Ella Fitzgerald Sings The George And Ira Gershwin Song Book (Remastered) Ella Fitzgerald

• 1 Sam And Delilah 03:17
• 2 But Not For Me 03:34
• 3 My One And Only 02:38
• 4 Let's Call The Whole Thing Off 04:29
• 5 (I've Got) Beginner's Luck 03:12
• 6 Oh, Lady Be Good 04:02
• 7 Nice Work If You Can Get It 03:34
• 8 Things Are Looking Up 03:06
• 9 Just Another Rhumba 05:37
• 10 How Long Has This Been Going On? 03:49
• 11 S Wonderful 03:31
• 12 The Man I Love 03:53
• 13 That Certain Feeling 03:05
• 14 By Strauss 02:33
• 15 Someone To Watch Over Me 04:34
• 16 The Real American Folk Song 03:47
• 17 Who Cares? 03:08
• 18 Looking For A Boy 03:06
• 19 They All Laughed 03:05
• 20 My Cousin In Milwaukee 03:10
• 21 Somebody From Somewhere 03:10
• 22 A Foggy Day 03:34
• 23 Clap Yo' Hands 02:31
• 24 For You For Me For Evermore 03:26
• 25 Stiff Upper Lip 02:53
• 26 Boy Wanted 03:36
• 27 Strike Up The Band 02:38
• 28 Soon 02:23
• 29 I've Got A Crush On You 03:30
• 30 Bidin' My Time 02:43
• 31 Aren't You Kind Of Glad We Did? 03:31
• 32 Of Thee I Sing 03:11
• 33 The Half Of It Dearie Blues 03:49
• 34 I Was Doing All Right 03:29
• 35 He Loves And She Loves 02:50
• 36 Love Is Sweeping The Country 03:26
• 37 Treat Me Rough 02:59
• 38 Love Is Here To Stay 03:56
• 39 Slap That Bass 03:26
• 40 Isn't It A Pity 03:27
• 41 Shall We Dance? 03:10
• 42 Love Walked In 03:54
• 43 You've Got What Gets Me 02:20
• 44 They Can't Take That Away From Me 03:11
• 45 Embraceable You 04:53
• 46 I Can't Be Bothered Now 02:51
• 47 Boy What Love Has Done To Me 03:49
• 48 Fascinating Rhythm 03:26
• 49 Funny Face 03:25
• 50 Lorelei 03:23
• 51 Oh So Nice 03:40
• 52 Let's Kiss And Make Up 03:52
• 53 I Got Rhythm 03:11
• 54 Promenade (Walking The Dog) 02:32
• 55 March Of The Swiss Soldiers 02:03
• 56 Fidgety Feet 02:42
• 57 Prelude I 01:36
• 58 Prelude II 03:48
• 59 Prelude III 01:09
• Total Runtime 03:14:33

Info for Ella Fitzgerald Sings The George And Ira Gershwin Song Book (Remastered)

Capturing Ella at the peak of her artistic powers, this 4x album collection offers up some of the most definitive Gershwin interpretations ever recorded. Featuring superb arrangements by Nelson Riddle, songs here include "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off," "My One And Only," "Oh, Lady, Be Good," "Nice Work If You Can Get It," "'S Wonderful" and "Someone to Watch Over Me".

The success of Ella Fitzgerald sings The George and Ira Gershwin Song book if measured in chart terms is at best average, spending just 5 weeks on the best seller list, but that is looking at this monumental recording from the wrong perspective. Ella takes songs that are much loved, and much played and makes them sound fresh and alive, new even. It did, however, win a Grammy for the Best Vocal Performance, Female at the 1960 ceremony. And let’s not forget, this was a five album set, one that has subsequently become a 4x album set, with alternate takes and other rarities. Immerse yourself in some of the greatest singing by any singer, anytime, anywhere…

Ella Fitzgerald was forty-one when she recorded this album, and at the peak of her vocal powers, demonstrated in the earlier Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Song Book, and her two greatest live albums from this period, Ella in Berlin (1960) and Ella in Rome (1958). Like the other songbooks devoted to the Broadway composers, Fitzgerald gets only a single outlet for her notable scat singing, on "I Got Rhythm".

Fitzgerald's recording of "But Not for Me" won her the 1960 Grammy Award for Best Vocal Performance, Female.

„During the late '50s, Ella Fitzgerald continued her Song Book records with Sings the George and Ira Gershwin Song Book, releasing a series of albums featuring 59 songs written by George and Ira Gershwin. Those songs, plus alternate takes, were combined on a four-disc box set, Sings the George and Ira Gershwin Song Book, in 1998. These performances are easily among Fitzgerald's very best, and for any serious fan, this is the ideal place to acquire the recordings, since the sound and presentation are equally classy and impressive.“ (Leo Stanley, AMG)

Ella Fitzgerald, vocals
Nelson Riddle, arranger, conductor
Don Fagerquist, trumpet
Pete Candoli, trumpet
Joe Triscari, trumpet
Conrad Gozzo, trumpet
Cappy Lewis, trumpet
Vito Mangano, trumpet
Mannie Klein, trumpet
Dale McMickle, trumpet
Shorty Sherock, trumpet
Milt Bernhart, trombone
James Priddy, trombone
Juan Tizol, trombone
Richard Noel, trombone
Tommy Pederson, trombone
Karl DeKarske, bass trombone
George Roberts, bass trombone
Vincent DeRosa, French horns
James Decker, French horns
Ed Gilbert, tuba
Red Callender, tuba
Ted Nash, alto saxophone
Benny Carter, alto saxophone
Ronnie Lang, alto saxophone
Plas Johnson, tenor saxophone
Chuck Gentry, bass saxophone
Paul Smith, piano
Lou Levy, piano
Herb Ellis, guitar
Barney Kessel, guitar
Joe Comfort, double bass
Ralph Pena, double bass
Alvin Stoller, drums
Mel Lewis, drums
Bill Richmond, drums
Frank Flynn, percussion
Larry Bunker, percussion

Recorded in 1959 at Capitol Studios, Hollywood on January 5-8, March 18 and 26, and July 15-17
Produced by Norman Granz

Digitally remastered

Ella Fitzgerald (1917-1996)
was, along with Sarah Vaughan and Billie Holiday, one of the most important vocalists to emerge from the big-band era. Her style is marked by a sunny outlook, a girlish innocence, and a virtuoso command of her voice.

Fitzgerald was born out of wedlock in Newport News, Virginia, to a laundress mother and a father who disappeared when she was three years old. Along with her mother and her mother’s new boyfriend who functioned as a stepfather, she soon moved to Yonkers, New York, where she began her schooling. Around the third grade she started dancing, a pursuit that became almost an obsession. In 1932, when she was fifteen, her mother died suddenly of a heart attack. Her stepfather treated her badly, but an aunt took the teenager to live with her in Harlem. This arrangement did not last long; Fitzgerald ran away in 1934 to live on the streets. Late that year she won a talent contest at the Apollo Theater; she had entered as a dancer, but nervousness caused her to sing instead. Several months later she joined drummer Chick Webb’s big band, where she mostly sang novelties like 'Vote for Mr. Rhythm'. In 1938 she recorded 'A-Tisket, A-Tasket', her own adaptation of a turn-of-the-century nursery rhyme, which took the country by storm and eventually sold a million copies. When Webb died in 1939 the band’s management installed Fitzgerald as leader.

In 1942 the band broke up and Fitzgerald became a single act, touring with various other popular names of the day. She also became interested in scat singing and the newly emerging style known as bebop, and in 1945 she recorded a landmark version of 'Flying Home.' Several tours with the Dizzy Gillespie band also contributed to her assimilation of the bebop style.

In the late 1940s Fitzgerald began to tour with the Jazz at the Philharmonic troupe, working with such leading musicians as saxophonist Lester Young, trumpeter Roy Eldridge, pianist Oscar Peterson, and bassist Ray Brown, to whom she was married for four years. JATP impresario Norman Granz became increasingly influential in her career, and in 1953 he became her manager.

Three years after that he became her record producer as well, recording her on his own Verve label. He wasted little time in having Fitzgerald record a double album of Cole Porter songs. Fitzgerald made many wonderful albums for Verve in the following decade, but the six songbooks occupy a special place in her discography. They were instrumental in expanding Fitzgerald’s appeal beyond that of a 'jazz singer' and creating a demand for her in venues not usually open to jazz artists.

For die-hard jazz fans, though, the well-polished jewels of the songbook series lack the raw energy of Fitzgerald’s live performances. Happily, Granz released several landmark concert albums by her as well. Especially exciting was a 1960 Berlin concert, which featured an electrifying performance of an impromptu take on 'Mack the Knife,' which became a Top 30 single. Fitzgerald usually performed with a trio or quartet, but there were also appearances with larger groups, such as the Duke Ellington and Count Basie orchestras. By the 1960s Fitzgerald had become wealthy enough to retire, but the love of performing drove her on — she appeared regularly until just a couple of years before her death in 1996. Sidemen came and went, but except when health problems intervened she performed as much as humanly possible, sometimes singing concerts in two different cities in one day. Source: Verve Music (Phil Bailey). Excerpted from Ken Burns’ Jazz: The Definitive Ella Fitzgerald

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