Fine and Mellow: Ella Fitzgerald Jams

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Fine and Mellow: Ella Fitzgerald Jams album cover
Album Information

Total Tracks: 9   Total Length: 47:46

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Title track is an Ella classic!

Leo12

Billie Holiday is generally given the credit for nailing down 'Fine and Mellow' but Ella comes up with a storming version here, and it deserves to be included in any 'Best of' collection. However, the rest of the album never quite matches the brilliant title track. Ella is supported here by what reads like a roll call of jazz giants, including the wonderful Tommy Flanagan on piano. It should have had all the makings of a classic session but apart from 'Fine and Mellow' the sparks don't really fly as so often they did when Ella was jamming in a 'live' concert setting.

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Labor of Love

ddubb

Some of her most highly acclaimed albums from this period are her live albums. Great as they are, sometimes they feel like they're the product of a team of concert organizers who are trying to present the ultimate "Ella show" with an overly conscious concept of "Give 'em (the audience) what they want." This album feels more like its a product of the musicians involved getting together behind Ella's back and agreeing, "Hey fellas, let's do this one for her..." Then they play their hearts out. When you listen, their affection for Ella is palpable. I set out looking for an Ella album that is truest to the jazz idiom. Her career is full of great swing, blues, standards etc but I wanted me some real jazz. This title delivers. I'm no expert on Ella's career, but this is one of the jazziest sessions I've found. Feel the love.

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"Man, woman, or child, Ella is the most!" Bing Crosby's much-quoted praise of Ella Fitzgerald is suspiciously similar to Duke Ellington's equally famous observation that Fitzgerald was "beyond category." They were both right: Fitzgerald was much greater than any other jazz singer or any other female singer; over the course of a career that lasted 60 years, she consistently transcended genre, gender and just about everything else. How amazing is it that Fitzgerald was unquestionably… more »