Sings The Harold Arlen Song Book

Ella's take on "That old black magic" is a joy.

"Let's take a walk around the block" is a track I had no knowledge of prior to buying this album - for me personally a hidden gem that I had to play over and over.

Thoroughly recommended.


A glorious reminder of the incomparable Ella Fitzgerald   January 12, 2003
 18 out of 18 found this review helpful

This double album was on my Christmas present list since August 2002 when I realised that my CD collection was missing one icon of 20th century popular music, Ella Fitzgerald. I'm a total Billy May fan and have been collecting his albums for years where he has been bringing a unparalleled extra dimension to performances by Sinatra and Cole - and other singer fortunate enough to work with him - with his hit-the-ground-running brand of arrangements. But when you add Billy to Ella, the two of them to Harold Arlen's joyous music and then throw in Ted Koehler, Johnny Mercer, E Y Harburg for inspirational lyrics words of praise on the page become meaningless. This is the first of Ella's, Verve label songbooks that I have bought. If the rest are half as good it looks like my Christmas list is sorted for years to come. It's sublime, totally and utterly sublime.


Over the Rainbow, Beyond Praise   December 3, 2001
 37 out of 37 found this review helpful

It is probably fair to say that many more people will know the names of the composers Richard Rodgers and Jerome Kern than that of their brilliant contemporary, Harold Arlen. Yet, ironically, one of Arlen's numbers is probably better known to millions than any by Rodgers or Kern. The song in question is 'Over the Rainbow.' On this album, which is in itself a kind of dazzling rainbow, containing in its musical spectrum tenderness and regret, quirky humour and driving energy, Ella Fitzgerald lifts us into that magical place where blue birds fly. Her soaring performance of 'Over the Rainbow' is the highlight of a double LP that is altogether beyond praise.
Ella's collaborator for this collection is the arranger Billy May. Never having been a fan of May's distinctively brash big band sound, I have to confess I avoided the Arlen Songbook as long it was available only on two over-priced separate CDs. However, when the more reasonable Master Edition double came out and I finally succumbed - chiefly to complete my set of the Ella Songbook series - I felt entirely foolish for having been so prejudiced. May's charts, which use a great range of different orchestral forces, match the impeccable rightness of Ella's interpretations. None of the other Verve songbooks is more finely tuned, and apart from the cooking Ellington set, I can't think of any that is so thrilling.
In the liner notes for the new edition, May is quoted as saying that he did not see eye to eye with the producer, Norman Granz. Because Harold Arlen is generally regarded as the most blues-oriented (and by extension jazz-oriented) of Broadway/Hollywood composers, Granz apparently wanted every number to be a jazz side. However, May's annoyance with Granz's bullying doesn't show in the music: all the openings for jazz solos seem natural and unforced, and the charts bubble with fun and excitement.
To those who know already just how subtle Harold Arlen's music is, this album will be pure, concentrated delight. Ella had recorded many of the songs before - 'Blues in the Night,' 'As Long as I Live,' 'One for My Baby' and 'Let's Fall in Love' had appeared in the couple of years immediately prior to this 1961 release, and others, such as 'That Old Black Magic' were staples of her concert repertoire - but they never sounded better. With the possible exception of the rather ordinary 'Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead' (left out of the original album but restored here as a bonus track) every number throws new light on Arlen's music, and allows Ella to explore the clever lyrics of such writers as Ted Koehler and Johnny Mercer in new ways.
This will probably never be the most celebrated or popular of Ella Fitzgerald's songbooks, just because Arlen is not pure Broadway, like the Gershwins, or pure jazz, like Ellington. But make no mistake, the Harold Arlen Songbook is without doubt the crock of gold at the end of the rainbow.