Ella Sings Broadway

Ella Sings Broadway
Studio albumby Ella Fitzgerald
Released	1963
Recorded	October 1–4, 1962
Studio	Capitol(Hollywood)
Genre	Jazz
Length	34:08
Label	Verve
Producer	Norman Granz
Ella Fitzgeraldchronology
Ella Swings Gently with Nelson (1962) Ella Sings Broadway (1963) Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Jerome Kern Songbook (1963)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic
New Record Mirror
The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings

Ella Sings Broadwayis a 1963 (see1963 in music) studio album (recorded during three sessions in Los Angeles, October 3, 4 & 9, 1962) by the AmericanjazzsingerElla Fitzgerald,with an orchestra arranged and conducted byFrank DeVol.Shortly before the sessions forElla Sings Broadway,Ella had recorded two singles withMarty Paich,theAntonio Carlos Jobimsong 'Desafinado' and aBossa Novaversion of the jazz standard 'Stardust' (Los Angeles, October 1, 1962). This prompted many Ella Fitzgerald fans and scholars to conclude that these sessions were also led by Paich (the Verve-issued album does not credit an arranger). However, the original scores and parts exist in Ella Fitzgerald's library and it was determined that all the music was arranged by Frank DeVol. In fact, DeVol had previously worked with Ella Fitzgerald having written arrangements forHello Love(1957),Get Happy(1957),Live Someone in Love(1957), Ella Sings Sweet Songs For Swingers (1958), andElla Wishes You A Swinging Christmas(1960).

This album is a musical departure for Ella in many senses. As the author David Hajdu comments in his liner notes for the 2001 reissue ofElla Sings Broadway,virtually every important singer of standards had recorded an album of musical-theatre songs,SinatrawithMy Kind of BroadwayandThe Concert Sinatra(an album often mistaken for a live recording),Sarah VaughanwithGreat Songs From Hit ShowsandDoris DaywithShow Time.

These singers, especially Sinatra and Fitzgerald, had acquired a reputation of being consummate performers of theGreat American Songbook,a songbook which by and large had been written before the outbreak of theSecond World War,and which had been aped in its popularity with youth byRock and Rollby the time of theVietnam War.With manyGeorgeandIra Gershwin,PorterandBerlinstandards having been written in the 1920s and 1930s, whilst Sinatra and Fitzgerald were growing up.

OnElla Sings Broadway,Ella connects with theBroadwaysongs of the previous decade and a half, vastly different in musical terms to theGreat American Songbookstandards from 40 years previously.

The twelve songs are from eight musicals, being;

• "Warm All Over" and "Somebody Somewhere"fromFrank Loesser'sThe Most Happy Fella(1956)
• "If I Were a Bell"and" Guys and Dolls "from Frank Loesser'sGuys and Dolls(1950)
• "Almost Like Being in Love"from Lerner and Loewe'sBrigadoon(1947)
• "I Could Have Danced All Night"and" Show Me "from Lerner and Loewe'sMy Fair Lady(1956)
• "No Other Love"from Rodgers and Hammerstein'sMe and Juliet(1953)
• "Dites-Moi" from Rodgers and Hammerstein'sSouth Pacific(1949)
• "Hernando's Hideaway" and "Steam Heat" from Adler and Ross'sPajama Game(1954)
• "Whatever Lola Wants" from Adler and Ross'sDamn Yankees(1955)

Awarded 4 stars byDown Beatjazz magazine in 1963, the review commented that it was "A perfect complement to Fitzgerald's classic series of 'Song Book' albums".

Track listing

For the 1963 Verve LP release; Verve V6-4059; Re-issued in 2001 on CD, Verve 549 373-2

Side One:

1. "Hernando's Hideaway"(Richard Adler,Jerry Ross) – 3:17
2. "If I Were a Bell"(Frank Loesser) – 2:22
3. "Warm All Over" (Loesser) – 2:46
4. "Almost Like Being in Love"(Alan Jay Lerner,Frederick Loewe) – 3:02
5. "Dites-Moi" (Richard Rodgers,Oscar Hammerstein II) – 2:30
6. "I Could Have Danced All Night"(Lerner, Loewe) – 2:22

Side Two:

1. "Show Me" (Lerner, Loewe) – 2:22
2. "No Other Love"(Rodgers, Hammerstein) – 2:20
3. "Steam Heat"(Adler, Ross) – 3:27
4. "Whatever Lola Wants"(Adler, Ross) – 3:13
5. "Guys and Dolls"(Loesser) – 2:21
6. "Somebody Somewhere"(Loesser) – 3:12

Personnel

Recorded October 3, 4 & 9, 1962 atCapitol Studios,Hollywood,Los Angeles:

• Val Valentin - Engineer

Tracks 1-12

• Ella Fitzgerald- vocals
• Frank DeVol- arranger, conductor

Others Unknown.