Decca GRD-636
The Original Decca Recordings
The Classic Ella Sings Gershwin album and 12
more great standards with Ellis Larkins at the piano.
__________________________________________________
The Legendary Masters of Jazz on Decca: This compact
disc is part of an ongoing series of reissues utilizing
today’s most advanced audio technology to preserve and
restore a significant segment of America’s musical
heritage: the classic jazz performances originally
recorded for the pioneering Decca record company and
affiliated labels.
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1. Someone to Watch Over Me
3:13
George and Ira Gershwin (WB Music Corp./ASCAP)
2. My One and Only
3:13
George and Ira Gershwin (WB Music Corp./ASCAP)
3. But Not For Me 3:12
George and Ira Gershwin (WB Music Corp./ASCAP)
4. Looking For a Boy
3:06
George and Ira Gershwin (WB Music Corp./ASCAP)
5. I’ve Got a Crush on You
3:13
George and Ira Gershwin (WB Music Corp./ASCAP)
6. How Long Has This Been Going On
3:13
George and Ira Gershwin (WB Music Corp./ASCAP)
7. Maybe
3:14
George and Ira Gershwin (WB
Music Corp./ASCAP)
8. Soon
2:44
George and Ira Gershwin (WB Music Corp./ASCAP)
9. I’m Glad There Is You
3:06
Paul Madeira – Jimmy Dorsey (Morley Music
Co./ASCAP)
10. What Is There To Say?
3:19
E.Y. Harburg – Vernon Duke
11. People Will Say We’re In Love
3:08
Oscar Hammerstein II – Richard Rodgers
12. Please Be Kind
3:03
Sammy Cahn – Saul Chaplin (Warner Bros. Inc./ASCAP)
13. Until The Real Thing Comes Along
3:03
Sammy Cahn – Saul Chaplin – L.E. Freeman – Mann Holiner –
Alberta Nichols (Chappell & Co., Cahn Music Co./ASCAP)
14. Makin’ Whoopee 3:03
Gus Kahn – Walter Donaldson (Gilbert Keyes Music Co.,
Donald Publishing Co./ASCAP)
15. Imagination
2:34
Johnny Burke – Jimmy Van Heusen (Bourne Company, Dorsey
Brothers Music/ASCAP)
16. Star Dust
3:58
Mitchell Parish – Hoagy Carmichael (Mills Music,
Inc./ASCAP)
17. My Heart Belongs to Daddy
2:36
Cole Porter (Chappell & Co./ASCAP)
18. You Leave Me Breathless
3:02
Ralph Freed – Frederick Hollander (Famous Music
Corp./ASCAP)
19. Baby, What Else Can I Do?
3:46
Walter Hirsch – Gerald Marks
20. Nice Work If You Can Get It
2:37
George and Ira Gershwin (WB Music Corp./ASCAP)
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Originally Produced by Milt Gabler
Reissue Produced by Orrin Keepnews.
Executive
Producers: Dave Grusin and Larry Rosen
__________________________________________________
Ella
Fitzgerald’s love affair with the American popular standard
may have blossomed with the Song Books, but its roots are in
this collection. Drawn from her Decca LPs Ella Sings
Gershwin (1950) and Songs in a Mellow Mood (1954), these
recordings place the future First Lady of Song in
appropriate company: the Gershwins and such other creative
royalty as Vernon Dukes, Yip Harburg, Rodgers and
Hammerstein, Cole Porter and Hoagy Carmichael. For this
occasion she teamed with a most sensitive and elegant
accompanist: pianist Ellis Larkins, whose feathery yet
swinging touch is as instantly recognizable as the
Fitzgerald voice. Paring the songs – and her artistry – down
to the core, Fitzgerald proved that she could sing classic
pop with as much understanding, technical finesse, and heart
as she brought to “Mr. Paganini” or “How High The Moon.” The
result was a justly fabled set of performances – the purest
Ella on record.
These sides represented a
departure for the singer, whose two decades at Decca focused
mostly on swing tunes, bebop, and novelties. She had struck
out on her own in 1941, following the break-up of the band
she had fronted for two years after the death of her mentor
and first employer, Chick Webb. But throughout her first
years as a soloist, Fitzgerald had worn the somewhat
limiting tag of musician’s singer. A few of her records made
the charts – “Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall” and “I’m
Making Believe” (both with the Ink Spots), “My Happiness,”
“Stone Cold Dead in the Market,” “For Sentimental Reasons” –
but in general, her appeal was too jazz-oriented for the
masses. It seemed unimaginable that she would ever sell
millions of records or fill a major hall. Even more remote
was her dream of developing a broader repertoire. As she
told critic Ralph J. Gleason: “What I want to do is to sing
a song on stage as if you had asked me to sing it to you
here now. Just the two of us. I want to get that personal
feeling. You can still be jazzy and sing sweet songs. I want
to give the audience a little bit of everything.”
Most
black pop artists of the day found themselves in the same
boat. The more sophisticated ones – Lena Horne, Ethel
Waters, Pearl Bailey – occasionally got to record the top
Broadway and Movie songs, but that material usually went to
the Bing Crosbys and the Dinah Shores. As for the esoteric
show tunes of the past – the numbers treasured by an elite
crowd of song lovers – these had been claimed by such
rarified white café performers as Lee Wiley, George Byron,
and Hildegarde, all of whom devoted entire albums to that
music in the late ‘30s and early ‘40s.
A few
listeners realized that Fitzgerald could do the same thing
if given the chance. As jazz columnist George Frazier wrote:
“Although there were at least a dozen singers who are more
famous and prosperous than Ella Fitzgerald, none of the
others achieves her flexibility. This may come as something
of a shock to the partisans of Dinah Shore and Margaret
Whiting, but it is nevertheless the truth, for neither of
them, not withstanding their enormous and exceedingly
renumerative popularity, possesses a fraction of the talent
that becomes audible the moment Ella Fitzgerald begins to
sing.”
Things started to change in the late ‘40s,
thanks to the advent of the LP. With eight or more songs to
a disc, record companies felt freer to experiment, instead
of constantly trying to shoot for the Hit Parade.
Fitzgerald’s very first LP granted her wish with an
anthology of eight Gershwin favorites. She had the ideal
co-star in Ellis Larkins, who since 1943 had led the house
trio at the Blue Angel, Manhattan’s most prestigious
cabaret. A master accompanist as well as players, Larkins
honed his art behind the likes of Mildred Bailey, Anita
Ellis, Sylvia Syms, and Helen Humes. He gave them a one-man
rhythm section: his left hand maintained a beat as solid as
any drummer’s; his right swung with delicacy and control.
The Fitzgerald – Larkins duets brought together two artists
who could hear around the same corners, anticipating each
other’s subtlest shifts of mood.
The biggest
revelation, however, was Fitzgerald’s interpretive skill,
which had never been tapped so fully. She approached these
songs with rare sensitivity, surprising those who knew here
only as a scat-singing daredevil. The highlights include her
exquisite But Not For Me, whose last sixteen bars rank among
the most moving Fitzgerald on record. She recasts the words
“it all began so well” as an airy, rising phrase, making
them sound wistful, not heavyhearted. But when she reaches
the last line – “and there’s not know…I guess he’s not for
me” – her voice falls like a sigh, ending the song on a
quiet note of loss. No wonder Ira Gershwin would later
remark: “I never knew how good our songs were until I heard
Ella sing them.”
But jazz is hardly neglected
here. Both she and Larkins could swing at any tempo, as they
do in My One and Only and Maybe, a pair of once-jaunty tunes
slowed to an easy pace. How Long Has This Been Going On?, a
sultry tale of lust in bloom, doesn’t daunt Fitzgerald,
whose handling of sophisticated lyrics has always been sold
short. On every track, her joy at exploring Gershwin’s music
is infectious; it’s clear how much care she took to make the
songs sparkle.
The press rewarded her with some
of the best notices of her career. Wrote Down Beat: “She’s
singing straight to you, you’ll feel, certainly a rare
quality nowadays. But Not For Me displays an extremely
delicate touch, and vies with How Long Has This Been Going
On?, as the best in the album, though Crush and the others
are also beautifully done.” Metronome echoed the praise:
“The Gershwin songs are well suited to Ella’s voice; she
lingers longingly and lovingly over some of George and Ira’s
happiest collaborations.”
Afterwards, however,
she resumed her old Decca formula, with a greater emphasis
on string and choral backed commercial ballads. Not until
four years later was she allowed another go with Larkins.
Songs In A Mellow Mood gathers a dozen classy titles,
ranging from show tunes (People Will Say We’re In Love, My
Heart Belongs To Daddy) to ‘30s pop ballads (Please Be Kind,
Until The Real Thing Comes Along, Star Dust) to a Gershwin
encore (Nice Work If You Can Get It). By now more confident
with such material, Fitzgerald stretches out a bit. She
raises People Will Say We’re In Love to a romping tempo, her
playful phrasing turning it from an anxious plea into a
tease. The same rhythmic virtuosity sparks a dreamy Please
Be Kind, not to mention an extra-slow My Heart Belongs To
Daddy that finds her dragging seductively behind the beat.
She takes her greatest melodic liberties on Makin’ Whoopee
and Star Dust, reconstructing the second choruses as
logically as if they had been written that way.
The
rest of the album is full of gemlike touches: the perfect
tag on What Is There To Say?; an excursion on the line “I’d
tear the stars down from the sky for you” ((in Until The
Real Thing Comes Along) that makes it sound as if she’s
halfway there; the childlike sense of yearning she brings to
Imagination, sung with that bell-like clarity that somehow
never steals attention from the words.
“It’s a
song recital that is one of the most rewarding experiences
in the history of jazz recording,” raved Nat Hentoff in Down
Beat that October. “The secret of Ella’s alchemy is that the
more you hear her, the more surprised you are with each
surprise. It’s like a Christmas stocking that’s never empty,
that’s always full of new wonders.”
But to
Fitzgerald’s disappointment, Mellow Mood got far less
exposure than it deserved. “The album was something I was
pleased with,” she told Hentoff in 1955. “It got such
wonderful write-ups, and it seemed like everybody was
playing it. But the disc jockeys claimed that the company
didn’t give them the record. In fact, we had to buy it and
give it to them. Now I don’t like to say anything against
anybody, but maybe it’s because the record company is mainly
interested in pictures now that they don’t give as much
attention to the records. But I sure would like to record
with someone who would give me something to record.”
By
now her yearning to sing the standards had grown. “Frank
Sinatra came into Basin Street often while he was at the
Copa,” she said, “and he asked for ‘The Man That Got Away’
every time. He asked, ‘How come, Ella, you don’t have a
number like that to record?’”
A few months later
she began the Song Book series on Verve, which included that
song as well as hundreds of others just as good. But Pure
Ella holds an important reminder that her supremacy as an
interpreter of quality pop began at Decca. Herein are 20
tracks that are as close to perfection as anything Ella
Fitzgerald has ever recorded.
– James Gavin
__________________________________________________
(Mr. Gavin writes about pop music for the New York
Times, the Village Voice, Lear’s, and other
publications. His book Intimate Nights: The Golden Age
of New York Cabaret is published by Limelight
Editions.)
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DISCOGRAPHY
All selections by ELLA FITZGERALD, accompanied by
ELLIS LARKINS, piano. All recorded in New York City.
This
material has been transferred to digital tape directly from
the original analog masters and is presented in the same
sequence as on the two original albums. That sequence is
shown on al other listings on the label and booklet of this
compact disc. The discographical listing here, however, is
not as issued, but is instead in the order in which the
songs were recorded.
On September 11, 1950
–
Looking For A Boy (master number
76833 / first issued on Decca 27369)
My One And Only
(76824 / De 27368)
How Long Has This Been Going On?
(76825 / De 27370)
I’ve Got A Crush On You
(76826 / De 27370)
On September 12, 1950
–
But Not For Me (76834 / De
27369)
Soon (76835 / De 27371)
Someone To Watch Over Me
(76836 / De 27368)
Maybe (76837 / De
27371)
On March 29, 1954
–
I’m Glad There Is You (86087)
Baby, What Else Can I Do
(86088)
What Is There To Say?
(86089)
Makin’ Whoopee
(86090)
Until The Real Thing Comes Along
(86091)
People Will Say We’re In Love
(86092)
On March 30, 1954 –
Please Be King
(86093)
Imagination
(86094)
My Heart Belongs To Daddy
(86095)
You Leave Me Breathless
(86096)
Nice Work If You Can Get It
(86097)
Star Dust (86098)
All initially issued on 12” LP DL8068:
Songs In A Mellow Mood
Originally Produced by Milt Gabler
Reissue Produced by Orrin Keepnews
Executive
Producers: Dave Grusin and Larry Rosen
Digital
transfers by Paul Elmore at MCA Music Media Studios
Remastered
by Erick Labson at MCA Music Media Studios
Annotation
by James Gavin
Project Director for GRP: Bud Katzel
Post-Production
on reissue by Michael Landy and Joseph Doughney at The
Review Room/NYC
__________________________________________________
Special
thanks to Michele Mosler of MCA Music Media Studios and to
Randy Aronson of the MCA tape vaults.
GRP
Production Coordinator: Michael Pollard
Photography:
Frank Driggs Collection, Institute of Jazz Studies
Art
Direction: Dan Serrano, Hollis King
Graphic Design:
Alba Acevedo
GRP Production Director: Sonny Mediana
Assisted
by Sharon Franklin
GRP Creative Director: Andy
Baltimore
