Customer Reviews

Clap Hands Here Comes Charlie!

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This is one of Ella's very best (if no THE best) albums. Heck, it's one of the best vocal jazz albums *period.* It's just Ella and a small group, but it will blow you away. I recommend it to everyone, and it makes a great first choice for those just now looking into the First Lady of Song. Every track is choice, but "Night In Tunisa," "'Round Midnight," "Jersey Bounce," and "Music Goes Round and Around" stand out. The best song is "Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most." It's the best rendition of that song by anyone anywhere. :-D

This cd is worth it alone for "I Got a Guy." She takes a potentially sappy song and makes it tender, pure, honest, and oh-so beautiful. Her version of "This Could Be the Start of Something Big" should have made songwriter Steve Allen very happy. In other hands, this song can (and does) sound really tacky, like it belongs in a lounge act--but not in Ella's hands. She swings it! They didn't call her Lady Time for nothing. "Stella by Starlight" is quite good, and Ella's version of "Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most" is quite intimate and soulful. Overall, this is very good recording of songs made during the vocal prime of the best singer (in my opinion) ever captured on record.

This is probably my favorite Ella CD. Recorded in her prime--the early 1960s--it eschews the overlush arrangements and unembellished singing of her "Songbook" period and returns to her swing roots. This time she chooses a small combo of top-notch musicians and takes an attitude that's at once more intense and more playful than before, steering a course between the score-bound style of the mid-50s and the showy scat singing that made her famous in the 40s. Here the singing is very tender and contains the most tasteful, imaginative, and beautiful ornaments & phrasings I've ever heard in jazz singing--listen, for example, to the haunting last bars of "Round Midnight" and see if the hairs of your arms don't rise. What's even more notable is the large number of bop standards and slow ballads on this album. It's all wonderful, but I would name "Night in Tunisia," "Round Midnight," "Cry Me A River," "Good Morning, Heartache," and "Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most" as my favorite tracks.

Also highly recommended are "Ella in Berlin" and "Ella in Rome," both recorded during the same period (late 1950s, early 1960s) with small combos.

One of the few albums from her Verve years to feature Ella with a jazz trio instead of a studio band, this 1961 treasure has always ranked at the top in my listing of the best recordings by the First Lady of Song. Her voice was at its peak, and she seemed to enjoy the interaction with Lou Levy on piano, Gus Johnson on drums and Herb Ellis on guitar. The selection of songs is excellent. Her version of "Stella By Starlight" is an absolute knockout!

This album stands by itself in the massive Ella Fitzgerald collection. The choice of songs, and of course her interpretation, put this one in a different category. Intimate and understated, but sharp and satisfying, I always find somethig new in it. It's probably the most sophisticated album she did. A real gem.

I bought this on vinyl in 1968 and always loved it, but it went missing and I had forgotten even the name of the album, but then a little before the Internet came along I called Public Radio Music Source one night and asked if they had an Ella CD with Cry Me A River on it, and sure enough ...

It is just a lovely album with crystal clear recording of Ella at her best with a small group. I think my favorite songs from this are Cry Me A River and Night in Tunisia, but really they are all good. This one is a keeper.

I had jazz professors at the University of Utah that steered me toward Ella's music. They said that in order to understand jazz with all of its improvisation, one should listen to how the tune "goes" first. Especially in the Songbook albums, Ella sings them with little improv or embellishment, but reads the ink pretty straight. Several of the composers featured stated that they didn't know how good their songs were until they heard Ella sing them.
Clap Hands Here Comes Charlie is backed by jazz trio/quartet, a departure from the more string-backed songbooks. Ella is a little more playful here.

If you have all of her Songbook series, and you're looking to expand your Ella collection, I'd recommend starting here.

This is most definitely a real classy album from the first lady of song. Ella is found here at what I think was her most instinctive and exciting setting; a small jazz Combo swinging for their lives. None of that big band excessiveness here at all! Ella's treatment of 'a night in tunisia' was supreme in every sence, I felt like I was lying on those exotic sand dunes, looking at the starry tunisian skyline. The best track on here for me however was her rendition of that old haunting Monk anthem 'round midnight', I simply cannot put into words... This is must buy CD for those who prefer their Ella served on a jazz platter!

This is the only Ella cd I own. I bought it on a whim. Most of her compilation cd's have all of her up tempo pop songs which I don't like. I mean, it shows off her vocal skill, her scatting skills, but I don't think it really shows how well she can interpret a song.

This cd is a compilation of, what I think, is the the best material and the best example of what Ella can do with a song. I would suggest to anyone purchasing Ella for the first time to purchase this cd. Lovely!!

"Ella Fitzgerald has no competition. The most universally admired popular singer in the world, she represents one of the fortunate cases when talent translates into popularity and productivity. . . Ever as emotionally deep as she is swinging, her voice brimming with contagious, enthusiastic energy, her pitch perfect and her time beyond reproach, I think she's modestly misdirected the proper recipient of applause: we should be shouting, "Clap Hands! Here Comes Ella!" ~ Will Friedwald ~

Ella Fitzgerald's "Clap Hands, Here Comes Charlie!" is one of her lesser known albums, but filled with some of the best songs from the Songbook series. It was recorded in Los Angeles and New York City and originally released in 1961 under Verve Records. In 1989, this recording was reissued on a CD format with the addition of three previously unreleased songs (the last three bonus tracks). Here she is supported by a small number of talented musicians who created an ambience of intimate setting for the album: Lou Levy (piano), Herb Ellis (guitar), Joe Mondragon (bass), Stan Levey (drums), Wilfred Middlebrooks (bass) and Gus Johnson (drums).

Ella's greatest talent was her exceptional ability to interpret even the most ordinary song and turn it into something beautiful with her inimitable vocal prowess which is a musical instrument by itself. And even without the embellishment of a full orchestra, the First Lady of Song aces all the seventeen songs from the initial track, "Night In Tunisia" down to the last track, "This Could Be The Start of Something Big." She's at her most creative self as she sings my top favorites from this set, "My Reverie" (adapted from the beautiful masterpiece of my favorite classical composer, Claude Debussy's "Reverie," lyrics penned by Larry Clinton), "Stella By Starlight," "Cry Me A River," "Round Midnight" and the jazziest and swingiest track, "Music Goes 'Round and Around."

If you prefer Ella in a more intimate setting rather than an orchestra backing her up, this is the perfect CD to buy. It simply promises an hour of great listening experience.

Wholeheartedly recommended.

P.S. A friend of mine told me that if she were Ella, she will definitely disapprove the artwork on the cover. And I totally agree with her, but on second thought, I told her, "Never mind the artwork. Art is very forgiving. Anyway, it's not the CD cover that matters most, it's the material."