Not Ella's best, but some great things here

Cut during her 1950s/'60s prime (summer 1966, to be exact), 'Whisper Not' finds the great Ella Fitzgerald sparkling with wit and zest, though unfortunately the second half of the album fails to live up to the first.



The album kicks off with a rollicking "Sweet Georgia Brown." What Ella and Paich have done with this is stunning. They swing the ages-old standard with wild abandon, Ella starting off light, easy, and fairly straightfoward, and then twisting each chorus a little bit more until she wails the last one to pieces. A delicious opener with some classic phrasing--Ella's first reading of "Since she came, why it's a shame how she coooooools 'em down...*sigh*...Fellas...she can't get are fellas..she ain't met" is fabulous.



The jazzy vamp of "Whisper Not" is perfectly suited to Ella's style (or is it vice-versa?), and the lyrics by Leonard Feather (who wrote the liner notes as well) are especially tasty. On the wonderful out-chorus, Ella takes a major departure from the entire melody, looping over, under, and around and weaving a fantastic line of notes with the lyrics.



After a minute and a half of "I Said No," I very nearly skipped to the next track and wrote it off as idiotic repetition. But I didn't, and I'm SO happy. It slowly builds toward a rather humorous joke, catching the listener off guard--she's not singing about what you thought after all!--then abruptly turns the tables and launches back in the opposite direction, hilariously. And yet AGAIN the joke's on us, and the tables are turned once again. Ella has a ball with the tongue-in-cheek lyrics and gives a truly memorable reading.



The late Bob Hope's chestnut "Thanks for the Memory" is dusted off for a lovely treatment. Ella's reading of the last verse is sublime, and capped with a mind-bogglingly perfect coda that is perhaps the ultimate example of Ella's uncanny ability to imitate an instrument with her voice.



Improbably, included in this outing is, of ALL things, "Old Macdonald." One might wrinkle one's nose at the idea of that, but this simply has to be heard to be believed. Over a raucous arrangement that races at breakneck pace, Ella puts Mac and his farm out on Front Street, giving the lowdown on everything down to the little old Ford "with a clink-clink here and a clink-clink there," building and building until the arrangement explodes halfway through and Ella cries, "Old Macdonald had a farm--WHAT a swingin' farm!" The band goes into a frenzy behind her as she launches into the animal sounds again before finally throwing in the towel and wrapping up--"Ah, the heck with it! How ya gonna keep 'em down on the farm like Old Macdonald did?!" BRILLIANT.



Along for the ride are several take-or-leave ballads, including "Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most," "You've Changed," and "Time After Time." (Chet Baker's version of the latter has ruined me for any other.) A beautiful treatment of "Lover Man" is here also, and "I've Got Your Number" is a very cute tune which features, among other things, Ella singing the phrase "damn fools." The album closes with two waltzes, a very bland "Matchmaker" and a fair cover of "Wives and Lovers." (For a really swinging version of this tune, catch Lena Horne's knowing vocals on the 'Ultra-Lounge Tiki Sampler' or Sinatra and Basie's driving, bluesy 4/4 take on 'It Might as Well Be Swing.')



'Whisper Not' ends up being rather uneven due to some uninspired ballads, but the first half delivers, with "Georgia," "Old Macdonald," and the title track being practically worth the price of the disc all by themselves. Not the first Ella disc you should go for, but definitely not a completists-only. There's some first-rate jazz here.

one of Ella Fitzgerald's most sought-after albums

'Whisper Not' is probably one of Ella Fitzgerald's most sought-after albums, being that it was a rare departure for her, as most of the things she was recording in the same period were for her legendary 'Songbook' series.

This is a limited-edition reissue from Universal which presents the album complete with the original Verve LP artwork, and the original liner notes.

Among the great numbers in this collection are "Matchmaker Matchmaker" from FIDDLER ON THE ROOF, "Sweet Georgia Brown", "I Said No", "Time After Time" and "Wives and Lovers". Fitzgerald recorded the numbers in a single sitting, which proves beyond a doubt that she still is one of the most remarkable performers of all time.

Ella is accompanied here by the wonderful Marty Paich and his orchestra.

This limited-edition reissue is being discontinued in early 2005, but I hear that copies will get harder and harder to get as early as next year, so I advise anyone who has yet to buy this album to snap it up now.

This album is a classic.

Finally my wait is over for this recording to become available on CD. I bought it on LP when it first came out and I was 20 years old. I loved it then and I love it now. I have my favorite cuts, including "You've Changed," "Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most," "Lover Man," and the title cut, but every cut is a winner making this album a classic up there with Sgt. Pepper's and Dark Side of the Moon. The sounds of the Marty Paich orchestra compliment Ella's voice to perfection.

Maybe the reason I like this recording so well has to do with when I first heard it, but I don't think so. I think this is one of the best jazz vocal albums ever made.