Ella Fitzgerald
Sweet and Hot
Decca

Ella Fitzgerald
Lullabies of Birdland
Decca

Ella Fitzgerald
The Very Best of the Cole Porter Song Book
Verve

Ella Fitzgerald
The Very Best of the Rodgers and Hart Songbook
Verve

Ella Fitzgerald
Live At Mr. Kelly’s
Verve

The latest cache of uncovered and reissued Ella shows a wide perspective of The First Lady of Song. Each of these discs is an important addition to your collection, depending on the depth of your appreciation of this lovely singer.

Unfairly or unjustly, Ella’s Decca years tend to be dismissed. She put out some of her most jazzy studio releases, and definitely some of her loosest. Not quite packaged as the Queen of the Songbooks yet, she was willing, as was Sinatra with Columbia at about the same time, to put her stamp on almost any material thrown her way. “Sweet and Hot”, which is a collection of her work with various orchestras from 52-55, lands her with the likes of signature pieces like “That Old Black Magic” and “Old Devil Moon”. The first half of the discs, in a band lad by Andre Previn, is dominated by lovely ballads such as “You’ll Never Know”; the swinging second half, lead by Benny Carter’s band, includes the classic “Mr. Paganini.” Bona fide jazz vocalist at it’s best.

“Lullabies of Birdland” features Ella at some of her rawest, in the best sense of the word. Never again would she get as down and greasy as she does with organist Bill Doggett on the wild “Smooth Sailing”. Likewise, “Ella Hums The Blues” features her in a quartet that is as freewheeling as it gets. It’s also arguable if any of her later studio work ever swung again as she did on “Air Mail Special” and “Flaying Home”. She may not have been focused in terms of career direction at this point, but she sure was home at 52nd St.

Her switching labels (to Verve) and career directors (Norman Granz) lead her to change her popularity dramatically by turning out a series of classic Songbooks. All of the songbooks are essential, but they can be daunting in terms of financial commitment. The Cole Porter Songbook was one of her first releases in this format, and it set the tone for about 18 later releases. You just aren’t going to hear better versions of “I Get A Kick Out Of You” or “It’s All Right With Me.” The only caveat her is the length of time on the disc, barely 40 minutes, and leaving off “Too Darned Hot”!

Many consider the Rodgers and Hart Songbook Ella’s best set. Hard to argue, with her treatments of tunes like “The Lady Is A Tramp” and “This Can’t Be Love” being the ones to which all others are compared to. She’s also at her best at whimsical pieces like “Manhatten”, which is the studio style that replaced fervent and aggressive swing. The purity of her voice on ballads like “It Never Entered My Mind” is simply frightening in its beauty.

While she was making a score of well-orchestrated and formatted studio recordings, Ellas was able to cut loose and swing as freely as ever. This previously unreleased 1958 pair of concerts at the famous Chicago nightclub is fun and frenetic. The supporting trio of Lou Levy (p), Max Bennett (b) and Gus Johnson (d) is hand in glove in its ability to cruise through classics like “Nice Work If You Can Get It” and “Come Rain Or Come Shine.” Ella is in stellar form, mixing the swagger of “Witchcraft” with the loneliness of “Wee Small Hours”. After listening to dozens of recent diva wannabees, it is startling to see how they all, and I mean ALL, pale in comparison to the real thing, as shown in this uncovered diamond.