Something to Live For

Disc 1
1	A-Tisket, A-Tasket 2:36
2	You Showed Me the Way 3:14
3	Stairway to the Stars 3:15
4	How High the Moon 3:13
5	Perdido 8:43
6	Can Anyone Explain? (No, No, No!) 3:09
7	Ella's Contribution To The Blues 2:30
8	But Not for Me 3:12
9	Thanks for the Memory 2:26
10	Ridin' High 3:20
11	Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye 3:32
12	Angel Eyes 3:20
13	Goody Goody 2:28
14	Oh, Lady Be Good 4:00
Disc 2
1	The Lady Is a Tramp 3:22
2	Body and Soul 4:29
3	Air Mail Special 3:50
4	Midnight Sun 3:55
5	Summertime 2:52
6	Mack the Knife 4:40
7	Misty 2:51
8	The Man I Love 3:50
9	You'll Have to Swing It (Mr. Paganini) 4:03
10	'Round Midnight 3:27
11	Bill Bailey, Won't You Come Home? 3:23
12	Yesterdays 2:50
13	Lover Man 4:20
14	Duke's Place 4:11
15	Sweet Georgia Brown 3:30
16	Something To Live For 4:09

Barnes & Noble

The most effective way of taking in the full impact of Ella Fitzgerald's exquisite artistry may be to hear her in unadorned surroundings. On "But Not For Me," "Misty," and "Angel Eyes" -- three highlights, among many, on this double-disc companion to an upcoming PBS salute to Fitzgerald -- Ella is accompanied by piano on the first two selections, a single guitar on the latter. The gorgeous tonal quality of Fitzgerald's voice, her subtle, satisfying improvisations, her supple rhythmic sense, and her unaffected way with a lyric are all displayed to thrilling advantage. Yet the same singer who needed nothing more than discreet accompaniment to turn in a compelling performance, could also ride the fuller currents of a jazz combo, a big band, or a well-stocked studio orchestra with powerful grace. No matter the setting or material, Ella made it all swing like no other jazz vocalist ever has. Ballads ("Round Midnight," "Body and Soul," "Something to Live For"), mid-tempo cruisers ("Midnight Sun," "You Showed Me the Way," "Goody, Goody"), dashing swingers ("How High the Moon," "The Lady is a Tramp," "Airmail Special") -- each number is sparked with a vitality and confidence that fairly bursts from the jazz diva. If you're a Fitzgerald fan (as every lover of jazz and/or popular singing should be), SOMETHING TO LIVE FOR will send you back to the multitudes of Fitzgerald albums you already cherish; for neophyte listeners, this well-chosen set is a great place to develop a necessary Fitzgerald obsession. Steve Futterman

All Music Guide

Ella Fitzgerald recorded so much, and so much of what she recorded was so good, that the notion of one album summing her up is all but ludicrous. That said, this two-disc set, a companion to a television documentary by the same title, comes the closest of any album so far. It is the first album to span the two most important eras of her recordings, the Decca years, 1935-1955, and the Verve years, 1956-1966. The eight Decca performances include Fitzgerald's first big hit, "A-Tisket, A-Tasket"; the 1947 scat masterpiece "How High the Moon"; and a selection from the voice-and-piano album Ella Sings Gershwin, "But Not for Me," which foreshadowed the singer's songbook albums of the late '50s and '60s. The Verve recordings get their official start with the appropriate inclusion of "Ridin' High" from 1956's Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Song Book, one of five selections from the celebrated songbook albums. The rest of the choices are gems from Fitzgerald's career, including some stunning scat features, notably a version of "Airmail Special" from the 1957 Newport Jazz Festival. The memorable 1960 Berlin performance of "Mack the Knife," with its improvised lyrics, is included, as is a live 1962 recording of "Bill Bailey" which finds this uncanny mimic doing impressions of Della Reese and Pearl Bailey. The uptempo material is offset with some wonderful ballads, among them a version of "Angel Eyes" with only Barney Kessel providing a guitar accompaniment. Fitzgerald fans could cite dozens (if not hundreds) of other stellar performances, many of them from after the 1966 cut-off point of this album, but this is the first time such a long period of Fitzgerald's career has been captured on a single album. Many of the recordings that nearly all fans would agree rank among her best are here. William Ruhlmann