Ella at Zardi's
| Ella at Zardi's | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Live album by Ella Fitzgerald | ||||
|
Publication |
||||
| Label (s) | Verve Records | |||
|
Format (s) |
2LP, CD |
|||
|
Title (number) |
20th |
|||
|
running time |
01:07:20 |
|||
| occupation |
|
|||
|
Norman Granz , Annette Zuzio |
||||
|
Studio (s) |
los Angeles |
|||
|
||||
Ella at Zardi’s is a posthumous album by Ella Fitzgerald . The recordings of a performance by the singer in February 1956 at Club Zardi’s in Los Angeles, made on December 2, 1956, were released on December 1, 2017 as vinyl press and compact disc on Verve Records .
background
The album contains the first recording made for Norman Granz's new Verve label . When Granz signed Fitzgerald for his label Verve, he tried to showcase her virtuoso talent in the same way as he had done with the Jazz-at-the-Philharmonic concerts since the mid-1940s . A performance by the singer in Zardis Jazzland on February 2, 1956, accompanied by Don Abney , Vernon Alley and Frank Capp after two and a half weeks of live performances was recorded. However, the recording initially remained unpublished. The album Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Song Book , recorded just a week later, was released as her debut on Verve Records.
Granz introduces Fitzgerald on stage in front of her first set and gets the rating: “For me she is the greatest there is.” You then hear Fitzgerald's premiere of “It All Depends on You”, a pop standard that was not released on any Fitzgerald album. In Ella at Zardi's you can hear Fitzgerald playfully accepting inquiries and joking with the crowd. Interestingly enough, given the upcoming recording session, she only sings one Cole Porter tune - at the request of the songwriter Gordon Jenkins , who was in the audience (according to Nate Chinen). And the requested song "My Heath Belongs to Daddy" is one of the Porter songs that shouldn't appear on her studio album. Instead, the set list includes popular hits of the day - such as "The Tender Trap", which she recorded for Decca Records . The songs performed include "A Fine Romance" and "Gone with the Wind". Fitzgerald also cited earlier versions of Rose Murphy and Louis Armstrong in her version of “ I Can't Give You Anything but Love ” . She also dedicated “A-Tisket, A-Tasket” to its co-author Van Alexander , who was sitting near the stage. The recording was made on February 2, 1956, two and a half weeks after Fitzgerald joined the club. A few days later, on February 7th, she entered the Capitol Records studio to begin recording her Verve debut Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook . This began her landmark line of songbook albums, a breakthrough for both Fitzgerald as a recording artist and the Great American Songbook itself.
Track list
.jpg)
- Ella Fitzgerald - Ella at Zardi's (Verve Records - B0027422-02)
- First set
- It All Depends On You ( Buddy DeSylva , Lew Brown , Ray Henderson ) 2:28
- Tenderly (Jack Lawrence, Walter Gross) 3:14
- Why Don't You Do Right? (Joe McCoy) 3:28
- Cry Me a River (Arthur Hamilton) 4:07
- In a Mellow Tone ( Duke Ellington , Milt Gabler ) 2:50
- Joe Williams's Blues (Ella Fitzgerald) 2:41
- A Fine Romance ( Dorothy Fields , Jerome David Kern ) 2:29
- How High the Moon (Morgan Lewis, Nancy Hamilton) 3:32
- Gone with the Wind ( Allie Wrubel , Herb Magidson ) 4:38
- Bernie's Tune (Bernie Miller) 4:05
- Second set
- 'S Wonderful ( George Gershwin - Ira Gershwin ) 2:06
- Glad to Be Unhappy ( Richard Rodgers - Lorenz Hart ) 2:53
- Lullaby of Birdland (George Weiss, George Shearing ) 2:28
- The Tender Trap ( Sammy Cahn - Jimmy Van Heusen ) 3:07
- And the Angels Sing ( Johnny Mercer , Ziggy Elman ) 3:36
- I Can't Give You Anything but Love (Jimmy McHugh-Dorothy Fields) 4:19
- Little Boy (aka Little Girl) (Francis Henry, Madeline Hyde) 1:48
- A-Tisket, A-Tasket (Ella Fitzgerald, Van Alexander ) 2:27
- My Heart Belongs to Daddy ( Cole Porter ) 3:11
- Airmail Special ( Benny Goodman , Charlie Christian , Jimmy Mundy ) 3:14
- I've Got a Crush on You ( George Gershwin - Ira Gershwin ) 3:34
reception
According to Matt Collar, who reviewed the album at Allmusic , the singer's move to Verve was a success, “and historically the Verve years were Fitzgerald's most fertile period as she went from being a popular singer to a creatively influential and commercially successful jazz icon developed. While all of her talent is shown here, the charm of the album is how intimate, reserved and seemingly off the shelf it all sounds ”.
Nate Chinen wrote in WBGO that the recording captured Fitzgerald in relaxed, great form at a crucial moment in her career. “The album features two consecutive sets, each of which is a vivid example of Fitzgerald's live spark as an improviser, her airtight control of rhythm and pitch, and her joking attachment to an audience. She shared a club engagement with bebop clarinetist Buddy DeFranco , and the atmosphere in the room was both attentive and exuberant. What is evident throughout the album, besides Fitzgerald's sheer mastery, is her presence in the moment. She reacts to the crowd and feeds on her energy. "Nate Chinen quoted the statement of Tad Hershorn, a longtime archivist at the Institute for Jazz Studies at Rutgers University in Newark:" Your relationship with the audience and the audience with you just creates the perfect one Situation in which you have fire, dry tinder and a breeze. " Ella at Zardi’s is a shining example, Chinen sums up. "It has the silver, elusive magic of something that can never be repeated, even though we are lucky enough to have it documented."
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c After Six Decades in the Vault, 'Ella at Zardi's' Brings New Shine to Ella Fitzgerald's Centennial. WBGO, November 7, 2017, accessed on March 7, 2020 .
- ↑ Ella Fitzgerald - Ella at Zardi's
- ^ Review of the album at Allmusic (English). Retrieved March 11, 2020.