Verve Records and
UMe will close out their year-long celebration of jazz legend Ella Fitzgerald's
centennial with the ultimate present for her 100th birthday – a completely
unreleased live album. More than 60 years after it was recorded, Ella At
Zardi's will finally be released on CD and digital on December 1. Today, WBGO,
the global leader in jazz radio, premiered the album's opening track, "It
All Depends on You," both on the air and at WBGO.org, with an accompanying
article. The song, popularized by Doris Day, Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole,
was never released on any of Fitzgerald's albums, making this a truly rare
performance. Listen at WBGO:
http://wbgo.org/post/after-six-decades-vault-ella-zardis-brings-new-shine-ella-fitzgeralds-centennial
Recorded on February 2, 1956 at Zardi's Jazzland in
Hollywood, Ella At Zardi's features the entirety of the evening's two-set,
21-song performance, which captures an inspired Fitzgerald, backed by a stellar
trio comprised of pianist Don Abney, bassist Vernon Alley and drummer Frank
Capp, singing and swinging in front of an animated, adoring crowd, just days
before she'd go on to record the album that would catapult her to stardom. The
concert was originally recorded by Norman Granz to celebrate the creation of,
and Fitzgerald's signing to, Verve Records, which Granz founded largely to give
Fitzgerald the attention that he felt she wasn't receiving at her then-current
label, Decca. Ella At Zardi's was planned as the label's inaugural release but
shelved in favor of the now-classic studio album Ella Fitzgerald Sings The Cole
Porter Song Book, which kicked off a best-selling, signature series of Song
Book releases. The Zardi's tapes languished in Verve's vaults for six decades.
Preorder Ella At Zardi's now: https://UMe.lnk.to/EllaAtZardis
Ella At Zardi's captures the brilliance and inspiration
Fitzgerald's performances embodied at the time. As veteran jazz journalist Kirk
Silsbee observes in the album's liner notes, "We can hear a fluid and
joyous singer who operates with almost giddy authority. Ella manages to find a
way of swinging almost every number, no matter the tempo. She anticipates her
studio songbook albums with Duke Ellington's 'In A Mellow Tone,' Cole Porter's
'My Heart Belongs To Daddy,' the Gershwins' 'S'Wonderful' and 'I've Got a Crush
On You,' and Jerome Kern's 'A Fine Romance'... Ella uses her intelligent
phrasing and rhythmic sense in inventive and exhilarating ways. Her repertoire
was vast and she didn't always remember the correct lyrics of a song. But the
way she spontaneously redesigns the text in the most musical of ways is
Fitzgerald's signature."
Ella At Zardi's caps off Verve/UMe's slate of releases in
celebration of "Ella 100," which has included the four-CD set 100
Songs For A Centennial; the six-LP vinyl box set Ella Fitzgerald Sings The
George & Ira Gershwin Song Books and Someone to Watch Over Me, which
marries Fitzgerald's vocals with new instrumental tracks by the London Symphony
Orchestra. The centennial has also seen the first-ever digital releases of her
rare early singles for the Decca label.
Ella At Zardi's stands out for its history-making rediscovery
of a vintage performance by one of jazz's greatest artists. As Granz enthuses
in his stage introduction, "This is for real; for me she's the greatest
there is—Miss Ella Fitzgerald!"
ELLA AT ZARDI'S TRACK LISTING
First Set
1. It All Depends On
You
2. Tenderly
3. Why Don't You Do
Right
4. Cry Me A
River
5. In A Mellow
Tone
6. Joe Williams'
Blues
7. A Fine
Romance
8. How High The
Moon
9. Gone With The
Wind
10. Bernie's Tune
Second Set
11. 'S Wonderful
12. Glad To Be Unhappy
13. Lullaby of Birdland
14. The Tender Trap
15. And The Angels Sing
16. I Can't Give You Anything But Love
17. Little Boy (a.k.a. Little Girl)
18. A-Tisket, A-Tisket
19. My Heart Belongs To Daddy
20. Airmail Special
21. I've Got A Crush On You
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