Starbucks to sell "new" Ella

[GA Russell]

I received this press release on the 4th. It looks like Concord is dipping into its Pablo masters to find previously unreleased material.

Starbucks Entertainment and Concord Records

To Co-Release Never-Before-Heard Recordings of

Ella Fitzgerald, "Love Letters From Ella,"

on July 31, 2007

SEATTLE and LOS ANGELES; May 4, 2007 - To celebrate what would have been Ella Fitzgerald's 90th birthday, Starbucks Entertainment and Concord Records are co-releasing "Love Letters From Ella," a collection of never-before-released love songs. Recorded with some of her favorite collaborators, including Count Basie and his Orchestra, Joe Pass, and André Previn, "Love Letters From Ella" also pairs the singer with The London Symphony Orchestra for the first time. The CD will be available at Starbucks Company-operated locations in the U.S. and Canada and traditional music retail beginning on July 31, 2007.

"As we've been sorting through our vaults we came across these masterful tracks Ella recorded that had surprisingly never been released before," said Glen Barros, President and CEO of Concord Music Group. "Producer Gregg Field did an amazing job enhancing these recordings and the end result is a truly remarkable record that we are very proud to be releasing with Starbucks."

"Ella Fitzgerald is one of the greatest vocalists in history and it gives us great pleasure to participate in this celebration of her life and artistry," said Ken Lombard, president Starbucks Entertainment. "We are proud to collaborate with Concord Music Group to offer these amazing, never-before-heard recordings from an American original both at Starbucks locations and traditional retail."

The magical 10-track CD, mixed in high-definition audio, includes Ella and Basie swinging "Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone," an intimate duet between Joe Pass and Fitzgerald on "The One I Love" and a playful performance of "Our Love is Here to Stay" with pianist André Previn. "Love Letters From Ella" also features the celebrated singer accompanied by The London Symphony Orchestra on a stirring rendition of "Cry Me a River." The London Symphony Orchestra recorded the accompaniment, arranged by 24-time GRAMMY® Award-nominee Jorge Calandrelli, at Abbey Road studios in London.

"Love Letters From Ella" also served as an inspiration for the upcoming PBS broadcast "WE LOVE ELLA!" a WNET "Great Performances" special. The show will honor Ella with performances by, among others, Natalie Cole, Quincy Jones, k.d. lang, Take Six, Wynonna, Lizz Wright, Monica Mancini and Nancy Wilson. "WE LOVE ELLA!" will be taped in Los Angeles on Sunday, April 29, the week of Ella's birthday, and is scheduled to air on June 6, 2007.

Starbucks Entertainment and Concord Music Group's past co-releases include Ray Charles' "Genius Loves Company," which to date has sold more than 5.5 million copies worldwide and won an unsurpassed eight GRAMMY® Awards including Album of the Year, and Sergio Mendes' "Timeless," which won a Latin GRAMMY® Award for Best Brazilian Contemporary Pop Album of the Year and to date is on its way to selling a million copies worldwide. Like "Genius Loves Company" and "Timeless," "Love Letters From Ella" will be co-released at Starbucks locations and traditional music channels simultaneously.

Track Listing:

1. "Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone" (w/ Count Basie and his Orchestra)

2. "Cry Me a River" (w/ London Symphony Orchestra)

3. "You Turned the Tables on Me"

4. "I've Got the World on a String" (w/ London Symphony Orchestra and Joe Pass)

5. "Witchcraft"

6. "My Old Flame" (w/ London Symphony Orchestra)

7. "The One I Love" (w/ Joe Pass)

8. "Take Love Easy" (w/ London Symphony Orchestra and Joe Pass)

9. "Our Love is Here to Stay" (w/ André Previn)

10. "Some Other Spring" (w/ Count Basie and his Orchestra)

[etherbored]

check these people's record collection, these Ella Gurus-- not always but waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more often than those hep to all that other jive-- shit. just. stops. there. (= tokenism.) to the extent Ella maybe subsidized something hep like Verve's reissue program, OK, but i'm telling ya'll, neither The Titans, nor-- & this is key-- The Titanias are down with it.

e.g. the average starbucks demograph... nuff = said.

[Lazaro Vega]

Bessie Couldn't Help It

[Hot Ptah]

I am skeptical of these Starbucks products, but to dismiss Ella's entire career....she doesn't need me to defend her.

[etherbored]

diminishing isn't dismissing.

while it's taboo among certain purists, and not to say that she didn't have talent aplomb, much of ella's career is very cabaret. for my tastes, it wears thin very quickly.

[Hot Ptah]

Lots of discerning jazz lovers would disagree with you. To each their own.

[Hot Ptah]

clementine, I can assure you that any ideas I may have about Ella, or any other artist, are my own, and not merely some received conventional wisdom.

I have attended a very detailed lecture by Richard Davis on the musical merits of Ella, in which he played examples of her work and explained exactly what she was doing musically and why it was so superior. He did this in the context of telling us that he had played in Sarah Vaughan's trio for several years in the mid to late 1950s, and had been telling the other New York musicians at that time that Sarah was far better than Ella. He said that the other New York jazz giants told him in rough terms to go back and listen to Ella again because he was missing something if he could not hear Ella's musical greatness. They expressed it to him in much more colorful language.

I do not base my opinions about Ella on that lecture either, although it was an interesting lecture. I have listened to many female jazz vocalists and have some strong opinions about them, pro and con, which may very well depart from the conventional wisdom as commonly written in the jazz literature.

I find that Organissimo.org develops its own conventional wisdom about artists from time to time, in which the frequent posters all pile on some well known artist and declare that he or she is without much merit. Then other posters chime in with words of encouragement to the nay sayers. A few brave souls beg to differ and are swatted down by some of the frequent posters. To be fair, other frequent posters typically chime in at that point with a reasoned response, and the discussion becomes more of an in-depth examination, which I like.

It is good to challenge the conventional wisdom of jazz writing over the years. I don't find it to be very helpful though to post something like "John Coltrane was a hack" and then have several people agree, and then that's the discussion. What is the value in that, if John Coltrane's supporters can't express their views too?

[etherbored]

Lots of discerning jazz lovers would disagree with you. To each their own.

i would hope so. otherwise, this would be the most bland and mediocre of genres.

[jazzbo]

Ella with Chick Webb. Wow!

Ella in the forties on Decca. Wow!

Ella with full Orchestra on the Ellington Songbook. Wow!

Those works will always get me going. I'm less overtly jazzed about Ella beyond those parameters, but I'll reach for her and get something from it that is all hers.

Ella Starbuckle? I'll pass.

If you crank up "Ella in Rome" right near the final groove you can hear that it's maybe mutual. . . I hear her maybe saying "fuck edc."

Edited May 15, 2007 by jazzbo

[Soul Stream]

I find that Organissimo.org develops its own conventional wisdom about artists from time to time, in which the frequent posters all pile on some well known artist and declare that he or she is without much merit. Then other posters chime in with words of encouragement to the nay sayers. A few brave souls beg to differ and are swatted down by some of the frequent posters. To be fair, other frequent posters typically chime in at that point with a reasoned response, and the discussion becomes more of an in-depth examination, which I like.

I guess if the statement is..."Ella sucks..." I just don't think you're going to get that many takers on this, or any other jazz message board. When it comes to legendary artists, of which no doubt Ella was, to say that person sucks is just a cry for help.... (sorry clem )

[Teasing the Korean]

3) this does NOT mean i condone cabaret-like overinterpretation-- we've tried & ain't down with Ethel Merman or Bobby Short (for example)

I respect your right to not like Ella, but she's not in the same category as those two - if for no other reason than the fact that they use over the top vibratos more characteristic of stage singing.

[Soul Stream]

They used to run a live caberet show special from the early 80's I'd guess on Bobby Short on BET Jazz (before they dropped the channel here locally... )....and I was always fascinated by the sheer outlandish bizarre atmosphere of it all. Bobby sweating it out and singing and playing songs I'd never heard in a wildly over-the-top fashion. And when they panned the crowd it was all 60-80 year old super wealthy folks dressed to the 9s laughing and clapping heartily.

Somehow the whole thing made me want to be there....

[etherbored]

well, later in ella's career that was her modus...

[jazz1]

Here is a link to a nice Ella webstite

>http://web.tiscali.it/ellafitzgerald/

Like it or not Ella was a fantastic singer, beautiful voice, perfect pitch, sure she made some duds but for that matter every jazzman did too.

Concentrating on her best she was one of the best.

[John L]

First of all, kudos to Starbucks for keeping classic jazz on the American pop culture map. This is not the first time that they have done this. I feel no guilt whatsoever patronizing Starbucks. Their social activities are commendable in general.

As for Ella, my own personal take is that she does some things VERY well, and other things less well. As an interpreter of songs, she is absolutely fantastic on those sweet and bubbly "little girl has fallen in love" type ditties. I have yet to hear a convincing Ella interpretation of a truly sad or angry song full of despair. I don't care too much for what she does with the blues either.

What is nice is that we can pick or choose. I have no trouble appreciating Ella for what she is, and using other singers to make up for what she isn't.

Edited May 16, 2007 by John L

[Shawn]

I can appreciate her chops, but I've never been a fan of her music. I don't "hate" her, I also don't get overly excited about her. My gut reaction is...BLAH.

[Teasing the Korean]

mo' later but i actually meant Mabel Mercer not Ethel Merman...

I respect your right to not like Ella, but she's not in the same category as Mabel Mercer either.

[Larry Kart]

mo' later but i actually meant Mabel Mercer not Ethel Merman tho' she works too &, rumor has it, Tony Bennett once fingered her near Hellgate (they were both from Astoria, Queens.)

edc

ozona, fla

Clem -- About that Bennett-Merman rumor, if I were you I'd be thinking about a selective lobotomy; but perhaps you don't sleep much at night anyhow. About Ella, I don't think she made much emotional-dramatic contact with the lyrics of the songs she sang until late in her life, when her voice began to fray and falter some. I say this based on live performances I saw and a few latter-day Pablo recordings. There are some recordings before this, though, where elegance pretty much equals eloquence for her, the standards with Ellis Larkins material for example. The peppy, scatting Ella I have no taste for. About Bennett -- the whole "revival of good music" thing may have been creepy and have led to rather freeze-dried performances, but I heard a good deal of earlier Bennett in person and on record that seemed remarkable to me -- in particular the two albums of Rodgers and Hart songs he did with Ruby Braff for his own label (later reissued by Concord). The version of "Lover" on one of them is among the greatest vocal recordings I know, dramatically and musically.

Edited May 16, 2007 by Larry Kart

[Ken Dryden]

I find it sad that anyone would be so dismissive of Ella Fitzgerald's obvious contributions to jazz. She was revered by the musicians who worked with her and most critics. Yes, she kept performing when she was obviously past her prime, she sometimes chose inappropriate songs (Marvin Gaye's monotonous "What's Goin' On" on her Carnegie Hall concert of the 1970s and the insipid "Wives and Lovers" to name two) and the Grammy for her final release should have gone to Carmen McRae for Carmen Sings Monk. But at least Starbuck's is featuring Ella rather than all of the thin-voiced singer/songwriters who have been promoted as jazz artists in recent years by major labels.

I am more concerned about those who are promoting the remixes of Nina Simone and Billie Holiday, as if this music has to be dumbed down for consumption by youth.

[Hot Ptah]

While I have defended Ella here, I am not unaware of the unevenness of some of her recordings. I find her late 1960s album entitled "Ella", produced by popster Richard Perry, to be one of the more unbelievable efforts by any major jazz artist. On this album, she takes on the Beatles' "Savoy Truffle" and Randy Newman's caustic (and intentionally racist) "Yellow Man", singing the odd lyrics of the former and the deliberately offensive lyrics of the latter as if she is running through a Gershwin song. Some of the album is more bland than bad, such as her rendition of "The Hunter Gets Captured By The Game".

I also think that many of her Pablo albums were not that thrilling, and that it could be said that she was overrecorded in those days--especially as Norman Granz did not do much in the way of notable projects for her in those years.

Still, when I saw her live in 1979, she knocked everyone's socks off. By the time of a 1983 concert, her command of the upper register had noticeably diminished, but she was still a great artist, in my humble opinion.

I love her "Ella Sings Gershwin" album from the early 1950s, with just Ellis Larkins at the piano backing her. I find those renditions to be quite moving.

[Ken Dryden]

Lots of jazz artists recorded inappropriate pop songs:

Bud Shank played the music of the Lovin' Spoonful (on a long oop LP appropriately titled A Spoonful of Jazz)

Carmen McRae did Alice Cooper's "Only Women Bleed" (so should have the producer or person who suggested this turkey to Carmen)

[JSngry]

Any claim that "What's Going On" was an "inferior" song relative to the "superior" talent of Ella seals the deal on at least one facet of EDC's positations. Damn...

As for Ella & "standards", my enjoyment of her is directly proportional to the lack of "feeling", "interpretation", etc. she puts into the performance. When she just sings the song, hey, that instrument can be a marvelous thing. When she gets "jazzy" (and I know that she's of a time & place where the term "jazzy" is an insult, hell, in a lot of ways & for a lot of people-types - not all of them "clueless", she is a certain type of jazz, but that just goes to show you that "jazz" is a lot of differnt things to a lot of different people), I tend to, eventually, have to excuse myself to go to the bathroom. Thanks T!

And her scatting, well, on the (almost 100%) whole.....no thanks.

But there does exist a realm of Pop where a good song well sung without too much "personal" intervention on the part of the interpreter creates a "tabula rasa" of sorts, a blank slate where we the listener can project any/all scenarios onto the performance which in turn can lead to a sort of un/sub-conscious self-examination (which may or may not pop up into the realm of the conscious, where it then may or may not be a "good thing"). There's a place for that, as well as for good songs well sung just because. Ella's done her fair share of this type work, and if, based on her total career, she's definitely at or near the top of my personal "Jazz Legands You Really Don't Give Too Much Of A Rat's Ass About, Nothing Personal, I Just Can't Relate" list, there are things, more than just "a few", but significantly less than "a lot", here & there that I do very much enjoy. Just not enough relative to the "legend".

And btw - the best moments of the Nina Simone remix album are anything but "dumbed down" (and the other moments aren't any "dumber" than the originals, they're just "dumb" in a different way. "I Got Life" is dumb no matter how/what.) A different esthetic - a decidedly non-linear esthetic - is at work, sure, but it's anything but "dumb". To call the remixes of "Save Me" or "Obeah Woman" "dumbed down" is more a judgement rendered from only "hearing" what isn't there than from having a grasp of what is. Dumb is as dumb hears...

I'll stop now, but I really don't want to...

[J Larsen]

I can appreciate her chops, but I've never been a fan of her music. I don't "hate" her, I also don't get overly excited about her. My gut reaction is...BLAH.

That's pretty much where I am, though I've never felt inspired to work out a theory of why I feel that way as Clem has.

[DukeCity]

As for Ella & "standards", my enjoyment of her is directly proportional to the lack of "feeling", "interpretation", etc. she puts into the performance. When she just sings the song, hey, that instrument can be a marvelous thing...But there does exist a realm of Pop where a good song well sung without too much "personal" intervention on the part of the interpreter creates a "tabula rasa" of sorts... There's a place for that, as well as for good songs well sung just because.

Absolutely! I often tell my students that they should learn tunes by listening to recordings (specifically vocal renditions), rather than just out of a book. Ella is a great place to start because she actually sings the melody of the tunes, and she recorded so many standards on those "Songbook" albums.

Also, she was a helluva singer, AND I know that it's not officially the Christmas season until this get spun several times:

[JSngry]

Otoh, that album cover could easily be used as the starting point of a symbolic analysis of what some of us find "wrong" about so much of her work...

But that wouldn't be all that much fun (a few years ago, sure, but life is short), and, yeah, her very real skills as "straight" (no rumors, please) singer are not to be dismissed, I don't think, just as her place as "jazz" (no rumors, please) singer is not without...er..."complications" of one type or another for many.