Ella Fitzgerald is known as the first lady of song. After hearing any album you can understand why she is given this title. However, after hearing this album, you understand it even more.
THE MUSIC
Most people are accustomed to hearing Ella sing either with Louis Armstrong or solo in her great songbook series. This album finds Ella in top form singing with a small jazz ensemble. This intimate style is a sharp contrast to the large orchestral tracks of her songbook series but it is in no way less impressive or lacking in artistic character.
The album starts out with a jazz standard more reminiscent of Charlie Parker/Dizzy Gillespie. However, when you hear Ella’s version of “A Night In Tunisia” you’ll wonder why you haven’t heard it this way before.
“Your My Thrill” is a complete vocal stunner. It’s sung in a hauntingly beautiful way and the delicate playing by the musicians just adds gorgeous layers of music on top of Ella’s voice. The song is just a superb performance all around.
“Clap Hands, Here Comes Charlie” has a great drum intro as well as some awesome bass playing. This song has some great dynamics as well and definitely qualifies as a treat for the ears.
On “Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most” you can hear Ella open her mouth before she even starts singing! The rendition of this song is probably among the very best I have ever heard. The delicate piano playing really stands out on this song as well as the light touch on the drums. Musicians often complain that slow songs are among the hardest to play. If this is so, this song makes it sound ever so easy with fantastic playing all around.
I have singled out only a couple of tracks on this 14 track record but rest assured that every single song is a winner - from the first to the very last note. You really must hear it to really appreciate Ella’s phrasing and the skill of all the musicians involved.
THE SOUND
In one word: AMAZING. When I play music recorded like this to people they are often dumbfounded to learn that the music is over 45 years old. This album was recorded and mixed at Radio Recorders and engineered by Val Valentin. The two-track reduction was made on 6/24/61 by Val Valentin. 1961!!! That’s nearly 48 years as of this writing. Nearly 48 years later, here I am listening to this great album and I swear you can hear tons of details. There is so much detail that you can literally hear the room where they are recording. I swear that I can actually hear the room - that’s right - your reading this correctly - THE ROOM! The time and spatial detail is just to die for. There are few albums that I would classify as perfections in music and sound. This is one of those albums.
Why? Well, I have heard many, many albums where they get the EQ right, the soundstage might be great as well, but the thing that always gets me to say “WOW!” is when you feel like you’re there. It takes a special combination of proper microphone placement as well as engineering skills to get an album to sound this good. One outstanding example is on the song “This Years Kisses”. In the intro you can hear the electric guitar on the left speaker, yet if you listen closely, you can hear the guitar strings being plucked on the right speaker. On “Good Morning Heartache” when Ella sings “Might as well get used to you hanging around…” you can hear her voice coming off the walls of the room on both speakers (and not just on this song either!!). The last bass note on “Good Morning Heartache” just floats decays in the air until it turns into tape hiss. This albums sound quality is really just uncanny in my honest opinion.
I expect you to doubt me. In fact, I hope you do doubt me so that you can go out and buy this fantastic album and verify all these claims yourself. You will not be sorry.
CONCLUSION
This is definitely one of Ella’s lesser known works but every song is delicate and her phrasing is light and nuanced in every good way there is. The sound is nothing short of spectacular with great spatial detail and ambiance. In short, this is a killer record and one that every jazz fan, female vocalist fan and audiophile should own. It deserves a place in the heart of any music fan’s collection.
SPECIAL NOTE
There are at least 3 different versions of this album. The version with the best sound quality is the early Verve release mastered by Dennis Drake. It should cost no more than $15.00 new. Avoid all the other versions.
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