ELLA @ The National Museum of

Ella's exhibit will be at The National Museum of
American History in Washington, D.C. Displays on Ella Fitzgerald, Duke
Ellington, and women in jazz are on view on the 3rd floor, west end.
http://americanhistory.si.edu/

(quoting from Matthew's post)

Terrific Blog, Michele!

Great blog! Thanks for the invitation--I am happy to be invited! I already have been here and left a comment on some post here yesterday, I believe! Take care, your buddy Matt

A portrait of Ella

Hi,
I guess you'll recognize the photo I used for this portrait! It's one I always liked, and so I decided to use it...I hope you like it!

A bit of fun!

ELLA FITZGERALD IN MONTREUX 1969

ELLA FITZGERALD IN MONTREUX 1969
Tracklisting:
1) Give Me The Simple Life
2) This Girl’s In Love With You
3) I Won’t Dance
4) A Place For Lovers
5) That Old Black Magic
6) Useless Landscape
7) I Love You Madly
8) Trouble Is A Man
9) A Man And A Woman
10) Sunshine Of Your Love
11) Well Alright, Okay, You Win
12) Hey Jude
13) Scat Medley
14) A House Is Not A Home

HELLO DOLLY COMING IN JULY

Ella's Hello Dolly album is coming in july, though it doesn't appear on Verve's schedule for that month!

Miky

Jimmy Smith died

This morning I was notified that organ player/legend Jimmy Smith has died, at the age of 78 if I'm right.
Only 2 or 3 years ago he recorded 'Dot com blues' for Verve, of which I know some tunes.
Of course he's not a jazz vocalist, but anyway, he was a jazz great.

ELLA FITZGERALD SINGS THE JEROME KERN SONGBOOK

Finally reissued on Verve Master Edition Series the last Songbook missing. A MASTERPIECE!!!!!!!!

VERVE REISSUE SCHEDULE

The Verve Music Group Release Schedule
Updated 1/26/2005

2/1/05
Chiara Civello - Last Quarter Moon - New Release - Verve Records
Brazilian Girls - Brazilian Girls - New Release - Verve Forecast

2/8/05
Various Artists - Get Happy: The Arlene Centennial Celebration - Reissue - Verve Records

2/15/05
Ella Fitzgerald - Sings the Jerome Kern Songbook (VME) - Reissue - Verve Records
Wes Montgomery - Smokin at the Half Note (VME) - Reissue - Verve Records

3/1/05
Kurt Rosenwinkel - Deep Song - New Release - Verve Records

3/15/05
Art Ensemble of Chicago - Certain Blacks - Reissue - Verve Int'l
Art Ensemble of Chicago - Phase One - Reissue - Verve Int'l
Art Ensemble of Chicago - With Fontella Bass - Reissue - Verve Int'l
Paul Bley - Improvisie - Reissue - Verve Int'l
Anthony Braxton - Donna Lee - Reissue - Verve Int'l
Anthony Braxton - Saxaphone Improvisation - Reissue - Verve Int'l
Dave Burell - After Love - Reissue - Verve Int'l
Emergency - Homepage to Peace - Reissue - Verve Int'l
Steve Lacy - The Gap - Reissue - Verve Int'l
Steve Lacy and Mal Waldron - Mal Waldron With The Steve Lacy Quintet - Reissue - Verve Int'l
Roswell Rudd - Roswell Rudd - Reissue - Verve Int'l
Archie Shepp - Black Gypsy - Reissue - Verve Int'l
Alan Shorter - Tes Esat - Reissue - Verve Int'l
Clifford Thornton - The Painter and The Lash - Reissue - Verve Int'l
Frank Wright - Uhuru Na Umga - Reissue - Verve Int'l

3/22/05
Dizzy Gillespie - Dizzy: The Music of John Birks Gillespie - Reissue - Verve Records
Jamie Cullum - Coast to Coast - New Release - Verve Records

4/5/05
Various Artists - Jazz in Paris-Champs Elysess - Box Set - Verve Int'l
Various Artists - Jazz in Paris-Montmartre - Box Set - Verve Int'l
Various Artists - Jazz in Paris-Rive Gauche, Rive Droite - Box Set - Verve Int'l
Various Artists - Jazz in Paris-Saint Germain Des-Pres - Box Set - Verve Int'l
Various Artists - Verve Remixed 3 - New Release - Verve Records
Various Artists - Verve Unmixed 3 - Catalog/Reissue- Verve Records

4/12/05
Jackie Greene - TBD - New Release - Verve Records
Al Cohn - Al Cohn Quintet Featuring Bob Brookmeyer - Reissue - GRP Records
Harry 'Sweets' Edison - 'Sweets' (LPR) - Reissue - Verve Records
Dizzy Gillespie - Sittin' In (LPR) - Reissue - Verve Records
Joe Newman - Joe Newman Quintet At Count Basie's (LPR) - Reissue - Verve Records
Various Artists - Vote Verve - Reissue - Verve Records

4/26/05
Xavier Cugat - Cugi's Cocktails (LPR) - Reissue - Verve Records
Gene Krupa - Plays Gerrry Mulligan Arrangements (LPR) - Reissue - Verve Records
Buddy Rich - Blues Caravan (LPR) - Reissue - Verve Records
Max Roach - Jazz in 3/4 Time (LPR) - Reissue - Verve Records
Papillon - Dance of the Infidel - New Release - Verve Records

5/10/05
George Howard - The Very Best of George Howard - Reissue - GRP Records
John Klemmer - The Very Best of John Klemmer - Reissue - GRP Records
Various Artists - Con Mucho Ritmo! The Very Best of Tropi Jazz - Reissue - Tropi Jazz

5/17/05
Count Basie - The Complete Clef, Mercury, and Verve Studio Recordings (1952-1957) - Box Set - Verve Records

5/24/05
Ella Fitzgerald - Jukebox Ella: The Complete Verve Single Vol - Reissue - Verve Records
Various Artists - Burlesque Compliation - Reissue - Verve Records
Shirley Horn - Live at Le Jazz au Bar - New Release - Verve Records

6/2/05
Acoustic Alchemy - Best Kept Secret (DVD) - Reissue - Verve Records
Sammy Davis Jr. and Carmen McRae - Boy Meets Girl: The Complete Sammy Davis Jr. and Carmeb McRae on Decca - Reissue - Verve Records

6/7/05
Michael Brecker - The Very Best Of Michael Brecker - Reissue - Verve Records
Bill Evans - Montreux Jazz Festival (SACD) - Reissue - Verve Records
Ella Fitzgerald - Mack the Knife - Ella in Berlin (SACD) - Reissue - Verve Records
Antonio Carlos Jobim - The Composer of Desafinado Plays (SACD) - Reissue - Verve Records
Wes Montgomery - California Dreaming (SACD) - Reissue - Verve Records
Oscar Peterson - We Get Request (SACD) - Reissue - Verve Records
John Scofield - That's What I Say - New Release - Verve Records
Various Artists - Deff Jazz - New Release - Verve Records

6/14/05
Wayne Shorter - Breaking the Sound Barrier - New Release - Verve Records

6/21/05
Lizz Wright - TBD - New Release - Verve Records

6/28/05
Brian Culbertson - TBD - New Release - GRP Records

7/12/05
Albert Ayler - New Grass (LPR) - Reissue - Impulse Records
Yuseff Lateef - Psychicemotus (LPR) - Reissue - Impulse Records
Freda Payne - After the Lights Go Down (LPR) - Reissue - Impluse Records
Gabor Szabo - Spellfinder (LPR) - Reissue - Impulse Records
Various Artists - We Get a Kick Out of Jazz - New Release - Verve Records
Bernie Williams - TBD - New Releases - Verve Records

7/19/05
Paul Brown - TBD - New Release - GRP Records

7/26/05
Gato Barbieri - Chapter 4 Alive in New York (LPR) - Reissue - Impulse Records
Oliver Nelson - Live From Los Angeles - Reissue - Impulse Records
Pharoah Sanders - Elevation - Reissue - Impulse Records
Michael White - The Land of Spirit and Light (LPR) - Reissue - Impulse Records

8/2/05
Herbie Hancock - TBD - New Release - Verve Records

8/9/05
Larry Carlton - The Very Best of Larry Carlton - Reissue - GRP Records
Lee Ritenour - World of Brazil - Reissue - Verve Records
Will Downing - TBD - New Release - GRP Records

8/30/05
Charlie Haden - Liberation Music Orchestra TBD - New Release - Verve Int'l

9/13/05
Billie Holiday - The Complete Verve Studio Master Takes - Box Set - Verve Records

9/15/05
Thievery Corporation - Sounds From The Vevre Hi-Fi 2 - New Release - Verve Records
Thievery Corporation - Sounds From The Verve Hi-Fi 2 (Vinyl) - New Release - Verve Records

9/20/05
John Coltrane - Live at the Half Note - Reissue - Impluse Records
Roy Hargrove - TBD - New Release - Verve Records
Susan Tedeschi - TBD - New Release - Verve Forecast

9/27/05
Jimmy Witherspoon/Brother Jack McDuff - The Blues Is Now (LPR) - Reissue - Verve Records

TBS
Various Artists - Billy Crystal Presents The Milt Gabler Story - Reissue - Verve Records
Teddy Thompson - TBD - NewRelease - Verve Forecast
1/4/2005

Verve release

On http://www.vervemusicgroup.com/buzz.aspx?bid=37, a complete release schedule is published, including Jukebox Ella vol. 2 and a Verve Master Edition of ELla's Jerome Kern Songbook.

Diana Krall in Amsterdam's Concertgebouw - review from NRC Handelsblad, November 30, 2004

Pianist Diana Krall knows how to handle pop music

Concert: Diana Krall (piano, vocals), with Anthony Wilson (guitar), Robert Hurst (bass), and Peter Erskine (drums).

Heard: October 29, 2004 at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam.

By Bart Jippes

There is a yawning gap in pop music left by artists like Dusty Springfield, Joni Mitchell, and Carole King. And this gap is filled, horrifying to jazz purists, by old stars like Tony Bennett, by popjazz-musicians like Norah Jones and Jamie Cullum and by the thirty-something Diana Krall. Her repertoire used to consist of standards, but since she married rock chameleon Elvis Costello last year, she has adopted material from the ‘Great American Rockbook’. Last night this resulted in a wonderful cover of Tom Wait’s Temptation, including a beautiful, subtle guitar solo from Anthony Wilson. Krall’s interpretation of this temptation was an unreachable phenomenon, like that of a girl in an attic room dreaming that it will happen to her once.

“I was born in British Columbia, where it rains all the time,” told Diana Krall her audience in the pause between two songs last night, “and I love it”. Krall might have moved from that Canadian province, British Columbia never left Krall. Her voice has, in spite of the light hoarseness, something standoffish, which inclines to smoothness on the records, but there was no sign of that whatsoever in the Concertgebouw. This was even more striking, because the hall amplifier was awful. Opposed to the usual situation at pop concerts, where the artist doesn’t have the problems of monitor speakers and can hear himself clearly due to wireless invisible boxes, here the situation was as follows: each musician had a monitor in front of him, and the audience was expected to hear the music through a couple of midway placed hanging boxes. Therefore, the public heard the original sounds from the band, together with the echoing sounds from the monitors, with on top of that the music from the hanging boxes. Even worse, the s-sounds were so awfully hissing that the audience doubled up because the ears felt like they were being sandblasted. And in the more loud passages, the grand piano sounded like the felt was replaced by metal.

Happily, all these cons were compensated by the pros, for example by the (with the exception of the first few bars) wonderfully tight playing band. Erskine and Wilson starred on Devil May Care, and Krall played a marvellous solo on On The Sunny Side Of The Street.

As a jazz singer, Krall can’t mach with her great predecessors, but her pop songs made an impression last night. Much better than on her latest record she played Joni Mitchell’s Black Crow, with nice guitar playing by Wilson, and most of all on the song which Costello once wrote for Chet Baker, Almost Blue.

It was beautiful as well to see how Krall’s past as a bar pianist came through when she hit a last note at the right end of the baby-Steinway and grasped with her hand a bottle of water on the ground in the same movement.

<<>>

DIANA KRALL - Live At The Montreal Jazz Festival

Live At The Montreal Jazz Festival [DVD]
Catalog #B000378009
DVD-Video
release date 11/23/2004
Verve Records

TRACKS

1. Sometimes I Just Freak Out
2. All Or Nothing At All
3. Stop This World
4. The Girl In The Other Room
5. Abandoned Masquerade
6. I'm Coming Through
7. Temptation
8. East Of The Sun (And West Of The Moon)
9. Devil May Care
10. Black Crow
11. Narrow Daylight
12. Love Me Like A Man
13. Departure Bay
14. Narrow Daylight

Lou Levy Takes You Behind the Scenes with Ella and Peggy

Melody Maker, June 16, 1962

[Pianist] Lou Levy Takes You Behind the Scenes with Ella and Peggy


by Lou Levy


I don’t know of two more generous and understanding singers to work for than Ella Fitzgerald and Peggy Lee. Peggy presents more of a thoroughly planned act, usually doing the same show during an entire engagement. Ella’s concert or nightclub performance is carefully planned, but she makes certain changes while on stage.


Working with Ella is more of a jazz job. There’s more room for variations. I guess the best way to describe it would be to say it’s like working with a horn player. Peggy creates a very strong feeling, but it’s not strictly because of the jazz phrasing she brings to her singing, but because of the way she projects the lyrics and creates a mood as she sings. Ella sings with less dramatic qualities overall. Despite the fact that Peggy works strictly non-jazz nightclubs, she still maintains a jazz feeling in her singing.


The customers come to see Peggy thinking of her as a pop singer, but then discover how she is in reality a jazz artist as well. On the other hand, Ella is known as a jazz singer, but she has become part of the pop music world to the public through her songbook albums. Harmonically they’re both perfect, with never any time or pitch problems. They both have the talent of a complete musician, being able to handle all types of songs at any given tempo.


They both read music well because of their common Big Band background. This kind of training probably helped them in the ease with which they can sight-read a song at first glance. When rehearsing with Peggy, she pre-sets everything including all the piano parts. Ella, however, lets the accompanist set the introduction, the ending and certain interludes. And while Ella uses more material on stage, she takes less time to rehearse with, due to the fact that Peggy does basically one set show while working in a club.


Of course, Ella has always been a true jazz singer, since her beginnings with Chick Webb. Peggy started in the jazz field with Benny Goodman, but she’s worked somewhat away from it. Ella enjoys working with jazz musicians in their groove – trading fours, improvising, joining in on ensembles with the group, and singing harmony parts just as the horns do. The experience of working with great jazz musicians like Oscar Peterson, Lester Young, Ray Brown, Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker has really helped define her singing style.


Her years in jazz have made her ear so attuned to a complete jazz concept that hers is even better than that of the normal jazz musicians. One day at her house, while listening to the tape of "Take the A Train" from the album Ella in Hollywood, Ella began singing a second harmony part. She said that someday she wanted to record four different harmony parts in a song and have them dubbed one on top of the other.


Peggy hasn’t realy exploited the jazz field lately. She enjoys using the arrangings of jazz composers – people like Bill Holman, one of my own favorite arrangers, as well as charts by Marty Paich, Al Cohn and Quincy Jones. I really think she would enjoy working more in a jazz groove, like doing a jazz concert tour of major colleges and cities. We did a week of such concerts in San Francisco a couple of years ago which was a big success.


This is the only field of singing in which she hasn’t sustained a real impact. She certainly has all the vocal equipment to do so. In Peggy’s singing you can hear the Billie Holiday influence, even when not doing a tribute medley. Ella outwardly is not influenced by any particular jazz singer, but I know she greatly admired Billie’s singing.


While working nightclub engagements with them, I noticed that Ella occasionally might hit the audience harder earlier with a fast-tempoed tune. On the other hand, Peggy’s show gathers momentum, and received the same tremendous impact. It’s been a sincere pleasure to work with both of them from an artistic as well as personal standpoint.

The Complete Roulette Dinah Washington Recordings

GO TO THE DISCOGRAPHY - CLICK HERE

DINAH WASHINGTON. THE LAST CHAPTER OF A GREAT PERFORMER”S STORY INCLUDES A NEWLY-DISCOVERED SURPRISE.

If your goal is to broaden your collection of the truly distinctive voices in music, you have got to own Dinah Washington. And if you want to understand what the composers meant -- REALLY meant – when they wrote songs you think you know, you have got to own this collection – The Complete Roulette Dinah Washington Sessions.

This music, from the final stage of Dinah Washington’s short and turbulent life, is a perfect snapshot of all she was in performance – the brash belter, claiming and proclaiming her measure of fun and gaiety; the spurned lover, earnestly searching for one more chance, or determinedly wiping the slate clean of all romance; the wry commentator, knowingly chronicling the world’s troubles as only she could observe them; and the optimistic dreamer, surrendering to the beauties of life.

Eight tracks appear for the first time ever, including one astonishing medley of songs, informally presented with just piano and flute accompaniment, that lasts more than 20 minutes – probably the closest thing on record to what it was like to hear her perform after hours.

The Complete Norman Granz Jam Sessions

The Complete Norman Granz Jam Sessions
Catalog #B000325202
5-CD set
reissue release date 11/9/2004
original releasing label Clef Records



TRACK LIST

Disc 1
1. Jam Blues
2. Medley
3. What Is This Thing Called Love?
4. Funky Blues
Disc 2
1. Apple Jam
2. Medley
3. Oh Lady Be Good
4. Blues For The Count
Disc 3
1. Jamming For Clef
2. Rose Room
3. Stompin' At The Savoy - Part 1
4. Stompin' At The Savoy - Part 2
Disc 4
1. Blue Lou
2. Just You, Just Me
3. Jam Blues
4. Medley (Ballad)
Disc 5
1. Funky Blues
2. Lullaby In Rhythm

PERSONNEL

Count Basie Piano, Organ
Ray Brown Bass
Buddy DeFranco Clarinet
Benny Carter Trumpet, Arranger, Alto Saxophone, Composer
Harry "Sweets" Edison Trumpet
Roy Eldridge Trumpet
Herb Ellis Guitar
Stan Getz Tenor Saxophone
Dizzy Gillespie Trumpet
Wardell Gray Tenor Saxophone
Freddie Green Guitar
Lionel Hampton Piano, Drums, Vibraphone
Bill Harris Trombone
J.C. Heard Drums
Johnny Hodges Soprano Saxophone, Alto Saxophone
Illinois Jacquet Alto Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone
Barney Kessel Guitar
Oscar Peterson Piano
Charlie Parker Alto Saxophone
Flip Phillips Tenor Saxophone
Buddy Rich Drums, Vocal
Arnold Ross Piano
Charlie Shavers Trumpet, Arranger
John Simmons Bass
Willie Smith Alto Saxophone
Ben Webster Tenor Saxophone

NEW PEGGY LEE'S CD

Black Coffee
Catalog #B000309302
Album Length Compact Disc
reissue release date 10/26/2004
original releasing label Decca Records

1. Black Coffee
2. I've Got You Under My Skin
3. Easy Living
4. My Heart Belongs To Daddy
5. It Ain't Necessarily So
6. Gee Baby (Ain't I Good To You)
7. A Woman Alone With The Blues
8. I Didn't Know What Time It Was
9. When The World Was Young
10. Love Me Or Leave Me
11. You're My Thrill
12. There's A Small Hotel


Peggy Lee Vocal
Pete Candoli (1-4, 7-10) Trumpet
Jimmy Rowles (1-4, 7-10) Piano
Max Wayne (1-4, 7-10) Bass
Ed Shaughnessey (1-4, 7-10) Drums
Stella Castellucci (5-6, 11, 12) Harp
Lou Levy (5-6, 11, 12) Piano
Bill Pitman (5-6, 11, 12) Guitar
Buddy Clark (5-6, 11, 12) Bass
Larry Bunker (5-6, 11, 12) Percussion, Drums, Vibraphone

ANITA O'DAY's NEW CD

Anita O'Day And Billy May Swing Rodgers And Hart
Catalog #B000235302
Album Length Compact Disc
reissue release date 10/26/2004
original releasing label Verve Records

1. Johnny One Note
2. Little Girl Blue
3. Falling In Love With Love
4. Bewitched, Bothered And Bewildered
5. I Could Write A Book
6. Have You Met Miss Jones
7. Lover
8. It Never Entered My Mind
9. Ten Cents A Dance
10. I've Got Five Dollars
11. To Keep My Love Alive
12. Spring Is Here


Anita O'Day Vocal
Billy May Arranger, Conductor
Pete Candoli Trumpet
Conrad Gozzo Trumpet
Uan Rasey Trumpet
Ed Kusby Trombone
Murray McEachern Trumpet
Tommy Pederson Trombone
Bill Schaefer Trombone
Tommy Shepard Trombone
Ted Nash Alto Saxophone
Wilbur Schwartz Alto Saxophone
Fred Fallensby Tenor Saxophone
Justin Gordon Tenor Saxophone
Chuck Gentry Baritone Saxophone
Unknown Strings
Joe Castro Piano
Al Hendrickson Guitar
Ralph Pena Bass
Irv Cotter Drums
Stan Levey Drums
Russell Garcia Producer

New albums available for download at Verve

The Verve Music Group has been digitally releasing Out Of Print titles for download! Here is your chance to re-acquaint yourself with some of the rare treasures of jazz!
CLICK HERE TO KNOW MORE

Diana Krall's concerts tour

10/23/2004 Diana Krall Casino Espinho
Oporto, Portugal

10/25/2004 Diana Krall ICC
Berlin, Germany

10/27/2004 Diana Krall Kongresshaus [(+41) 1 206 36 36]
Zurich, Switzerland

10/28/2004 Diana Krall Teatro Smeraldo
Milan, ITALY

10/30/2004 Diana Krall Zenith [03.83.93.27.00]
Nancy, France

10/31/2004 Diana Krall Zenith
Lille, France

11/2/2004 Diana Krall M.E.N.
Manchester, UK

11/4/2004 Diana Krall Royal Albert Hall
London, United Kingdom

11/5/2004 Diana Krall Royal Albert Hall
London, United Kingdom

11/7/2004 Diana Krall Royal Albert Hall
London, United Kingdom

11/9/2004 Diana Krall NIA Academy
Birmingham, UK

11/11/2004 Diana Krall Musikteatret
Vejile, Denmark

11/12/2004 Diana Krall Falconer
Copenhagen, Denmark

11/14/2004 Diana Krall Concert House
Oslo, Norway

11/18/2004 Diana Krall Concert House
Stavanger, Norway

11/19/2004 Diana Krall Lisaberg
Gothenburg, Sweden

11/20/2004 Diana Krall Hovet
Stockholm, Sweden

11/23/2004 Diana Krall Konzerthaus
Vienna, Austria

11/24/2004 Diana Krall Konzerthaus
Vienna, Austria

11/25/2004 Diana Krall Salzburg Arena
Salzburg, Austria

11/27/2004 Diana Krall Casino
Divonne-les-Bains, FRANCE

11/29/2004 Diana Krall Concertgebouw
Amsterdam, Holland

11/30/2004 Diana Krall Forest National
Brussels, Belgium

12/2/2004 Diana Krall Philharmonie
Munich, GERMANY

12/3/2004 Diana Krall Jahrhunderthalle
Frankfurt, Germany

12/4/2004 Diana Krall Grugahalle
Essen, GERMANY

12/5/2004 Diana Krall CCH
Hamburg, GERMANY

12/7/2004 Diana Krall Congress Hall
Warsaw, Poland

12/8/2004 Diana Krall Lucerna
Prague, Czech Republic

12/9/2004 Diana Krall Congress Center
Budapest, Hungary

12/13/2004 Diana Krall Auditorio
Tenerife, Canary Islands

12/14/2004 Diana Krall Auditorio Alfredo Kraus
Gran Canaria, Spain

Hello, Love on CD

Here we have the USA and European reissue of Fitzgerald’s 1960 album release Hello, Love. This is the first time that this album is brought out on CD, except for a 1990s Japanese issue, which was the only chance for us to get hold of the music. A few tracks, however, were issued as bonus tracks on the CD issue of Like Someone In Love.

The track list is familiar to all of us; Fitzgerald sings You Go To My Head, Willow Weep For Me, I’m Through With Love, Spring Will Be A Little Late This Year, Everything Happens To Me, Lost In A Fog, I’ve Grown Accustomed To His Face, I’ll Never Be The Same, So Rare, Tenderly, Stairway To The Stars, and Moonlight In Vermont.

<>These songs were recorded during multiple sessions. On July 24, 1957 and on October 28, 1957 Ella recorded songs with Frank DeVol, some issued on Like Someone In Love, and the album was completed on March 25, 1959.

During this 1959 recording set, Ella sang I’m Through With Love. Together with the July 1957 recorded Stairway To The Stars this song was issued on a 45rpm single. This record was advertised with the following advertisement of April 20, 1959 (from The Billboard). It says “Ella Fitzgerald – the hottest vocalist of them all sings the two hottest tunes… from the hottest motion picture ‘Some Like It Hot’.”

<>

This is not totally coincidental. Billy Wilder was making his film Some Like It Hot in 1958 and 1959, starring Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon as two musicians who have to escape for the mafia and disguise themselves as women to work in the orchestra of which Marilyn Monroe is the girl singer. And indeed, Monroe sings I’m Through With Love, but the other song on Ella’s single, Stairway To The Stars, is only used as instrumental background music in the picture.

While Billy Wilders film was very successful, Ella released this single with ‘songs from the picture’, which don’t have anything to do with the picture after all, in fact, these two songs are just songs which were still in stock for Ella. A commercial move.

<>So far the technical details. Now it’s time for the music – it’s Ella at the height of her career, with a top-notch orchestra led by Frank DeVol, issued in a time in which this music was not old-fashioned. During the sixties, in the public opinion this music became out-dated, as we can see when we look at the more temporary recordings of ‘Misty Blue’. It is quite surprising that the newer ‘Misty Blue’ album is seen as old-fashioned these days, while ‘Hello, Love’ is regarded as timeless…

Still, this album remains not too well-known. In my view that is because this album only confirms what fans already knew; that Ella was the best singer of popular music and jazz. This album is not really something new after the Songbooks, or after Like Someone In Love, which also mainly contained standards, so after all it doesn’t add anything to what people knew about Ella’s abilities.

<>To get to the point: this album is, even 45 years after it’s recording, still not really out of date. Ella sings in her best voice the most beautiful arranged songs, just ballads, and moves me every time I hear her sing I’m Through With Love and makes me swing very lightly when I listen to her singing Willow Weep For Me.

It is not spectacular like Ella’s live recordings, but it is stunning all the same.