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Rating: Ella Fitzgerald was without a doubt one of the greatest singers of all time, both white and black, and she is especially universally recognized as the absolute queen of jazz vocals.
The reasons are obvious; just listen to her voice even once to realize you are in the presence of a unique and inimitable talent. Unmatched for technique, intonation, sense of rhythm, clarity of pronunciation, enthusiasm, and interpretative skills, Ella has always been the benchmark for her "colleagues", even for the greatest and most illustrious rivals like Billie Holiday and Sarah Vaughan.
Some of the highest points of her career were reached in the second half of the '50s, a period in which she recorded for Verve a glorious series of interpretations of the songbooks of the greatest American songwriters, a series inaugurated in '56 by the splendid work dedicated to Cole Porter.
After the extraordinary and well-deserved success of that first release, just six months later Norman Granz (Verve's leading man) decided to repeat the operation with this equally wonderful "The Rodgers and Hart Song Book", successfully repeating both artistic and commercial success. In the following years, other gems followed, such as works dedicated to Duke Ellington, Irving Berlin, Harold Arlen, but especially the quintuple LP (now 3 CDs plus one of alternative mono versions) dedicated to George & Ira Gershwin, perhaps the greatest songbook of all time, with arrangements by Nelson Riddle, the best arranger around.
If Ella had already proven to be the best scat singer at the birth of bop, giving a brilliant example of how the human voice can and should be considered a complete musical instrument, on these occasions she put aside improvisation and also demonstrated to be a masterful interpreter of standards, indeed the greatest of all.
Songs like "My Funny Valentine", "Bewitched", "Blue Moon", need no introduction, just like "My Romance", "It Never Entered My Mind", "Spring Is Here"; and equally: "I Didn't Know What Time It Was", "I Could Write A Book", and "Lover".
Fitzgerald provides in these recordings the definitive vocal version, exalting the melodic lines of Rodgers to the maximum and always rendering Hart's lyrics (often erudite) credible and experienced "on her own skin". The orchestrations by Buddy Bregman are more than good and functional in showcasing Ella's voice, and they manage to avoid repetition despite the 35 tracks contained in the double CD, which flow by effortlessly; at times, there is a taste that today may appear retro in the use of strings, but excessive cloyingness is always avoided!
Apart from the intrinsic value and the pure pleasure of listening that derives from it, it is important to emphasize that this series of records still represents the reference point for the study and knowledge of standards, and they are also used at a didactic level by professional musicians as a "starting point" to make these true sacred texts of jazz their own. But any listener will benefit from this knowledge, since these songs are the daily bread of jazz musicians of the past and the present as well, and obviously knowing the themes well, the refrains (and why not, even the lyrics), and the various melodic and harmonic nuances of these evergreens can only improve the understanding of improvisational complexities, and allows everyone to get in tune even with frequent abstractions, and fully enjoy some strokes of genius of the improvisers without losing the thread. Indeed, often the original melodies are just hinted at, and not knowing them is clearly a handicap if one wants to grasp certain subtleties.
One never stops studying, but in these cases, it's always gratifying, a true investment in one's listening skills!
Tracklist and Lyrics
03 There's a Small Hotel (02:48)
I'd like to get away, Junior
Somewhere alone with you
It could be oh, so gay, Junior
You need a laugh
or two
A certain place I know, Frankie
Where funny people can have fun
That's where the two will go,
Darling
Before you can count up
One, two, three. For ...
There's a small hotel
With a wishing well
I wish that we were there together
There's a bridal suite
One room bright and neat
Complete for us to
share together
Looking through the window
You can see a distant steeple
Not a sign of people -- who
wants people?
When the steeple bell says,
Good night, sleep well,
We'll thank the small hotel
together
We'll creep into our little shell
And we will thank the small hotel together
06 I Could Write a Book (03:38)
A B C D E F G
I never learned to spell,
At least not well.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
I never learned to count,
A great amount.
But my busy mind is burning to use what learning I've got,
I won't waste any time,
I'll strike while the iron is hot.
If they asked me, I could write a book
About the way you walk, and whisper, and look.
I could write a preface
On how we met
So the world would never forget.
And the simple secret of the plot
Is just to tell them that I love you a lot.
And the world discovers
As my book ends,
How to make two lovers
Of friends.
<instrumental>
And the simple secret of the plot
Is just to tell them that I love you a lot.
And the world discovers
As my book ends,
How to make two lovers
Of friends.
08 My Funny Valentine (03:52)
Behold the way our fine feathered friend,
His virtue doth parade
Thou knowest not, my dim-witted friend
The picture thou hast made
Thy vacant brow, and thy tousled hair
Conceal thy good intent
Thou noble upright truthful sincere,
And slightly dopey gent
You're my funny valentine,
Sweet comic valentine,
You make me smile with my heart.
Your looks are laughable, un-photographable,
Yet, you're my favorite work of art.
Is your figure less than Greek?
Is your mouth a little weak?
When you open it to speak, are you smart?
But, don't change a hair for me.
Not if you care for me.
Stay little valentine, stay!
Each day is Valentine's Day
Is your figure less than Greek?
Is your mouth a little weak?
When you open it to speak, are you smart?
But, don't change a hair for me.
Not if you care for me.
Stay little valentine, stay!
Each day is Valentine's Day
09 Bewitched (07:01)
After one whole quart of brandy
Like a daisy, I'm awake
With no Bromo-Seltzer handy
I don't even shake
Men are not a new sensation
I've done pretty well I think
But this half-pint imitation
Put me on the blink
I'm wild again, beguiled again
A simpering, whimpering child again
Bewitched, bothered and bewildered - am I
Couldn't sleep and wouldn't sleep
When love came and told me, I shouldn't sleep
Bewitched, bothered and bewildered - am I
Lost my heart, but what of it
He is cold I agree
He can laugh, but I love it
Although the laugh's on me
I'll sing to him, each spring to him
And long, for the day when I'll cling to him
Bewitched, bothered and bewildered - am I
He's a fool and don't I know it
But a fool can have his charms
I'm in love and don't I show it
Like a babe in arms
Love's the same old sad sensation
Lately I've not slept a wink
Since this half-pint imitation
Put me on the blink
I've sinned a lot, I'm mean a lot
But I'm like sweet seventeen a lot
Bewitched, bothered and bewildered - am I
I'll sing to him, each spring to him
And worship the trousers that cling to him
Bewitched, bothered and bewildered - am I
When he talks, he is seeking
Words to get, off his chest
Horizontally speaking, he's at his very best
Vexed again, perplexed again
Thank God, I can be oversexed again
Bewitched, bothered and bewildered - am I
Wise at last, my eyes at last,
Are cutting you down to your size at last
Bewitched, bothered and bewildered - no more
Burned a lot, but learned a lot
And now you are broke, so you earned a lot
Bewitched, bothered and bewildered - no more
Couldn't eat, was dispeptic
Life was so hard to bear
Now my heart's antiseptic
Since you moved out of there
Romance, finis. Your chance, finis.
Those ants that invaded my pants, finis.
Bewitched, bothered and bewildered - no more
10 Mountain Greenery (02:13)
On the first of May, it is moving day,
Spring is here, so blow your job,
Throw your job away!
Now's the time to trust,
To your wanderlust,
In the city's dust you wait, must you wait
Just you wait.......!
In a mountain greenery,
Where God paints the scenery
Just two crazy people together.
While you love your lover,
Let blue skies, be your cover-let,
When it rains we'll laugh at the weather.
And if you're good,
I'll search for wood,
So you can cook... while I stand look-in'
Beans could get no keener reception in a beanery
Bless our mountain greenery home!
Mosquitoes here,
Won't bite you dear,
I'll let them sting, me on the finger!
We could find no cleaner retreat from life's machinery
Then our mountain greenery home.
14 Here in My Arms (01:52)
Here in my arms its adorable!
Its deplorable
That you were never there.
When little lips are so kissable
Its permissible
For me to ask my share.
Next to my heart it is ever so lonely.
Im holding only air.
While here in my arms its adorable!
Its deplorable
That you were never there.
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