Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Jerome Kern Songbook is a 1963 (see 1963 in music) studio album by the American jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald, with an Orchestra conducted and arranged by Nelson Riddle, focusing on the songs of Jerome Kern.
Ella had previously recorded with Riddle on her epic George and Ira Gershwin Songbook (1959), and had recorded two albums of standards with him in 1962.
This was the seventh album in Ella's series of historic recordings of songs written by the great Broadway composers. The previous albums were dedicated to songs by;
- Cole Porter (Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook) (1956)
- Rodgers and Hart (Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Rodgers & Hart Songbook) (1956)
- Duke Ellington (Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Song Book) (1957)
- Irving Berlin (Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Irving Berlin Songbook) (1958)
- George and Ira Gershwin (Ella Fitzgerald Sings the George and Ira Gershwin Songbook) (1959)
- Harold Arlen (Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Harold Arlen Songbook) (1961)
The last songbook, dedicated to Johnny Mercer (Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Johnny Mercer Song Book) was to be released in 1964.
In contrast to the Johnny Mercer Songbook, (the only Songbook dedicated to a lyricist), this is the only Songbook where the composer does not contribute any of the lyrics. Awarded four and a half stars by Down Beat Magazine in 1963, this album contains a fine selection of Jazz standards, with All the Things You Are, (named by Tony Bennett as his favourite song), a wistful Oscar winning The Way You Look Tonight, which contrasts beautifully with Sinatra's more famous swinging version from his 1964 album Sinatra Sings...Academy Award Winners, and A Fine Romance from Astaire and Roger's Swing Time.
Read more about Ella Fitzgerald Sings The Jerome Kern Songbook: Track Listing, Personnel
Famous quotes containing the words fitzgerald, sings and/or jerome:
“Women sometimes seem to share a quiet, unalterable dogma of persecution that endows even the most sophisticated of them with the inarticulate poignancy of the peasant.”
—Zelda Fitzgerald (1900–1948)
“She sings of a sword so white,
so luminous, that its own light
alone must slay;
she sings of a sword, a sword, a sword,
and I creep away.”
—Hilda Doolittle (1886–1961)
“As Jerome expanded, its chances for the title, “the toughest little town in the West,” increased and when it was incorporated in 1899 the citizens were able to support the claim by pointing to the number of thick stone shutters on the fronts of all saloons, gambling halls, and other places of business for protection against gunfire.”
—Administration in the State of Ariz, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)