First Lady of Song [Box set]

Ella Fitzgerald | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 20, 1993)
• Original Release Date: April 20, 1993
• Number of Discs: 3
• Format: Box set
• Note on Boxed Sets: During shipping, discs in boxed sets occasionally become dislodged without damage. Please examine and play these discs. If you are not completely satisfied, we'll refund or replace your purchase.
• Label: Polygram Records
• ASIN: B0000046PE
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #76,965 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

These three CDs of priceless Ella are packaged in a unique CD Box that also includes sixty-four colorful pages of essays and photographs.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you only get one Ella boxed set..., August 10, 2000

By 

"loungelizard7" - See all my reviews

This review is from: First Lady of Song (Audio CD)

Ella Fitzgerald was simply the best. No two ways about it; that's the best way to describe her. And this boxed set showcases nothing but her very best recordings, pulled from the best years of her career at the Verve Jazz label. Starting in 1949 and going through the late '60s, there are three CDs and nearly twenty years of pure perfection to enjoy here.

All the ones you've always heard about are here. Her heartbreaking "Angel Eyes," "April in Paris" with Count Basie and His Orchestra, and the untouchable recording of "Summertime" with Louis Armstrong. You can't listen to that one and not think, "Wow." Satchmo and Lady Time do one of the greatest duets in jazz with "Can't We Be Friends." Her "Lady Be Good" is included, with the brassy classic "After You've Gone." The two best tracks from her concert set with Duke Ellington at the Cote d'Azur, Jobim's popping "Jazz Samba" and Duke's rowdy "It Don't Mean a Thing," are present also; listen to how saxophone-like she sounds in her scat session on "Samba," and how she wails like one of the trumpets and becomes one of the band on "Don't Mean a Thing." "Let it Snow" represents her 'Ella Wishes You a Swinging Christmas," one Christmas CD every jazz fan should own; and yes, the legendary live Berlin version of "Mack the Knife," where Ella forgets the words halfway through and goes through a mean scat before launching into her crowd-pleasing Louis Armstrong impression, as well as the unbelievable scatting on the track that followed it, "How High the Moon," which sealed that song into Ella's repetoire along with "Mack."

Good helpings of Ella's 'Great American Songbook' series are here. Her treatment of Cole Porter's "Too Darn Hot" matched with that great arrangement is jazz perfection. From her kingly Duke Ellington Songbook album, "Just a Lucky So and So" is one of Ella's best, bluesy and soulful, with letter-perfect solos by Duke and the marvelous Johnny Hodges. She has great fun on "Get Happy," and the beautiful arrangement of Arlen's "Heart and Soul" (you know, the song from 'Big'), with its heavenly waterfall of strings in the intro, gives Ella just what she needs to make this one a keeper. Irving Berlin's "Blue Skies" is Ella at her finest, swinging free and easy, as the song starts off light and builds to a screaming climax.

Along with the famous ones, this set is also notable for so many great Ella recordings that cannot be found on CD elsewhere. This includes the stomping eight-minute-plus Jazz at the Philharmonic All-Stars version of "Perdido," with Roy Eldridge, Charlie Parker, and a bandful of greats backing Ella, a gorgeous live "Lullaby of Birdland," a Latin cover of "A-Tisket, A-Tasket" from the 1950s, the breezy "Swingin' Shepherd Blues," and Ella's superb "Don't Be That Way." Other not-so-well-known treats are a smooth, poetic "Night in Tunisia" that rivals Dizzy's wild original; Ella blowing every other version of "Black Coffee" out of the water; sugar-rush scatting on "Air-Mail Special"; the blues with Wild Bill Davis on organ with "Hear Me Talkin' to Ya"; and a seductive and swinging "Hernando's Hideaway," with lyrics set to the tune of the popular tango melody. Ella's "Makin' Whoopee" is, I guarantee you, one of the funniest songs you'll ever hear. It goes on and on, drawing bigger laughs with each verse, and Ella sings it with a wink and milks it for every laugh, especially that last verse! Perhaps the best, and most sadly little-known, recording here is Ella wailing through a bold, brassy arrangement of "Can't Buy Me Love." While Ella's reading here is nowhere near the golden treatment she gave it on 'The Ed Sullivan Show' in 1964, the arrangement never fails to stun, and is still one of the best jazz arrangements I've ever heard.

There will never be another Ella. Buy this set, and see just why.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb collection of Ella in the 50s, great sound quality., April 22, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: First Lady of Song (Audio CD)

I have listened to several of the Ella collections and this is the best. The renditions of Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered and Miss Otis Regrets are worth it alone. Her voice is in top form throughout this three CD collection. There is some great small group stuff, including Detour Ahead with Jim Hall. Unlike the song book collections, most of these arrangements swing with a jazz feel, as opposed to being stifled by a studio orchestra. Ella always stays faithful to the melody, so this is a great way for musicians to learn these classic standards. END

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb, February 22, 2003

By 

Michael J. Muller "Adirondack Reader" (Queensbury, New York USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: First Lady of Song (Audio CD)

Your rating system does not have enough stars available to rate this collection. The sound of Ella's voice, the music selected to make this compilation and the engineering that has re-mastered her earliest recordings is just simply ten stars!