Ella (Remastered) Ella Fitzgerald

• 1Get Ready02:33
• 2The Hunter Gets Captured by the Game02:58
• 3Yellow Man02:18
• 4I'll Never Fall in Love Again02:50
• 5Got to Get You into My Life03:06
• 6I Wonder Why03:09
• 7Ooo Baby Baby02:40
• 8Savoy Truffle02:46
• 9Open Your Window02:51
• 10Knock on Wood03:40
• Total Runtime28:51

Info for Ella (Remastered)

Ella is a 1969 studio album by the American jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald and the first of two albums she recorded for the Warner Bros. owned Reprise label. This album continues the theme set on Fitzgerald's previous album, consisting in the main part of cover versions of popular songs from the late 1960s. The production of this recording was in the hands of Richard Perry, who had joined the Reprise label in 1967. Perry later went on the produce albums by Barbra Streisand and Diana Ross. The album was re-issued on CD with alternative artwork, in 1989.

The late 1960s saw Fitzgerald's recording career change greatly, the success of her Verve years (1956 to 1966) was never repeated. After the sale of Verve records to MGM Records in 1961, Norman Granz continued to manage live performances, bookings and produce Ella Fitzgerald's recordings for the label. Granz had semi-retired to Switzerland in 1960 and when Fitzgerald's contract at Verve-MGM ended in 1967 he actively sought a new label. John Hammond of Columbia Records showed interest in signing Fitzgerald, as did Capitol Records and in September 1967 Granz signed Fitzgerald with Capitol Records. The four albums recorded at Capitol Records are the most diverse albums of Fitzgerald's career, they included a country music album; Misty Blue and one of spiritual music; Brighten the Corner. Norman Granz was not involved in the production of these albums or the choice of material. Later in 1969 Granz again began producing Fitzgerald's albums, taking up this position on the live album Sunshine of Your Love recorded for the Prestige Records label, and distributed on the MPS Records label. In late 1969 Fitzgerald signed to Reprise Records and recorded two albums for the label, before returning to a Norman Granz owned label in 1972, when Granz began the Pablo Records label.

Ella Fitzgerald, vocals

Recorded live on May 26, 28, 29, & 30, 1969 at Olympic Sound Studios, London, England
Produced by Richard Perry

Digitally remastered

Ella Fitzgerald (1917-1996)
was, along with Sarah Vaughan and Billie Holiday, one of the most important vocalists to emerge from the big-band era. Her style is marked by a sunny outlook, a girlish innocence, and a virtuoso command of her voice.

Fitzgerald was born out of wedlock in Newport News, Virginia, to a laundress mother and a father who disappeared when she was three years old. Along with her mother and her mother’s new boyfriend who functioned as a stepfather, she soon moved to Yonkers, New York, where she began her schooling. Around the third grade she started dancing, a pursuit that became almost an obsession. In 1932, when she was fifteen, her mother died suddenly of a heart attack. Her stepfather treated her badly, but an aunt took the teenager to live with her in Harlem. This arrangement did not last long; Fitzgerald ran away in 1934 to live on the streets. Late that year she won a talent contest at the Apollo Theater; she had entered as a dancer, but nervousness caused her to sing instead. Several months later she joined drummer Chick Webb’s big band, where she mostly sang novelties like 'Vote for Mr. Rhythm'. In 1938 she recorded 'A-Tisket, A-Tasket', her own adaptation of a turn-of-the-century nursery rhyme, which took the country by storm and eventually sold a million copies. When Webb died in 1939 the band’s management installed Fitzgerald as leader.

In 1942 the band broke up and Fitzgerald became a single act, touring with various other popular names of the day. She also became interested in scat singing and the newly emerging style known as bebop, and in 1945 she recorded a landmark version of 'Flying Home.' Several tours with the Dizzy Gillespie band also contributed to her assimilation of the bebop style.

In the late 1940s Fitzgerald began to tour with the Jazz at the Philharmonic troupe, working with such leading musicians as saxophonist Lester Young, trumpeter Roy Eldridge, pianist Oscar Peterson, and bassist Ray Brown, to whom she was married for four years. JATP impresario Norman Granz became increasingly influential in her career, and in 1953 he became her manager.

Three years after that he became her record producer as well, recording her on his own Verve label. He wasted little time in having Fitzgerald record a double album of Cole Porter songs. Fitzgerald made many wonderful albums for Verve in the following decade, but the six songbooks occupy a special place in her discography. They were instrumental in expanding Fitzgerald’s appeal beyond that of a 'jazz singer' and creating a demand for her in venues not usually open to jazz artists.

For die-hard jazz fans, though, the well-polished jewels of the songbook series lack the raw energy of Fitzgerald’s live performances. Happily, Granz released several landmark concert albums by her as well. Especially exciting was a 1960 Berlin concert, which featured an electrifying performance of an impromptu take on 'Mack the Knife,' which became a Top 30 single. Fitzgerald usually performed with a trio or quartet, but there were also appearances with larger groups, such as the Duke Ellington and Count Basie orchestras. By the 1960s Fitzgerald had become wealthy enough to retire, but the love of performing drove her on — she appeared regularly until just a couple of years before her death in 1996. Sidemen came and went, but except when health problems intervened she performed as much as humanly possible, sometimes singing concerts in two different cities in one day. Source: Verve Music (Phil Bailey). Excerpted from Ken Burns’ Jazz: The Definitive Ella Fitzgerald

This album contains no booklet.