Ella Fitzgerald by Cabu

Curiously, the period of Ella's career covered by this selection is rather unknown to jazz fans. We sometimes remember her beginnings with Chick Webb 's big band, always her late career successes, but rarely this era of transition which goes from the end of the forties to the mid-fifties where the singer multiplies with a unparalleled happiness the most diverse studio experiences: meetings at the top with Louis Armstrong , the Mills Brothers , the Ray Charles Singers , Louis Jordan , big band performances under the successive leadership of conductors as talented as Sy Oliver , Benny Carter , André Previn and others, without forgetting the wonderful piano/vocal duets in which Ella gives us all her soul.

Pay attention to the quality of the tone of her voice during these privileged years: never has the great lady of jazz expressed herself with such felicity in this magical register where youthful spontaneity mixes with emerging maturity in a mysterious and irresistible alchemy . ..