Ella!

One of my all-time favorite vocalists is Ella Fitzgerald, and today I read that Verve has just released 4 CD's of newly rediscovered recordings done by Ella in a small jazz club in Hollywood in the early 1960's. The master tapes had languished in the vault all this time.

I saw Ella in person about 1960, not long before these recordings were made. The young man I dated worked at the Fontainbleu (hotel) on Miami Beach and over the course of a year or so, he took me to see some great performers at the hotel's dinner club. Ella was one of them, perhaps the best. (Of course, Nat 'King' Cole wasn't bad either!)

When Ella sang, it was like the world shrank to just Ella, and me listening. She was totally captivating, and sang out joy with every note.

With the exception of “Ella in Hollywood” and “Live at Mr. Kelly’s,” a 1958 Chicago date (which wasn’t released until 2007), there are no Fitzgerald albums recorded live in a small club.

I'm sure putting these recordings on my Wish List!