Ella Fitzgerald Sings The Cole Porter Songbook

£8.98

1. All Through The Night - Ella Fitzgerald, Buddy Bregman Orchestra
2. Anything Goes - Ella Fitzgerald, Buddy Bregman, Buddy Bregman Orchestra
3. Miss Otis Regrets (She s Unable To Lunch Today) - Ella Fitzgerald
4. Too Darn Hot - Ella Fitzgerald, Buddy Bregman Orchestra
5. In The Still Of The Night - Ella Fitzgerald, Buddy Bregman Orchestra
6. I Get A Kick Out Of You - Ella Fitzgerald
7. Do I Love You? - Ella Fitzgerald, Buddy Bregman Orchestra
8. Always True To You In My Fashion - Ella Fitzgerald, Buddy Bregman, Buddy Bregman Orchestra
9. Let s Do It - Ella Fitzgerald, Buddy Bregman Orchestra
10. Just One Of Those Things - Ella Fitzgerald, Buddy Bregman Orchestra
11. Ev ry Time We Say Goodbye - Ella Fitzgerald, Buddy Bregman Orchestra
12. All Of You - Ella Fitzgerald, Buddy Bregman, Buddy Bregman Orchestra
13. Begin The Beguine - Ella Fitzgerald, Buddy Bregman, Buddy Bregman Orchestra
14. Get Out Of Town - Ella Fitzgerald
15. I Am In Love - Ella Fitzgerald, Buddy Bregman Orchestra
16. From This Moment On - Ella Fitzgerald, Buddy Bregman Orchestra

Exquisite Ella: Perfect Porter - In any rational list of the 20th-century s top song-stylists, Ella Fitzgerald would have to rank in the Top 5. Ella had a wonderful, distinct voice and style. Many singers have great skills. Many have perfect pitch and great intonation. But very few singers can use their voice like a fine instrument. Ella was one of those select few.Apart from having a wonderful voice, Ella was next to incomparable when it came to interpreting lyrics. It is no wonder that lyricists loved her and were ecstatic when she covered one of their songs. It is also no wonder that during the course of her career Ella recorded various Song Books in which she took the work of a great composer/lyricist and dedicated an album or two to their work. Ella did Irving Berlin, Harold Arlen, Rodgers & Hart, the Gershwins , and Jerome Kern song books among others. They are all wonderful to listen to, all 5-star performances (with the possible exception of the Gershwin song book) but my favorite of all her song books is this one: Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Song Book.Although the first half of the 20th century had a surplus of great songwriters (see the above) there was something about Cole Porter s that has kept those lyrics fresh and even edgy in the 21st-century. The pairing of Fitzgerald and Porter then is the equivalent of the perfect. A lyricist whose lyrics are funny, witty, charming and, yes, poetic and a singer capable of doing justice to those great lyrics makes for a memorable CD.This is a 2-CD set (the product description lists it incorrectly as 4). It contains an awful lot of Porter s great songs. Anything Goes, Too Darn Hot, Let s Do it, and I m Always True to You in My Fashion are my highlights for CD-1. Night and Day, I ve Got You Under My Skin, Love for Sale, and You re the Top, top off CD-2. Ella recorded these in 1956, exactly half a century ago under the auspices of the wonderful producer Norman Granz. Verve Records has restored the masters and the sound quality is excellent for a re-mastered recording.Cole Porter once said that In olden days a glimpse of stockings, was looked on as something shocking, Now heaven knows, anything goes. Well, all these decades later these songs go great with anything. You can enjoy them in the still of the night or all through the night. These songs do something to me and I can say nothing more than this CD is the tops, it s the Tower of Pisa, it s the smile on the Mona Lisa.If you can find this available, do yourself a favor and buy it, then sit back and enjoy.

Back to basics - If you are a jazz fan, you ve heard most of the songs on this album a hundred times in a thousand different versions, mostly as instrumentals. Now is your chance to hear them as Cole Porter wrote them and, in particular, to pay attention to the lyrics. Porter s powerful poetry would often be banned in today s politcally correct world. Thank god we still have these recordings.We all have a tendency to think that Sinatra put down the official american songbook soundtrack (please **** off, Rod Stewart, Jaimie whatsit, Bubley and all the rest of you new converts) but Ella s recordings sit side by side with the Chairman of the Board s.None of Ella s fantastic scat here. Just plain straight forward singing of the songs of one of the 20th century s greatest composers with wonderful arrangements and a fantastic diction which makes printed lyrics unnecessary.We can all complain about the Cole Porter songs that are missing from this set, but it is wonderful. A couple of tracks with 1950s latin feel have aged enormously, but the majority is just plain brilliant.If you are a musician you will agree tha Cole Porter s are amongst the most difficult standards to play. Ella will give you a lesson in simplicity that you will never forget.Just listen to Miss Otis Regrets. This is clearly a desert island disc.

Ella & Cole Porter - Need I say more - Ella is always a pleasure to listen to, but Ella with classy material is something special. This is what you get on this double album. The Song Book series is renown and this is arguably the best.I own the earlier CD releases as well as this later double album. There is a difference in the sound as a result of the re-mastering but I would not like to say which sounds the better. I do wonder why Verve bothered to re-master when the originals still sound wonderful but do not let this consideration of fine judgement prevent you from buying a great album.

A great collection messed up by an engineer - This was one of the great recordings of all time showing off the range, depth and expression of Ella s astonishing voice. Unfortunately this re-master has lost all the warmth and subtlety that could be found on the original CD. (Yes, I do know it was originally on record.) It has brought Ella s voice forward and thinned it out. The whole balance has been tilted upwards with the brass sounding sharp and the violins almost without timbre. Most tragically of all, the unequalled expressive qualities of her voice, that knowingness, have been largely stripped away leaving only a singer with an astonishing ability to hit the right note. Such a failing draws one towards the conclusion that the engineer was either not a fan of Ella or simply didn t understand her qualities. In short, the collection has been ruined. Because this is an album that should be in every record collection, my advice is to scour the secondhand record shops for the individual CDs. That suggestion becomes an imperative if you have spent money on your hi-fi system and are expecting more rather than less from this re-master.

Vintage Ella at its very best - a must for jazz romantics! - The lightness and joy with which she sings Cole Porter is effortless and exquisite with just a slight swing. Buddy Bregman s orchestra provides just the right balance of backdrop. A comprehensive set which includes all of the major tracks (I get a kick out of you, Let s do it, I love Paris, Easy to Love, You re the Top, Love for Sale, etc), plus the special bonus of previously unissued alternative takes - including Ella s comments when recording Let s do it .Beautifully remastered, this set of disks has great sound quality on an average system.A must for all jazz fans and romantics alike.If you like Nat King Cole and haven t discovered Ella yet, you could do worse than to start with this set.

• Ella Fitzgerald Sings The Rodgers And Hart Songbook
• Ella Fitzgerald Sings The George And Ira Gershwin Song Book
• Sings The Irving Berlin Song Book
• Sings The Harold Arlen Song Book
• Ella Fitzgerald Sings The Johnny Mercer Songbook