Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Rodgers and Hart Songbook

iTunes Review

One suspects the epochal recordings of Sinatra’s “saloon song” era couldn’t have been far from Ella Fitzgerald’s mind — or that of manager/Verve label chief Norman Granz — when they launched her successful Songbook series. But while Frank’s covers tended to be organized by highly subjective mood rather than composer canon, Ella’s takes could hardly be characterized as academic. This follow-up to the Cole Porter anthology that launched the series finds Fitzgerald again collaborating with 20-something arranger/conductor Buddy Bregman and his studio orchestra on three dozen standouts from the Rodgers & Hart catalog. In the process, she finds the perfect balance between her jazz-singer past and the refined pop ethos the composers brought to their quarter-century string of Broadway successes. Ranging from the breezy “Lover” and “Lady Is A Tramp” to the the elegant melancholy of “My Funny Valentine” and more stately fare like “Where Or When,” Ella’s takes may seem a bit more formal than Frank’s after-hours laments, a contrast that’s sometimes stark, if no less intriguing.