Wonderful

Ella Fitzgerald is one of my all-time favourite female vocalists. So of course any album she is on, deserves a 5 star rating. On this album, the great Joe Williams has chosen his favourite Ella tracks, and has written an essay about her and notes on each song. But, there is one very obvious mistake on this album. At least on the copy I have. Maybe it was corrected in later pressings...I hope so. But, the final song "Too close for comfort" is supposed to be a duet with Ella and Joe, and somehow it is a solo Joe Williams track. Even in the notes it says it's a duet, but it isn't. In fact I listened so many times to see if I could maybe hear a little of Ella in the background, lol, but no. It's a Joe Williams solo. Come on Verve...that is a silly mistake to make, and I'm sure that it embarressed Joe quite a bit.

But that aside, this is a fabulous collection. Her "Mack the Knife" and "How high the moon" are unbelievable. Her Louis Armstrong imitation in "Mack" and her Slam Stewart imitation in "How high.." are fantastic. How does she manage it? Amazing. This album is worth the price for those 2 songs alone. Highly recommended.