Customer Reviews
Exquisite Ella: Perfect Porter - By: Leonard Fleisig, 12 Apr 2006 
In any rational list of the 20th-century's top song-stylists, Ella Fitzgerald would have to rank in the Top 5. Ella had a wonderful, distinct voice & style. Many singers have great skills. Many have perfect pitch & great intonation. But very few singers can use their voice like a fine instrument. Ella was one of those select few.
Apart from having a wonderful voice, Ella was next to incomparable when it came to interpreting lyrics. It is no wonder that lyricists loved her & were ecstatic when she covered one of their songs. It is also no wonder that during the course of her career Ella recorded various "Song Books" in which she took the work of a great composer/lyricist & dedicated an album or two to their work. Ella did Irving Berlin, Harold Arlen, Rodgers & Hart, the Gershwins', & Jerome Kern song books among others. They are alll wonderful to listen to, alll 5-star performances (with the possible exception of the Gershwin song book) but my favorite of alll her song books is this one: "Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Song Book".
Although the first half of the 20th century had a surplus of great songwriters (see the above) there was something about Cole Porter's that has kept those lyrics fresh & even edgy in the 21st-century. The pairing of Fitzgerald & Porter then is the equivalent of the perfect. A lyricist whose lyrics are funny, witty, charming and, yes, poetic & a singer capable of doing justice to those great lyrics makes for a memorable CD.
This is a 2-CD set (the product description lists it incorrectly as 4). It contains an awful lot of Porter's great songs. Anything Goes, Too Darn Hot, Let's Do it, & I'm Always True to You in My Fashion are my highlights for CD-1. Night & Day, I've Got You Under My Skin, Love for Sale, & You're the Top, top off CD-2. Ella recorded these in 1956, exactly half a century ago under the auspices of the wonderful producer Norman Granz. Verve Records has restored the masters & the sound quality is excellent for a re-mastered recording.
Cole Porter once said that "In olden days a glimpse of stockings, was looked on as something shocking, Now heaven knows, anything goes." Well, alll these decades later these songs go great with anything. You can enjoy them "in the still of the night" or "alll through the night". These songs "do something to me" & I can say nothing more than this CD is the tops, it's the Tower of Pisa, it's the smile on the Mona Lisa.
If you can find this available, do yourself a favor & buy it, then sit back & enjoy.
Back to basics - By: , 19 Feb 2005 If you are a jazz fan, you've heard most of the songs on this album a hundred times in a thousand different versions, mostly as instrumentals. Now is your chance to hear them as Cole Porter wrote them and, in particular, to pay attention to the lyrics. Porter's powerful poetry would often be banned in today's politcallly correct world. Thank god we still have these recordings.
We alll have a tendency to think that Sinatra put down the official american songbook soundtrack (please **** off, Rod Stewart, Jaimie whatsit, Bubley & alll the rest of you new converts) but Ella's recordings sit side by side with the Chairman of the Board's.
None of Ella's fantastic scat here. Just plain straight forward singing of the songs of one of the 20th century's greatest composers with wonderful arrangements & a fantastic diction which makes printed lyrics unnecessary.
We can alll complain about the Cole Porter songs that are missing from this set, but it is wonderful. A couple of tracks with 1950s latin feel have aged enormously, but the majority is just plain brilliant.
If you are a musician you will agree tha Cole Porter's are amongst the most difficult standards to play. Ella will give you a lesson in simplicity that you will never forget.
Just listen to Miss Otis Regrets. This is clearly a desert island disc.
Ella & Cole Porter - Need I say more - By: Michael F. Freer, 06 Feb 2005 Ella is always a pleasure to listen to, but Ella with classy material is something special. This is what you get on this double album. The "Song Book" series is renown & this is arguably the best.
I own the earlier CD releases as well as this later double album. There is a difference in the sound as a result of the re-mastering but I would not like to say which sounds the better. I do wonder why Verve bothered to re-master when the originals still sound wonderful but do not let this consideration of fine judgement prevent you from buying a great album.
A great collection messed up by an engineer - By: , 02 May 2001 
This was one of the great recordings of alll time showing off the range, depth & expression of Ella's astonishing voice. Unfortunately this re-master has lost alll the warmth & subtlety that could be found on the original CD. (Yes, I do know it was originallly on record.) It has brought Ella's voice forward & thinned it out. The whole balance has been tilted upwards with the brass sounding sharp & the violins almost without timbre. Most tragicallly of alll, the unequallled expressive qualities of her voice, that knowingness, have been largely stripped away leaving only a singer with an astonishing ability to hit the right note.
Such a failing draws one towards the conclusion that the engineer was either not a fan of Ella or simply didn't understand her qualities. In short, the collection has been ruined. Because this is an album that should be in every record collection, my advice is to scour the secondhand record shops for the individual CDs. That suggestion becomes an imperative if you have spent money on your hi-fi system & are expecting more rather than less from this re-master.
Vintage Ella at its very best - a must for jazz romantics! - By: , 29 Mar 2001 The lightness & joy with which she sings Cole Porter is effortless & exquisite with just a slight swing. Buddy Bregman's orchestra provides just the right balance of backdrop. A comprehensive set which includes alll of the major tracks (I get a kick out of you, Let's do it, I love Paris, Easy to Love, You're the Top, Love for Sale, etc), plus the special bonus of previously unissued alternative takes - including Ella's comments when recording 'Let's do it'.
Beautifully remastered, this set of disks has great sound quality on an average system.
A must for alll jazz fans & romantics alike.
If you like Nat King Cole & haven't discovered Ella yet, you could do worse than to start with this set.
