# Ella Fitzgerald: born a 100 years ago in 2017



## Casebearer (Jan 19, 2016)

2017 will be a year to remember the great Ella Fitzgerald.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Love the band on that tune!


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

I was listening to the Rodgers and Hart Songbook last night. Is there anyone who had better intonation than Ella at her peak?


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

jegreenwood said:


> I was listening to the Rodgers and Hart Songbook last night. Is there anyone who had better intonation than Ella at her peak?


I don't think so.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

Ella -- probably the greatest female vocalist in any genre of pop music. Those acclaimed female-voice opera singers of the 20th century should be thankful Ella didn't choose opera instead of jazz. We may otherwise have never heard of them.

1917 was a great birth year for jazz musicians and singers. Besides Ella Fitzgerald, we get Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Dean Martin, Lena Horne, Jo Stafford, Buddy Rich, Mongo Santamaría, Robert Merrill (who dabbled in jazz and musicals though is better known for opera), and Tadd Dameron. I'm sure there are others.

It has been a great century when one considers those folks and their contributions.


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

Ella is 100 today! My dad bought the first two Songbooks when I was four and played them and their successors incessantly. (He had good taste - it was Ella, Frank, and occasionally Bing.) So Ella had a huge influence on my appreciation of music. While my musical tastes have broadened, I've never lost my love of the standards. And her intonation and rhythmic sense still have a huge effect on my criteria for judging singers.


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

A couple of huge favorites of mine:

an incredible version of Nature Boy, just her voice and the guitar of Joe Pass. Timeless music.





and one my favorite italian songs ever (well the author was the italian composer Manuel DeSica, the son of Vittorio)


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

Those first two albums she did with Joe Pass are wonderful. To my ears, by the third, the wear and tear on her voice diminished the pleasure. I saw them live at Carnegie too.

I have a story about that album. I bought it on vinyl when it came out in 1976. Pablo was a pretty new label then and they charged a premium over many other labels at the time (equivalent to an import label like DG back then). However, the vinyl was noisy. I tried two replacements, which were no better. Frustrated, I wrote a letter to the company complaining that if they wanted me to pay a premium they needed to offer a better product. I got back a handwritten apology from Norman Granz. Shortly thereafter I received 6 review copies of the album plus an album of Ella and Oscar Peterson for my troubles.

That's class.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Ella Fitzgerald - A Foggy Day (High Quality - Remastered)

Such wonderful memories


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

My favourite female singer of all time.


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

Just bought The Rodgers and Hart Songbook for the 6th time.

1970s era LP (sequencing altered from original release, part mono/part stereo)
Cassette (several songs deleted)
Original CD (same as LP)
Remastered CD (restored original sequencing, different mono/stereo mix)
Hi Rez download (original sequencing, third mono/stereo mix)
Hi Rez mono download (finally the album I recall from my childhood - mono rules for this album)


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

jegreenwood said:


> I was listening to the Rodgers and Hart Songbook last night. Is there anyone who had better intonation than Ella at her peak?


Back in the day, I remember musicians in the L.A. area saying that if you were playing with Ella and one of you were out of tune, it was you.


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