Ella Fitzgerald - Rhythm Is My Business

[Stormcrow]

ARGH!! I wrote a long, detailed review of this album, detailing each and every track, and then my darn comp goes and loses it!!! >:-(

grr... oh well. I may re-type it later, but it suffices to say that I really liked this CD, and it proves that Ella could outswing anybody.

grr... >:-(

[Stormcrow]

okee-dokee, here we go ;-):


ELLA FITZGERALD- VOCAL
BILL DOGGET- ARRANGER, CONDUCTOR, ORGAN


This is not my absolute favorite Ella CD so far (I think that honor belongs to "Clap Hands, Here Comes Charlie.') but it is way up there. Ella is backed by a hot big band, and this album swings very very hard. Bill Dogget did an excellent job arranging, although you only hear his organ rarely and briefly.

All of the tracks are excellent:

"Rough Ridin'" starts things off with a bang. Ella trades some absolutely tongue-twisting scat phrases with the band on this song, which as I am sure you all know, was writtten by her.

"Broadway," is a swinging potrait of that famous place, it's a real finger-snapper.

"You Can Depend On Me," is a reassuring, easy swinger.

"Runnin' Wild" truly runs wild. ;-) Ella blazes through it, swinging like heck.

"Show Me the Way to Go Out Of This World," is another zinger, a fun song.

"I'll Always Be In Love With You" is tender, sung with Ella's sweet melancholy.

When I saw that "Hallelujah, I Love Him So," was a Ray Charles piece, I was expecting not to like it. I was surprised, it is actually very good. It starts off with a little bit of gospel-type organ, and then morphs into a playful, burning swinger. Excellent.

"I Can't Face the Music" stands in contrast to the previous song, as it is mournful and longing instead of playful. It still swings. ;-)

"No Moon at All," is kind of spicy sounding. ;-) You know, I oughta stop telling you when a song is a real swinger, as all of the songs on here are. ;-)

"Laughin' On The Outside," is a tender, slow ballad. It gives Ella a chance to show off her ballad workmanship, and it is excellent.

"After You've Gone" starts off as a ballad, then turns into a fast, hard-driving song of reproach. Wow.

The bonus tracks, "Taking a Chance on Love," and "If I Could Be With You," are both very good.

A couple of negative points: the sound is not excellent; a few places sound pretty flat (it is very listenable, though.) Also, in a couple of places the arrangements get to be a little too much (as in "I'll Always Be In Love With You.") They don't sound bad, but you wish that the orchestra would just let Ella come through pure.

I give it an A-. :-)

[Stormcrow]

Well...

I have revised my rating to a "B+", as after a few more listens, the alto sax of Phil Woods is beginning to sound strangely similar to a goose in the process of being strangled.

[claude]

Originally posted by Theophilus
Well...

the alto sax of Phil Woods is beginning to sound strangely similar to a goose in the process of being strangled.

Funny, a colleague of mine used that exact analogy to describe Broetzmann's playing on a CD I lent to him.

[Stormcrow]

lol...

really, you've got Ella's perfect (as always) vocals, the rest of the band is tight, and then this guy starts honking away... maybe a goose got in the recording studio.