Ella Fitzgerald Sings the George and Ira Gershwin Song Book

Lovely.

good background

Better than coldplay

-It's hard for me not to think of Kind of Blue, which was recorded the same year. In that context, where jazz was at the end of the 1950s, this is quite a conservative, throw-back kind of project. I was able to connect with a handful of the songs either because of their cleverness (e.g. "Who Cares") or their moodiness (e.g. "A Foggy Day"), but most of these tracks did not set me on fire. Nevertheless, major respect to Ella and the Gershwins for their place in jazz history.

-I didn't mind the length so much. It gave me a good excuse to plunge the depths of the Gershwin catalogue and listen to a lot of Ella Fitzgerald, something I basically never do. And, to be honest, the length of the catalogue started to win me over a bit. That being said, you can't put this many songs in a collection and expect them all to be winners. Some of these are miniature pieces of pop perfection, some are total shlock novelty songs. And as the great Spinal Tap said, it's a fine line between stupid and clever.

-It's probably a character flaw in me, but I do not enjoy scatting.

-The orchestral arrangements throughout are surprisingly square. The instrumental tracks without Ella are painfully schmaltzy.

Part of me thinks “girl don’t give this five stars. This is cheating. You can’t call this an album, it’s basically a box set anthology”. The other part thinks “ this music is gorgeous. Over three hours and you never hated listening to it. In fact most of the time you were tapping your toes or swaying your head. Gorgeous voice, lush arrangements, snappy lyrics. Don’t be a hater. This is top level.”
So, even though I feel a tiny bit manipulated, it’s in the best possible way. Cheers!

objectively great but the length is brutal

Oh no another recording with more than 2 albums worth.
It does make me wonder if multiple album proejcts should have their own category.
Likely not going to be able to listen to this whole thing in a day but in order to keep this project going I’ll listen to as much as I can and edit these notes once I get through it all in the next few days.
Should be fun though as Ella is a great vocalist.

Alright I’m getting through it now and wow these are some great songs!
I appreciate the work that went into all the arrangements.
There’s an epic, show-tune kinda vibe here which is possible so it would be good to know the context of some of these lyrics.
Would be fun to karaoke these but it would take a bit of work for sure to get it to Ella’s level!

This is #day506 of my #1001albumsyoumusthearbeforeyoudie challenge, and… that was a whole lot of Ella Fitzgerald for one sitting, I must admit. The music feels kind of right for these post-Christmas days. I gave up on "Love Is Here To Stay," though. This is a 3 out of 5. Looking forward to #day507.

This album is easily a perfect 5/5. The vast majority of these reviews here complain about the length, which while fair (3 hours is a long time), it is easily fixable. Just listen to the album over a period of days. I listened to one disc a day and on day 5 listened to discs 5 and 6. It was an enjoyable experience. This list isnt a race. There was not a single bad song on this recording.

Favorite track(s):
LP 1: But Not For Me, Nice Work If You Can Get It
LP 2: The Man I Love
LP 3: For You, for Me, for Evermore, Of Thee I Sing (Baby)
LP 4: Slap That Bass, Love Walked In
LP 5: Embraceable You
What are they doing putting boxsets on this list?

A lot of high quality songs with a great vocal performance. The last disc therefore is a bit lacking without the good songwriting and vocals. Rating this not as an album to sit through in one go, but as a compilation of works, it is quite good.

Ok, so...
On one hand, Ella is a beautiful singer and what a major music milestone to have her collaborate so extensively with the Gershwin brothers outside of the skat style shes known for.
On the other hand this was such a goddamn slog to get through. Most of the songs sounded similar and the vast, vast majority were love songs (and not in a fun, tongue in cheek way like 69 love songs). And I won't be listening to all of the alternative takes on disk 4, which might be the first time 700 albums into this I'm not ~technically listening to the whole album?
The thing is, what i value in albums is a story and a point of view. I enjoy when the songs are meticulously created and placed in a specific order, specifically: 1)the openers and closers act as strong bookends that make sense, 2) there is variety in the track list with extra points for a few interludes, 3) there is a cohesive sound and "vibe" that elevates the tracklist from just being a collection of songs 4) the album art acts as the ~environment by which you can imagine the music in, 5) the artist is practicing at the top on their skillset and I can see a genuine picture of who they are or what they're trying to say, 6) there are some experimental moments that make the record stand out amongst its contemporaries at the time. A record doesn't need all of these to be great, but again they are traits I personally value.
This one didn't scratch that itch. It was a large anthology of works from very talented musicians, but I would have preferred an album with more personality and diluted to the strongest moments.
"Beginners Luck" is a goddamn bop, though.
2.4/5 -> 2/5

Outside of opera, Ella has the best voice of all-time and the combination of her flawless vocals with great instrumentation almost makes up for the corny lyrics and enormous album length (well over 3 hours). Unfortunately, I can't give 5 stars to an album that simply doesn't fit the brief of "album", which makes me wonder why this one is even on the list. It's a collection of songs that is not intended to be listened to in one setting. If they'd just picked a shorter Ella album it would easily be in the running for top ten album on this list.

4.0/5.0: Great

this one is a struggle to rate. on one hand you have great songs performed by a generational talent. on the other hand you have a collection of songs not really meant to be listened to consecutively as an album. the format makes what should be an easy 5 an incredibly tough listen. do yourself a favor an break this up into smaller chunks and it will be a much more enjoyable listen.

Ella is one of the greatest singers and she makes every song feel so natural, this honestly has no bad songs and it feels shorter than it is - however it is simply way too long, this could be an all-timer LP or double album and this could have been a collectors edition for the true fans.

Great voice that works its way around the melodies beautifully for a powerful perfomance, but this style of stringy jazz is too schmaltzy to bear.

Ella has a beautiful voice and the Gershwin brothers wrote some modern classics that absolutely deserve to be called "standards", but 3.25hrs of homework is an unreasonable amount of homework for a purely recreational project like this. This is “final boss” level music homework and should only be given out as album number 1001. I guess I should be grateful we weren't given Ella's entire Great American Songbook series. Or are the other pieces still coming?

This is a textbook on singing and I can easily see this used as a benchmark by which all other female vocal performances are measured. She also won a 1960 Grammy for "But Not For Me" from this record. This is fantastic work, but I don’t think I’ll be sitting through it again. My rating represents the quality of the work here, but accounts for my disinterest in engaging with it again. It’s the highest 3.99999999 I can give.

bro think she Laufey 🫩🫠

Fire album tho will be dming this to my deceased grandma 🪦🌹

Ella's a legend of course. This is pretty tired though, probably slapped in 1959. Slapping was far more normalised back then.

Also 3+ hours?! No chance.

escutei (quase) tudo, foi divertido. dividi em dois dias e não me cansei muito não, apesar de ser meio repetitivo. gostosinho de ouvir de fundo.

bem bonito, vozerão bacana, arranjos bem chiques. bem década de 50 mesmo. bacana, mas 3 horinha eh sacanagem