Ella At Zardi's

Recorded on February 2, 1956 at Zardi's Jazzland in Hollywood, Ella At Zardi's features the entirety of the evening's two-set, 21-song performance, which captures an inspired Fitzgerald, backed by a stellar trio comprised of pianist Don Abney, bassist Vernon Alley & drummer Frank Capp, singing & swinging in front of an animated, adoring crowd, just days before she’d go on to record the album that would catapult her to stardom.

"Recorded by jazz impresario and Fitzgerald manager Norman Granz during the legendary singer's three-week sting in 1956 at Zardi's Jazzland, this archival 2LP vinyl set represents the singer's first live recording on Granz's newly created Verve Records. Ella is in an animated, playful, and typically swinging mood here, accompanied by her trio of pianist Don Abney, bassist Vernon Alley, and drummer Frank Capp. From gorgeous ballads like "Tenderly" and "My Heart Belongs to Daddy" to syncopated staples like "Why Don't You Do Right", "A Fine Romance", and Duke Ellington's "In A Mellow Tone" to the dramatic torch song "Cry Me A River", she casts her spell with perfect diction, flawless intonation, an unerring sense of time, and a natural sense of swing. She flaunts girlish charms on her 1938 hit with Chick Webb, "A-Tisket, A-Tasket", then showcases her remarkably inventive scat abandon on "How High the Moon" (a dazzling stream of consciousness flow that has her jumping from quotes from "Love In Bloom" to Charlie Parker's "Ornithology" to Duke's "Rockin' in Rhythm") and "Airmail Special". A spectacular showcase by the First Lady of Song." - Bill Milkowski, The Absolute Sound, December 2018