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"Divaville Lounge" with Sarah O (archive)

step into the lounge!

Sunday, April 25, 2021 | 14:00 to 16:00 | jazz/pop vocalists

http://www.divavillelounge.org

Artist	Song	Album	Label	Comments
Ella Fitzgerald	Introduction	Live at Mister Kelly's	Verve	Happy Birthday Ella Fitzgerald! Today's show is all live performances by Fitzgerald
Ella Fitzgerald	Exactly Like You	Live at Mister Kelly's	Verve	recorded in 1958 at Mister Kelly's in Chicago

Saturday Night Swing Club Orchestra feat. Ella FItzgerald	A-Tisket A-Tasket	The Savory Collection	Mosaic	rec. 1938 in NY for "Saturday Night Swing Club" a CBS radio program. The group included Roy Eldridge tp, Teddy McRae ts, Tommy Fulford p, Chick Webb d and Ella Fitzgerald v, along with unidentified members of the CBS studio orchestra
Ella Fitzgerald	Flyin' Home	Jazz at the Philharmonic: The Ella Fitzgerald Set	Verve	rec. 1949 this was Fitzgerald's first appearance with Norman Grantz' Jazz at the Philharmonic series, which had begun in 1944. personnel at this date: Ella Fitzgerald, Flip Phillips (saxophone), Lester Young (saxophone), Charlie Parker (saxophone), Tommy Turk (trombone), Buddy Rich (drums), Hank Jones (piano), Ray Brown (double bass), Roy Eldridge (trumpet)
Ella Fitzgerald	Old Mother Hubbard	Jazz at the Philharmonic: The Ella Fitzgerald Set	Verve	rec. 1949 these three songs were all recorded at Carnegie Hall at the height of Fitzgerald's bop period
Ella Fitzgerald	Oh, Lady, Be Good	Jazz at the Philharmonic: The Ella Fitzgerald Set	Verve	rec. 1949 this piece was done with a smaller band: Hank Jones (piano), Ray Brown (double bass), Buddy Rich (drums)
Ella Fitzgerald	Why Don't You Do Right?	Jazz at the Philharmonic: The Ella Fitzgerald Set	Verve	rec. 1953 at Carnegie Hall at this later session Fitzgerald had begun to move away from bop & was performing more pop songs like this
Ella Fitzgerald	It All Depends on You	Ella at Zardi's	Verve	rec 1956 the voice introducing her at the beginning who says "For me, she's the greatest there is" is Norman Grantz
Ella Fitzgerald	Cry Me a River	Ella at Zardi's	Verve	rec 1956 in a single night at Zardi's Jazzland in Hollywood. "Cry Me a River" was not in her typical repertoire but she loved taking requests & would always accommodate audience requests if she could. Note that she inserts a bit of "I Cried for You" in the middle, a song she sang much more often
Ella Fitzgerald	A Fine Romance	Ella at Zardi's	Verve	rec 1956 these were Fitzgerald's first recordings for Verve but they were shelved for decades because Grantz and FItzgerald were concerned that a live album would compete with The Cole Porter Songbook, her first studio recordings with Verve
Ella Fitzgerald	Gone With the Wind	Ella at Zardi's	Verve	rec 1956 another request, she asks the audience to feed her the lyrics because she doesn't know all the words. Ella at Zardi's is a fine example of the rapport Fitzgerald had with her audience
Ella Fitzgerald	Airmail Special	Ella at Zardi's	Verve	rec 1956 the band at this date was Vernon Alley (b), Frank Capp (d), Don Abney (p). This was a song Ella sang countless times, but as she says in the middle of the song, it was a little different every time

Ella FItzgerald	Love for Sale	Jazz at the Hollywood Bowl	Verve	rec 1956 Fitzgerald appeared in an all-star concert that also included Louis Armstrong, Art Tatum, Oscar Peterson, Harry Edison, Flip Phillips, Illinois Jacquet, Roy Eldridge, Herb Ellis, Ray Brown and Buddy Rich
Ella Fitzgerald	Too Close for Comfort	Jazz at the Hollywood Bowl	Verve	rec 1956 Fitzgerald's band included Alvin Stoller (d), Barney Kessel (g), Joe Mondragon (b), Paul Smith (p)
Ella Fitzgerald	Just One of Those Things	Ella in Rome - The Birthday Concert	Verve	rec 1958 this is often called her 40th birthday concert but it was actually performed on her 41st birthday. The band for most of the show was Lou Levy (p), Max Bennett (b), Gus Johnson (d)
Ella Fitzgerald	Stompin' at the Savoy	Ella in Rome - The Birthday Concert	Verve	rec 1958 this song closed the show. The band on this number only: Oscar Peterson (p), Ray Brown (b), Herb Ellis (g), Gus Johnson (d)

Ella Fitzgerald	How Long Has This Been Going On	Live at Mister Kelly's	Verve	rec 1958 after Fitzgerald's appearance at Mister Kelly's she got a telegraph from Duke Ellington which said "Everybody loved you, but nobody loved you as much as I did because I had the best seat."
Ella Fitzgerald	Across the Alley from the Alamo	Live at Mister Kelly's	Verve	rec 1958 This was the first time Fitzgerald recorded this song, in fact much of the album is songs she'd never recorded before
Ella Fitzgerald	Perdido	Live at Mister Kelly's	Verve	rec 1958 Fitzgerald riffs on the lyrics, but she knew them as she had recorded the song the year before for the Duke Ellington Songbook, here she was just having fun with the song
Ella Fitzgerald	Mack the Knife	Mack the Knife: The Complete Ella in Berlin	Verve	rec 1960 Fitzgerald makes a comment at the beginning that "you haven't heard a girl sing this," hard to believe but this was the first time a woman had recorded this song. Before this Louis Armstrong and Bobby Darin had recorded it
Ella Fitzgerald	How High the Moon	Mack the Knife: The Complete Ella in Berlin	Verve	rec 1960 this has been called the greatest scat performance ever recorded and I won't disagree

Ella Fitzgerald	A-Tisket, A-Tasket	Twelve Nights in Hollywood	Verve	rec 1961 like Ella at Zardi's, this set languished in the Verve archives for decades. A single album from these dates called Ella in Hollywood was released in 1961, but this set wasn't published until 2007
Ella Fitzgerald	Blue Moon	Twelve Nights in Hollywood	Verve	rec 1961 this is one of the gems of this set. "Blue Moon" had been a jazz standard since it was written in 1934, but Fitzgerald riffing on the Marcels' 1961 doo-wop arrangement is delightful
Ella Fitzgerald	Joe Williams' Blues	Twelve Nights in Hollywood	Verve	rec 1961 a mind blowing series rapid-fire references in this post-bop performance. Fitzgerald only recorded this song a couple of times
Ella Fitzgerald	Angel Eyes	Twelve Nights in Hollywood	Verve	rec 1961 the band for most of this set was Lou Levy (p), Herb Ellis (g), Wilfred Roland Middlebrooks (b), Gus Johnson (d). Fitzgerald said this was her favorite ballad to record.
Ella Fitzgerald	Clap Hands! Here Comes Charlie!	Twelve Nights in Hollywood	Verve	rec 1962 if you want a better sense of who Fitzgerald was as a performer, it's hard to go wrong with Twelve Nights in Hollywood. She was at the height of her abilities, the intimate setting (only 200 seats) was very comfortable to her, all the band were people she'd worked with many times

Ella Fitzgerald	I Love Being Here With You	Ella at Juan-Les-Pins	Verve	rec 1964 at the Festival Mondial du Jazz Antibes. The band was Roy Eldridge (t), Tommy Flanagan (p), Gus Johnson (d), Bill Yancey (b). The sound quality isn't up to some of Fitzgerald's other live albums but there are some songs here that are otherwise difficult to find by Fitzgerald
Ella Fitzgerald	Summertime	Ella at Juan-Les-Pins	Verve	rec 1964 I have read that Fitzgerald and Eldridge had an uneasy partnership. They were both accustomed to being the star and touring together wasn't a good experience for either of them. They did play together multiple times, besides this album there was a 1957 concert in Stockholm that resulted in an album. Despite the sound quality and reported problems I love this album. Her performance of Summertime is sublime and I love the rawness of the festival performance (she coughs just before beginning to sing!)
Ella Fitzgerald	Lullaby of Birdland	The Ella Fitzgerald & Duke Ellington Cote D'Azur Concerts On Verve	Verve	rec 1966 at the Antibes Jazz Festival. There is a movie about this concert series called "At The Cote D’Azur With Ella Fitzgerald & Joan Miro." Ellington is very much the focus of the movie; Fitzgerald sings but I don't think she ever speaks on camera
Ella Fitzgerald	Something to Live For	The Ella Fitzgerald & Duke Ellington Cote D'Azur Concerts On Verve	Verve	rec 1966 Tragic story behind this song: Fitzgerald had just found out that her sister hd died, a few hours before performing. She was clearly distraught during the performance, which was being filmed for the movie. Norman Grantz kept trying to get in close on her face for the camera, but Ellington kept trying to get him to stop, not try to capture Fitzgerald's private moment on film. Apparently this conflict caused a rift between Grantz and Ellington

Ella Fitzgerald	Goodbye	Something to Live For	Verve	goodbye!