Something to Live For

Something to Live For

Editorial Reviews
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With a voice that could pretzel and scat and skitter and bellow, Ella Fitzgerald was bound to end up in myriad musical settings. The trouble with Ella's output is exactly its breadth, especially when creating an anthology out of three prime decades of her career. This two-CD set (released as a companion to the American Masters biography aired on PBS) anthologizes for the first time her work done for Decca (from 1935-65) and, later, Norman Granz's Verve Records. The early material, and lots of the later stuff, is infectious, with Fitzgerald chirping and leaping with all the vigor of her youth. "Perdido," a 1949 cut from Granz's Jazz at the Philharmonic, features a grainy but spry band with Roy Eldridge, Charlie Parker, and Fitzgerald singing away from the microphone before chiming in and driving the piece homeward. There are odd spots, like the obviously commercial Nelson Riddle-backed "Man I Love" and "Yesterdays" and the crisp "Angel Eyes" with Barney Kessel on guitar. Ella also freeplays her way through "Mack the Knife" from her fabled Berlin appearance in 1960 and then does wonders with "Duke's Place" backed by the Ellington orchestra. You might find yourself adjusting to the ever-changing instrumental contexts Fitzgerald sings in front of, but overall, you're likely to find yourself charmed by this set. It's bold, and in some ways faulty, in its reach. But at least it reaches high. --Andrew Bartlett

Something to Live For, Music, Ella Fitzgerald, Ballads, Jazz, Jazz Music, Jazz Vocals, Pop, Standards, Swing, Traditional Pop, Vocal Jazz

Something to Live For

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