The Harold Arlen Songbook, Volume 1 (1961) — Ella Fitzgerald

Listening

To listen to this album for free, visit Harold Arlen Songbook, Vol 1 @ Last.fm. To play a song, click the round play button next to its name. Sorry that Last.fm is missing two of the songs. I’ve made one of them available for free on Youtube, here.

Nitty Gritty (Reference Section)

Recorded Aug 1, 1960 to Jan 14, 1961. Arrangements and conducting by Billy May. The line-up is huge and can be found at wikipedia for those interested. For the rest of us, it’s probably enough to know that the vocalist on the album is Ella Fitzgerald.

Personal Connections

Those of you who know my taste in jazz might be a bit confused by this choice of album. For one thing, I don’t listen to much vocal jazz. I also have never really understood the appeal of orchestras or entire string sections in jazz. There does seem to be something there, though—Charlie Parker and Clifford Brown each put out entire albums accompanied by string sections. I think Nina Simone did the same, and there might be others too. The cursory listens I’ve given the Charlie Parker and Clifford Brown albums don’t attract me that much (even though I am big fans of both of the players in other contexts). And strings in jazz are just fine for me (Sam Jones on cello, Ray Nance or Stephane Grappelli on violin, to name a few). It’s something about the lush string section as a whole that feels out of place in most jazz contexts.

And those of you who know my taste in musical theater might know that Harold Arlen (and most stuff pre-Sondheim) is outside of my knowledge-base.

BUT (to the point now)! One of the main reasons I started this blog is as a way to keep learning about jazz that I’m unfamiliar with. In the last few weeks, I’ve uncovered new things about albums I’ve already known. This, however, was an opportunity to sit down with an album that I had hardly ever listened to. And in the process, I might fill in some of my missing knowledge about musical theater as well as some of the songs that have entered the jazz cannon (Stormy Weather and My Shining Hour, for instance). Also, despite my feelings about vocal jazz in general, the little that I’ve heard of Ella has gotten me really excited about her. She ought to be taken as seriously as a soloist as instrumentalists are.

On The Music

In the late ’50s and early ’60s, Ella Fitzgerald put out eight sets of songbook albums (each set contained multiple discs). Cole Porter, Rogers & Hart, Duke Ellington, Irving Berlin, George & Ira Gershwin, Arlen, Jerome Kern, Johnny Mercer. These were (most of) the masters who contributed works to the so-called Great American Songbook, a very important oeuvre for jazz. Jazz musicians have historically relied on the Great American Songbook for material. Because of the jam-culture in jazz, it is useful to have a set of common songs that all musicians are expected to be familiar with (even better if the songs are beautiful and brilliant, as most of these are). For decades, jazz musicians have visited and re-visited these popular American tunes. In addition to borrowing entire songs from this body of work, jazz also borrowed one of its most common song forms/structures, AABA form, a 32-measure form with an 8-measure theme repeated, then a contrasting section (called the “bridge”), and a repeat of the initial theme. Examples of this from the Great American Songbook include I’ve Got Rhythm and Over The Rainbow. (In jazz, unlike in Classical music, AABA refers to just the content of the “head” of the tune, the composed part, not the entire length of the recorded track. The AABA form is typically repeated over and over again in the track). There are also certain harmonic tropes which I believe that jazz inherited from the Great American Songbook (I associate them with it at least, but I’d appreciate any thoughts that anyone else has on the issue). This includes harmonic motion from the tonic (major) to the supertonic (minor), which is relatively uncommon in Classical music, but quite common in pop, musical theater, and jazz. This is especially characteristic with the leading-tone diminished seventh chord of the supertonic connecting the two. If you didn’t follow what I just said, you can click here to hear an example of it.

With the exception of Duke Ellington, all of the other composers that Ella paid tribute to in her Songbook albums were early musical theater composers from Tin Pan Alley. It’s interesting that this music, composed mostly by Jewish immigrants, became so important to jazz.

Harold Arlen is, of course, most famous for composing the music for The Wizard of Oz. On the second volume of her Harold Arlen Songbook, Ella recorded versions of both Over The Rainbow and Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead, which can be heard here.

Like many of the Tin Pan Alley composers, Arlen’s music is simple, catchy, clever (thanks as well to the lyricists he collaborated with: Mercer and Gerhswin among others), and memorable. My favorite songs on this volume are the upbeat and clever ones (Let’s Fall In Love, Ac-Cen-Tchu-Ate The Positive, Let’s Take A Walk Around The Block, Hooray For Love). I also have a soft spot for Blues In The Night, probably because it makes me think of the Louis Armstrong / Oscar Peterson version.

I wish Ella had more solo space on this album. The small amount of  solo space that the lead players in the band get throughout the album is a little underwhelming, especially considering that Ella, a great soloist, was right there! Some of the work that Ella does, however, is really virtuosic. Her precision and choice of licks at the end of That Old Black Magic (especially from 3:05-3:15, 3:23-3:30, 3:33-3:38) are characteristic Ella. The rest of the album is littered with similar moments (for instance, on Hooray For Love from 2:15-2:25). Ella’s vocal dexterity always amazes me.

While I don’t love all of the orchestral playing on the album (especially the string writing on the ballads, Ill Wind for instance—I guess I like my jazz Hotter Than That), there are times that the band really swings hard. Let’s Fall In Love is a standout for me. And when I gave the band a chance, I did really end up liking much of the writing more than I would’ve expected (the beginning of Hooray For Love, for instance).

To My Readers

This week, I heard from four people saying that they’ve been following my blog but haven’t had the courage to post a comment. I suspect they aren’t the only four in that boat. I’m so glad that people are reading the blog. There’s nothing to be afraid of though in the comments. I’d love it if you wrote something, no matter how simple, just telling me what you thought of the album or a specific song. How did things hit you? What moments caught your attention? In particular, this week, I largely stayed away from commenting on specific moments in the music. The floor is yours!

Also, some of you may have noticed that the instructions I had initially spread about setting up email alerts about my blog didn’t end up working. Bummer, huh? I’ve found a new free service that sends email alerts for blog updates. You can read about it here!

Finally, just a quick plug for the blog for Matchbox Theater Company, the brand new theater company I’ve started along with 5 of my best friends. We’ll be writing about our work together all summer.

Thanks again for reading!

Dan