A timeless recording!

One of Ella's & this series' best! I never thought Ms. Fitzgerald could take on the challenge of doing a complete Harold Arlen set so successfully. I use to think a belter like Judy Garland could only do his melodies justice. I was wrong! Here, Ella showed that good taste & restraint works just as well! Don't get me wrong, Ella still used projection & dramactics to display the needed emotion for each song but she did it subtlety. She never overwhelmed which critics of Ethel Merman would say. Now to the songs! There are several I didn't know until I heard this tribute. Let's Take a Walk Around the Block sure romaticized the depreesion. Ella surely knew how to have fun with this dated song & still keep it fresh. This Time the Dreams on Me, which is also on the Johnny Merecr Songbook, makes me say they don't write them like that anymore. Arlen & Mercer were unbeatable. Why can't sophisticated love lyrics like that be written as often today. The classics on these 2 discs, which there are many, have never been done better! Blues In the Night opens the set with a 7 minute version that never gets boring. This was before Hey Jude & American Pie. I've never heard Ella in better voice, belting out the song in an original arrangement of this overdone but fabulous song! Accentuate the Positive is joy, gospel, & glorious pop all wrapped together. Both songs with opposite moods show how versatile Ella's singing was. With everyone knowing Ding Dong the Witch is Dead, it took Ella to record it. Why didn't Verve release it orginally? Ella has has much fun with this dark novelty song as she must have had with her own sweeter but tragic A Tisket A Tasket. Fitzgerald is up there on the fun tunes. I must mention arranger Billy May doing the impossible of taking a big band & having them deliver an unique, fresh, creative, bright & brassy back-up jazz sound. Only the saxes on My Shining Hour sounds out of place. Another complaint is that songs such as Right as the Rain & Anyplace I Hang My Hat should have been included. Still, so many Arlen masterpieces are. In conclusion, if one desires timeless material done by a timeless artist; this double album is it.

ELLA AND BILLY MAY

If you don't know other songbooks from the ELLA's 16 collection,you might enjoy those two cds a lot.But many of those excellent songs have been covered so well by the likes of SINATRA,GARLAND etc.that you are bound to be disapointed.ELLA is not at ease with with BILLY MAY's driving orchestral direction.Compare MAY's wonderful work with ANITA O'DAY(SWINGS COLE PORTER)to experience the difference.It's simply a mismatch.However,if you don't pay attention to these sorts of details,you can buy it eyes closed,because no songbook of ELLA is without interest.THAT OLD BLACK MAGIC and BLUES IN THE NIGHT were allready famous songs at that time;GET HAPPY will forever be associated with JUDY GARLAND.My favorite here is MY SHINING HOUR.A medium FITZGERALD can still be a crowd pleaser.

Ella, and Billy May...

Tonight I played the album which made me a devoted Ella Fitzgerald fan; it is Ella Fitzgerald sings the Harold Arlen Songbook. From the first time I played the LP my father left me, I loved her voice, and the atmosphere on this particular recording. I liked the swinging but sophisticated arrangements by Billy May. And right now when I switch my music off, I read on the Internet Billy May has passed away. He has the age for it (87), but it is a great loss anyway, although I didn't know he was still with us.
Ella sings beautiful (especially on the second dis): Over the Rainbow, Happiness is just a thing called Joe, One for my baby, the man that got away... listen to them; learn to love Ella, and think of Billy May... both their genius are somewhere over the rainbow now.