"Ella At Zardi's" finally being released

[duaneiac]

This album has certainly been a long time in the making.  Recorded at the Hollywood nightclub Zardi's on Feb. 2, 1956, this was among the very first recorded projects by Ella Fitzgerald under her new contract with Norman Granz's Verve Records.  (Just five days later she went into the studio to begin recording her classic Cole Porter Songbook album.)  For some reason, this session has sat in the Verve vaults for 61 years, but it is finally scheduled to be released next month on CD.  Ms. Fitzgerald was accompanied on this occasion by Don Abney, Vernon Alley and the recently departed Frank Capp.  I have not seen any track listing for the CD yet, but the Discography in Stuart Nicholson's biography of Ella Fitzgerald shows 20 songs having been recorded on this date.  Hopefully they will all be included on the CD.

[Chuck Nessa]

I have always hoped for more Ella.

[JSngry]

Always, more.

But what's the deal on Don Abney? I have him on a Music Minus One record with Bobby Donaldson, Mundell Lowe, and Wilbur Ware, and that's it. For that matter, bobby Donaldson, what's the deal with him too?

Let's make a deal, Monty, and here's some more of the ella for all of us.

 

But too much teeth will ruin your appetite:

and now your teeth fall out

by george!

 

[mjzee]

Don Abney's on 4 tracks of this:

[JSngry]

Thanks for that pointer, then I have him on two records!

[Larry Kart]

Surely you have this album. If you do, you have more Abney. If you don't have this album, you need to get it.

[JSngry]

Well yes, I do!

[Chuck Nessa]

No mention of "Ella Speed"?

[mjzee]

Abney's also on "Another One":

[king ubu]

Any of those so fed up with the masses of Ella releases has a Verve edition of "Live at Mister Kelly's" to let go?

[Ted O'Reilly]

I hope the piano was tuned for Ella's gig.  It wasn't for Oscar Peterson's 1955 recording at Zardi's.  That took years and years to issue too.  It was one of his best performances of the period, but oh, that piano!  By the end of disc two, it's cringe-worthy.

[disaac]

Is the Verve edition that superior to the other version floating around on eBay for $15 or so?  Or is that a boot?

[Brad]

I had received an email from Verve on RSD that the vinyl was going to be available in limited quantities that day. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get to any record store that day. 

[Lazaro Vega]

Abney and Ella are on screen in "Pete Kelly's Blues." This was supposed to be the first Verve release, but the Cole Porter Songbook came out and 60 years later we get the, 'Oh yeah.....I forgot about that one.....' The crowd, and maybe that's Granz, is kind of treating her like a human jukebox. A few times she sort of shrugs to the band and says something along the lines of 'we're going off the set list.' She'd worked some stuff up, though, as you can hear in the intro to "Why Don't You Do Right?" That's a thought out arrangement. Kind of wish they'd have left her alone to play what she wanted, though everyone is up to winging it.