Ken Burns Jazz

1	A-Tisket, A-Tasket 2:40
2	Vote for Mr. Rhythm 2:27
3	Betcha Nickel 2:55
4	Flying Home 2:30
5	Nice Work If You Can Get It 2:38
6	Smooth Sailing 3:07
7	Lullaby of Birdland 2:52
8	Night and Day 3:06
9	Let's Call the Whole Thing Off 4:12
10	Sophisticated Lady 5:22
11	Oh, Lady Be Good Live 4:02
12	Blue Skies 3:45
13	Mack the Knife 4:43
14	How High the Moon 7:04
15	Blues in the Night 7:12
16	You'll Have to Swing It (Mr. Paganini) 4:05
17	A Night in Tunisia 4:09
18	Shiny Stockings 3:32

Barnes & Noble

Ella Fitzgerald was too frightened to dance at her first public audition. She managed to sing to the crowd instead, and that was the start of a career that eventually made her the most popular vocalist jazz has ever known. She went from being the "girl singer" in Chick Webb's great orchestra in the Thirties to fronting that band, and then to adapting to the changes in jazz in the Forties. But when she was signed by Norman Granz in 1956, her career as artist began. Her limitless flexibility of timbre and surety of timing were brought to the fore - abetted by her great gift for vocal improvisation. For decades she sang before small groups and great orchestras, always putting at the forefront America's greatest export: the songs of Arlen, Ellington, Gershwin, Kern, Porter, et al.

All Music Guide

With cooperation from the Verve and Columbia Legacy catalogs, the Ken Burns Jazz series on CD individually spotlights the musical excellence of 22 jazz originators whose careers and influence are explored in Burns' PBS documentary Jazz. It's quite a stretch to compile the roughly seven-decade career of Ella Fitzgerald in 18 tracks, though this collection does an admirable job. The highlights start in 1938 with the Chick Webb Orchestra on "A-Tisket A-Tasket" and "Vote for Mr. Rhythm," and continue with one track from the '40s ("Flying Home") and eight tracks from the '50s (including her essential interpretations from the great American songbook and a duet with Louis Armstrong). The disc concludes with highlights from the early '60s, including "Mack the Knife," "How High the Moon," and "Shiny Stockings," a Count Basie date on Verve. While it's impossible to sum up the history of Ella on a single disc, the highlights on Ken Burns Jazz should make the novice listener interested enough to continue searching out more material. Taken in that context, this compilation performs its function; however, it contains nothing for aficionados. Les Campbell