Ella Fitzgerald Sings the George and Ira Gershwin Songbook
From Wikipedia:
Ella Fitzgerald Sings the George and Ira Gershwin Songbook is a 1959 (see 1959 in music) five album set by the American jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald, focusing on the songs of George and Ira Gershwin. It was recorded with the Nelson Riddle Orchestra, marking the first time that Ella and Riddle had worked together. This album is the largest single recording project that Ella worked on, and it is considered by some[who?] to be one of the most ambitious achievements in Western popular music.
The album cover is an original portrait of Ella Fitzgerald by the French artist Bernard Buffet, starting a tradition of using contemporary artists for Ella's albums, the artwork of Henri Matisse gracing the cover of her Harold Arlen Songbook (1961).
Riddle arranged 59 Gershwin compositions for the album, including the two orchestral suites which open the album. Though Fitzgerald was 22 years old at the time George Gershwin died, Ira Gershwin was still alive to see this project completed, and helped contribute lyrics and support to some songs on the album which had never been recorded before. It was of this project that led Ira Gershwin to say that he had "never known how good our songs were until I heard Ella sing them".
Ella Fitzgerald was 41 when she recorded this album, and the peak of her vocal powers, demonstrated in the earlier Duke Ellington Songbook, and her two greatest live albums from this period, Ella in Berlin (1960) and Ella in Rome (1958). Like the other songbooks devoted to the Broadway composers, Ella gets only a single outlet for her notable scat singing, on the epic "I Got Rhythm".
Ella's recording of "But Not for Me" won her the 1960 Grammy Award for Best Vocal Performance, Female.
Personnel
Recorded 1959:
- January
5th-8th
- March
18th and 26th
- July
15th-17th,
at Capitol Studios, Hollywood:
Combined personnel listing for all tracks.
- Ella Fitzgerald - Vocals
- Don Fagerquist - Trumpet
- Pete Candoli
- Joe Triscari
- Conrad Gozzo
- Cappy Lewis
- Vito Mangano
- Mannie Klein
- Dale McMickle
- Shorty Sherock
- Milt Bernhart - Trombone
- James Priddy
- Juan Tizol
- Richard Noel
- Tommy Pederson
- Karl DeKarske - Bass Trombone
- George Roberts
- Vincent DeRosa - French horn
- James Decker
- Ted Nash - Alto saxophone
- Benny Carter
- Ronnie Lang
- Chuck Gentry - Bass saxophone
- Plas Johnson - Tenor Saxophone
- Ed Gilbert - Tuba
- Red Callender
- Buddy Collette - Woodwind
- Buck Skalak
- Gene Cipriano
- Jewell Grant
- Jules Jacob
- Wilbur Schwartz
- Justin Gordon
- William Green
- Harry Klee
- Joe Koch
- Champ Webb
- Israel Baker - Violin
- Henry Hill
- Harold Dicterow
- Erno Neufield
- Victor Arno
- Victor Bay
- Alex Beller
- Joseph Livoti
- Jacques Gasselin
- Walter Edelstein
- James Getzoff
- Eudice Shapiro
- Ben Gill
- Murrary Kellner
- Nat Ross
- Felix Slatkin
- Marshall Sosson
- Misha Russell
- Paul Shure
- Dan Lube
- Gerald Vinci
- Alvin Dinken - Viola
- Lou Kievman
- David Sterkin
- Stanley Harris
- Paul Robyn
- Barbara Simons
- Elizabeth Greenschpoon - Cello
- James Arkatov
- Armand Kaproff
- George Neikrug
- Dave Filerman
- Kurt Reher
- Katharine Julyie - Harp
- Paul Smith - Piano
- Lou Levy -- Piano
- Herb Ellis - Guitar
- Barney Kessel
- Joe Comfort - Double bass
- Ralph Pena
- Alvin Stoller - drums
- Mel Lewis
- Bill Richmond
- Frank Flynn - percussion
- Larry Bunker
- Nelson Riddle - Arranger, Conductor
