccable arrangements. It is indeed, "'s wonderful" and the only response is to be "bewitched".
--Gary S. Dalkin
UPC: 731452399021
EAN: 0731452399021
Languages: English
Binding: Audio CD
Item Condition: UsedVeryGood
