Ella Fitzgerald 2

In the mid-fifties, producer Norman Granz took Ella Fitzgerald under contract with a perfectly matured and methodically implemented recording “career plan” under his belt: the singer recorded a long-term “concept album” in tribute to each of the great song-writers of American music: thus, from the mid-fifties to the early sixties, Cole Porter , Rodgers & Hart , Duke Ellington , the Gershwin brothers , Irving Berlin , Harold Arlen , Jerome Kern and Johnny Mercer will receive They successively received the (deserved) honors of “First Lady Of Song” . From this moment on, the spotlight of glory will never leave Ella Fitzgerald , whose fame will gradually spread throughout the world to an audience well beyond that of jazz lovers.

This double CD aims to present the best of the first three albums devoted to these “song books”, those of Duke Ellington (in the company of the duke and his men, double happiness), Rodgers & Hart , and Cole Porter . Difficult choices, as the quality of Ella's interpretation, the richness of the musical material and the effectiveness of the orchestrations shine through these fifty-year-old recordings. Those were the good times, some would say...