Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Song book is a 1957 studio album by the American jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald, accompanied by the Duke Ellington orchestra, focusing on Ellington's songs.
Part of Fitzgerald's series of 'Songbooks', it is the only one where the composer is also featured as a performer. This was the first time that Fitzgerald had recorded with Ellington. It is also the entry in the Songbook series that gives her by far most often the opportunity to exhibit her famous scat singing.
The greater part of disc three is devoted to two original compositions by Ellington, inspired by Fitzgerald's life, character and artistry.
Fitzgerald's performance on this album won her the 1959 Grammy Award for Best Jazz Performance, Individual.
This album marked the start of a fruitful artistic relationship for Ella and the 'Duke', the 1960s would see them perform on the Côte d'Azur for the 1966 album Ella and Duke at the Cote D'Azur, and in Sweden for The Stockholm Concert, 1966. Their only other studio album, 1965's Ella at Duke's Place, was also extremely well received.
Read more about Ella Fitzgerald Sings The Duke Ellington Song Book: Track Listing, Personnel
Famous quotes containing the words fitzgerald, sings, duke, song and/or book:
“The test of a given phrase would be: Is it worthy to be immortal? To “make a beeline” for something. That’s worthy of being immortal and is immortal in English idiom. “I guess I’ll split” is not going to be immortal and is excludable, therefore excluded.”
—Robert Fitzgerald (1910–1985)
“But the lark is so brimful of gladness and love,
The green fields below him, the blue sky above,
That he sings, and he sings; and for ever sings he—
‘I love my Love, and my Love loves me!’”
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834)
“I don’t know what effect these men will have upon the enemy, but, by God, they terrify me.”
—Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke Wellington (1769–1852)
“On a cloud I saw a child,
And he laughing said to me,
“Pipe a song about a Lamb”;
So I piped with merry chear.
“Piper pipe that song again”—
So I piped, he wept to hear.
“Drop thy pipe thy happy pipe
Sing thy songs of happy chear”;
So I sung the same again
While he wept with joy to hear.”
—William Blake (1757–1827)
“Perhaps in a book review it is not out of place to note that the safety of the state depends on cultivating the imagination.”
—Stephen Vizinczey (b. 1933)