Ella Sings Gershwin
| Ella Sings Gershwin | |
|---|---|
| Studio album by Ella Fitzgerald | |
|
Publication |
1950 |
| Label (s) | Decca Records |
|
Format (s) |
LP, CD |
| occupation | |
|
Studio (s) |
|
Ella Sings Gershwin is a jazz - album of Ella Fitzgerald , recorded in two recording sessions in September 1950. It is Fitzgerald's first LP .
prehistory
Her unofficial advisor at the time, Norman Granz , with whom Ella Fitzgerald had worked at the Jazz-at-the-Philharmonic concerts, advised her in 1950 that she should urge her label Decca Records to give her better material, that you lie. Granz believed her voice and diction were made for the musicians of American classics like George and Ira Gershwin . The singer took his advice. Decca Records producer Milt Gabler was finally convinced, and so she and her piano companion, Ellis Larkins , went to the Decca studio in New York on September 11 and 12, 1950 and recorded eight Gershwin songs.
Release history
From this session came the material for an album with several singles, which Decca also released as a long-playing record in 1950, initially in a 10-inch format (25 cm). In 1955, Decca followed up with a 12-inch LP with additional material: Two Gershwin songs on the A-side - Nice Work If You Can Get It from the recording sessions with Ellis Larkins for the LP Songs in a Mellow Mood by 1954 and Oh, Lady Be Good! with Bob Haggart from 1947. On the B-side two songs from a single from 1946, recorded with the Billy Kyle Trio, which are not by the Gershwins.
The two tracks Looking For A Boy / But Not For Me were released in 1950 as a single in shellac record format.
The 1994 CD Pure Ella , released by GRP Records, contains the original 1950 LP and the 1954 LP Songs in a Mellow Mood - also recorded with Larkins in March 1954, with tracks from the American Songbook .
In 1999 Universal released the 1955 version of Ella Sings Gershwin on CD under the Decca label.
The eight Gershwin songs can also be heard on The Chronological Ella Fitzgerald - 1950 (released 2001), CD 11 of a 15-part CD series from Classics Records .
title
| 10 inch LP 1950 | 12-inch LP 1955 | Accompaniment | admission | composition | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A. | Someone To Watch Over Me | Someone To Watch Over Me | Ellis Larkins | Sep 12, 1950 |
George and Ira Gershwin |
| My One And Only (What Am I Gonna Do) | My One And Only (What Am I Gonna Do) | Sept 11, 1950 | |||
| But not for me | But not for me | Sep 12, 1950 | |||
| Looking For A Boy | Looking For A Boy | Sept 11, 1950 | |||
| Nice Work If You Can Get It | March 30, 1954 | ||||
| Oh, Lady Be Good! | Bob Haggart Orchestra | March 19, 1947 | |||
| B. | I've Got A Crush On You | I've Got A Crush On You | Ellis Larkins | Sept 11, 1950 | |
| How Long Has This Been Going On? | How Long Has This Been Going On? | Sept 11, 1950 | |||
| Maybe | Maybe | Sep 12, 1950 | |||
| Soon | Soon | Sep 12, 1950 | |||
| I'm Just A Lucky So And So | Billy Kyle Trio | Feb 21, 1946 |
Duke Ellington / Mack David |
||
| I Didn't Mean A Word I Said | Feb 21, 1946 |
Harold Adamson / Jimmy McHugh |
analysis
Richard Cook and Brian Morton refer to the album Pure Ella in their review as "a masterpiece" and an "essential" part of their discography, especially thanks to Larkins' "friendly but perfect accompaniment". Her voice is in the transition from the girlish timbre of her early years to the way she was supposed to interpret the songbook albums for Verve Records in the mid-1950s . Among the titles are classics like I've Got A Crush On You , But Not For Me and Someone To Watch Over Me . “Ella brought each and every one of them with all her sense of musical nuance and real feel for the lyrics, which were intelligent and polished and told a story. Most of what she usually sang, be it hits, blues or jazz numbers, consisted mainly of choruses ”.
Literature / sources
- Richard Cook , Brian Morton : The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD . 6th edition. Penguin, London 2002, ISBN 0-14-051521-6 .
- Jim Haskins: Ella Fitzgerald - First Lady of Jazz . Heyne Verlag, Munich 1994
- Bielefeld Catalog Jazz 2001
Web links
- Ella Sings Gershwin at Allmusic (English)
- Fitzgerald discography
Remarks
- ↑ Bert Noglik on the CD Pure Ella in the Arte series: 50 Recordings of the Century of Jazz ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. from May 16, 2006 at arte.tv, accessed on April 13, 2010
- ↑ cit. after Haskins, p. 120 f. Five years later, Granz made Ella switch to his newly created label Verve Records
- ↑ MCA GRP 16 362. Not to be confused with a Verve CD of the same name with other recordings
- ↑ cit. after Haskins, p. 121. Her usual hit material that Decca released at the time were titles like Baby It's Cold Outside with Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five (1949) or Come An A-My House (1951), which Rosemary Clooney was short Made famous time later.
