One of my favorite things to do is to get Mitchell talking about Ella Fitzgerald. He’s one of those people who knows how to describe WHY she was able to do what she did … what is special about her (although her special-ness is obvious to the unschooled listener like myself) … and why she’s one of the all-time greats.
I was not aware of this small factoid, which just gives me goosebumps:
Marilyn Monroe was one of Ella’s biggest fans. Fitzgerald said, “I owe Marilyn a real debt. It was because of her that I played the Mocambo, a very popular nightclub in the ’50s. She personally called the owner of the Mocambo, and told him she wanted me booked immediately, and if he would do it, she would take a front table every night. The owner said yes, and Marilyn was there, front table, every night. The press went overboard. After that, I never had to play a small jazz club again.”
sniff … sniff …
i didnt know that story! im verklempt! im listening to Ella: The Cole Porter Songbook right now. Porter famously hated any attempt to “interpret’ his songs in a different style..except Ella and Louis…he approved of them and only them.
Oh, I love that story. I have never heard that before. Ella Fitzgerald had a wonderful voice, and everything I have ever read about her suggests that she was a sweet,beautiful person loved by just about everyone who knew her. I saw her perform when she was much older. She came out on stage with those big, coke-bottle glasses, and I thought, “Oh, she might struggle.” Boy, was I wrong. She sang as effortlessly and naturally as a bird. I would bet that she was the kind of person who put everyone immediately at ease, whether a big star or the cashier at the supermarket.
You guys posted at the exact same moment.
I LOVE THAT.
Also, Mitchell – you probably listen to Ella on a daily basis, don’t you?
Ever since college you’ve been that way!
DBW – I am so jealous that you saw her!!
Hey, mitchell. I always loved Clap Hands, Here Comes Charlie! Do you have any particular favorites or recommendations?
Hey! I knew that story (Marilyn geek that I am), and that story led to my being very curious as to who Ella was (that was many years ago; I KNEW Ella but had practically never really listened to her). Long story short: Ella is my favorite female singer ever, I just ADORE her. I have the complete collection of Ella’s songbooks and they are a DELIGHT.
How I would love to hear (or read) Mitchell’s comments on Ella… I just don’t have the words to describe what hearing her sing does to me.
i didn’t know that story! beautiful. all this makes me want to listen to ella all day. forget class, and work, and such!
well…currently im obsessed with the three albums that she and Louis Armstrong did together…Ella and Louis/Ella and Louis Again/ Ella and Louis:Porgy and Bess…but also her 40th b-day concert in Italy is a masterpiece..she does the ballads and gets to really let loose and swing and scat. One of the most interesting things i find about her is that she entered the Apollo Theatre amateur contest originally as a dancer..but a woman danced before her and she was intimidated..so she decided to sing at the last moment..and won. She became the singer for the Chick Webb band..he was a drummer..so she trained as a musician/singer under the tutelage of a percussionist. Her nickname amongst musicians was “Lady Time”…because of her unbelievable ability to play with rhythm and NEVER lose the band…listen to her scat How High the Moon..its like a trapeze artist whtout a net. Also her voice is soooo melodic…she wasnt one of those jazz singers who swooped up to notes or warped them like Billie and Sarah(both of who i love)..she hit the notes like a perfect strike. I always say the best way to tell if a singer is great is to actually try to sing along..note for note and sound for sound..try it with Ella..u’ll see that her natural range was incredible…most singers have a breaak..that place where the chest voice becomes the head voice..and often it sounds like your Aunt Ida singing “Nearer My God to Thee’ at cousin Donna’s wedding reception…NOT Ella..her break is almost undetectable. Then of course her innate musicianship…her sense of harmony and phrasing(phrasing is a topic for a whole other post..the most important part of great singing… Frank, Judy, Ella..the holy trinity of phrasing..Alex..back me up). People often said that Ella couldnt sing the blues…maybe they were right…but there is no one..NO ONE who has ever sang joy so convincingly..you can litereally hear her smile when she sings…she was alive when she sang…she never drank or smoked or did drugs..her private life was often difficult as well as her health but when she took the stage or entered a studio as America’s “First Lady of Song”..she gave us her joy wrapped in the most beautiful sound ever recorded.
i apologize if i rambled…but the answer to Sheila’s question is yes…Ella has been a part of my every day since maybe 1985.
I just cried reading your rambling.
Damn you.
i learned from the master..my dear!
I loved the ramble, too!!!
I had just commented that I would love to read some of Mitchell’s views on Ella! My wish came true… :)
i did it for u Ceci! Im glad u liked…i agree..the Songbook series is delicious perfection…she was so brave and generous to recognize(along with Norman Granz of Verve records) that she was THE one to systematically (and with great class and taste) chronicle the great age of American songwriting. What a record she left of those great songs. Rod Stewart may have sung them recently..but its Ella who understood them.
Well, I strongly dislike Stewart’s Songbook versions. I don’t like his interpretation or his voice ONE BIT. It’s a question of my personal taste, of course. I know next to nothing about music, so I can’t judge the guy on his musical merits (or lack thereof).
And thank you again for the Ella ramble! You’re so sweet!!!!
It is food for thought indeed… I had never thought about Ella’s phrasing, for example, and I see that it is one of the things that I like so much about her singing (among many others).
yeah..i cant stand Rod’s standards cd’s..sorry to anyone who loves them…I like Maggie May and Every Picture Tells a Story…but leave Jerome Kern to Tony Bennett..altho’ Gladys Knight is coming out with a standards cd in June…from Verve records..im very intrigued..now she can SANG.
I love Gladys!!
Now Rod Stewart’s project SHOULD have been something that Whitney Houston would have done … before she became a crack-ho, of course. It would have been great if she had gone in that direction.
i agree.. i saw here sing I Loves You Porgy once on TV..she was great..now she’s holed up in her bathroom with crack and vibrators..oh Whitney..get up..we need you!
Thanks for the response, Mitchell. I know(and like)the three Louis/Ella albums, but I am not familiar with the 40th Birthday album. I will seek it out.
I do not like Rod Stewart’s version of the Standards, at all. Maggie May, on the other hand, is one of THOSE songs that takes me back to a specific time and place with complete sensory/memory accuracy. I feel the coolness of a late September air, smell a bonfire by a river, and I see her face leaning into mine–while one of the great parties of all time swirls in the background. Ahhh, nostalgia.
BTW, today is Zellwegers’s birthday, too.
I hate you, DBW
Maggie May does the same for me..it reminds of the older woman who ..um..er..initiated me into the more adult world of human interaction…phew…i knew the song but never listened until it became my story…very deep connections to that song…and yes the live in Italy b-day cd is great!
//more adult world of human interaction//
hahahaha
I’m still waiting for my Initiation process.
No, just kidding.
Uhm … not really kidding actually …
Uhm …
Nah, I’m just kidding.
lol…i think u could teach the world a thing or two..my little kitchen witch!!!
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA
oh..the totally obscure yet hugely evocative reference that only best friends for 20 yrs can make!!!!…also..did i just relate my virginity losing experience on ur blog??? I think i did!! sorry Mr and Mrs. O’Malley!!!
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
I’m dying here …
ahahahahahhaahahahahahahha..oy vey
hey..new topic..have u seen Walking on the Moon with Diane Lane and Viggo Mortensen and Liev Schreiber???
Yes! I loved it. Wasn’t Liev Schrieber kind of heartbreaking??
I loved when the grandmother (wait – who played the grandmotehr?? someone great) slapped the daughter when she got her period. SUCH a funny scene.
thats exactly what i was gonna say..that Liev was wonderful and sexy..i love him..and the grandmother is sooo good..Tovah Feldshuh…she’s brilliant! She just got finsihed playing Golda Meir on b-way…i thought the movie was a little gem of honesty..when Diane Lane is wasted and ecstatic at Woodstock..i totally wanted to be there with a sexy long-haired hippie!!!
Tovah – oh my God. She has a 5 minute Oscar in that movie Kissing Jessica Stein – have you seen it?? Where she lets her daughter know that she knows … and it’s okay??
I’m all choked up just remembering it.
She’s an awesome actress.
And I just loved Liev being kind of the bridge between those two generations – kind of “square” but a good guy – and the last scene of them dancing on the screened porch to the “new music” was just … wonderful!!!
oh yeah..i loved it..he was so vulnerable in a way that he usually isnt cast as…i never saw Kissing Jessica Stein..but i remember there was Oscar buzz for her…i watched it last night…new topic..whats the theme on A. I. tonight?
btw..to all Sheila readers and American Idol viewers..so not be lured in to the timely release and clever ads for American Dreamz..it is sooooooooo boring…like a cake that doesnt rise..all the ingredients are there but no yeast!!!
The preview was boring. Which is not a good sign.
And I love Hugh Grant. I’d see him eat paste. But I yawned during that preview.
See Kissing Jessica Stein, by the way – it’s adorable.
It’s worth it, too, for the one scene between mother and daugther out on the porch … amazing acting by Tovah! So understated. Beautiful!!!
the cast of American Dreamz is great…Hugh, Dennis, Marcia, Willem, even Mandy..they are all fine performers given NOTHING to do…the movie has no balls. its a major waste of talent.
And About a Boy is, frankly, one of my favorite movies. This sounds like a total mis-step. I love Dennis Quaid.
exactly..and as stupid as American Pie was..it at least had balls…Jennifer Coolidge is in and doesnt have one funny line!!! That is a misstep!!!
Jennifer Coolidge. sigh. I swear … we have the next Madeline Kahn right in front of our eyes … and … who is noticing???
there isnt a clear comic voice to write for her like Mel was for Madeline…she is great with Christopher Guest films…she’s an old school improvisor..but she needs a great part… and that needs a great writer.
Yeah if she had a part like Trixie in Paper Moon she could get herself an Oscar nomination – I truly think she’s that good.
“We could talk … or not talk … forever …”
With this toothless old geezer beside her. She’s a genius.
good God, loved mitchell’s ramble…
sheila, if we asked really nicely, do you think he’d write up a post on Ella??
Ah Ella. As mitchell said, best voice and best phrasing ever. no doubt.
i actually think whitney was smart to never try to sing any ella albums, because it always shows the flaws in your voice and phrasing.
amelia – hahahaha I would LOVE it if Mitchell would do a little guest-thingie on these great ladies of song. He truly is an expert.
I’ll leave it up to him.
:)
that would be wonderful; i hope he does — he knows soo much : )
Whitney’s early albums – even though the songs are crappy – like: God-awful songs – shows she totally understood phrasing – in a very old-fashioned way. I have always wished she would do an album of Gershwin, or any of those old American songs … because she’s got the pipes, and she’s also got the musical sense. There’s a reason why her version of The Star Spangled Banner was one of the greatest selling singles not just of that year but of any year. It wasn’t just patriotic feeling – it was that she knew how to sing that damn song – the way it should be sung.
Ah well – lost chances for Whitney! I still have not adjusted to the new reality of Whitney Houston as sex-toy-addict crack ho.
I mean … huh???
My cousin Liam did a whole series of essays on The Kinks for me – here on the blog – it was so fun!! We had been talking one night and he just went OFF on The Kinks and why they were so great – so he wrote it all up and put it on the blog. Those essays still get traffic.
:)
Mitchell?? Your call.
A wee essay on Ella? The “essential Ella” albums? Etc???
Bingley – I think one of the first songs I heard of Ella (Mitchell, help me out here) was her live version of Mac the Knife where she forgets the words and improvises verse after verse for about 5 minutes … do you know that one?
Mitchell, please elaborate – it’s so amazing to listen to because she completely loses the words, but never ever loses the rhythm. EVER.
But you can hear her laughing … it’s such a great recording.
yes..it was her famous Berlin concert album..she introduces the song by saying that its a big hit and since “we havent heard a girl sing it”..she decides to try and hopes she remembers all the words…she doesnt..but MAGIC happens..she is released from the need to sing the words and finds herself swinging and improvising with such the sense of abandonment that only a true pro can achieve…for example..listen to the way she sings the word “oozing” as in “..lies a body oozing life”..she makes the word into onomotopoia!! or how she so graciously acknowledges both Louis Armstrong and Bobby Darrin’s versions of the song while improvising..going so far as to do a spot on imitation of Louis’s style…she sings, she tells a story, she laughs, she swings harder than a stake driver with a new sledgehammer,she acknowledges her peers, her band and her own amazement at what the heck is going on…all of this while enteratining the hell out of a foreign langueage audience and the subsequent generations lucky enough to discover it. She also won a Grammy for the big hit that this version became..despite the fact that it started as an attempt to cover a memory glitch.
Beautiful – I love that it was actually captured on tape – and its’ not just word of mouth about this amazing performance.
Wow, I haven’t heard that. I’ll get a copy. I have her playing on itunes all the time around the house.
i cry everytime i listen to ‘imagination’…
Bingley – it’s so cool because you can hear her laughing, you can hear some of the band members laughing – but they all have kind of become one. Just amazing!!!
i love the rapport you can feel between her and armstrong, too; they sound like they are having such a blast singing together.
i know… its wild that such a spontaneous and virtuostic moment in time was captured on tape…i think of other times when i wish things were or that we could Bewitched ourselves back in time to see those moments…Aretha at the Filmore West when Ray Charles just showed up…opening night of Gypsy with Ethel Merman…Bob Dylan at the Newport Folk Festival…Judy at Carnegie…ya know?
Absolutely. First night of Waiting for Lefty when the audience stormed the stage.
shivers!!!
Mr. Bingley..i soo agree..one can literally feel the mutual admiration and sense of awe they have for each other..of course they were actaully standing together as opposed to the way duets are recorded now…the singers dont even have to meet…His raspy horn inspired style and her flawless clarity and sense of swing(even when she’s singing slow..u can feel the inplied rhythm…its amazing.try to do it..it aint easy!)…is a truly magical combo!!
mitchell i have a hard time singing along with her albums, and i’ve listened to the ones i have hundreds of times. her timing is so…i don’t know how to describe it other than perfect for each song, how she sees the song.
yes..exactly!!! thats how i feel..she makes it seem so natural and inevitable and yet its extremely precise and complex without having that “jazz” pretension that can creep into the genre..maybe Sheila’s brother can weigh in on his opinion of jazz fans..its hilarious! Ella became the world’s ambassador of American music..she was beloved everywhere in the world… her whole career…never a misstep…Anita O’Day…another unbelievable singer with supernatural rhythmic sense…acknowledged Ella’s supremacy amongst her peers in her wonderful autobiography..she talks about how Ella never went out and partied like the rest and yet was never considered “square” (which was the worst thing one could have been called in that era) because she was the best!
Why I Love The Internet, Part MCMXVIII
I just got the live in berlin stuff from iTunes and listened whilst eating dinner! woo-hoo!
Yay!!!!!!
While I love all the Ella albums you are talking about, I think my favorites are the quiet ones she did with Joe Pass. Just the two of them with him on guitar and her singing. Fantastic albums. I forget whether they did 2 or 3 of them but they were definitely at the top of their game together.