Ella Fitzgerald Vinyl Records

Liner Notes By Michael Fremer

I've been doing this (cherry picking great recordings for reissue) for a long time, and I think I've got a good idea of what audiophiles like to hear. This is all of your female vocal demo cuts in one place." — Chad Kassem, Acoustic Sounds owner

Female vocalists have forever been celebrated by audiophiles and music lovers alike. Whether the delivery is delicate or bombastic, a great female vocal well-recorded is just so sensuous. It's the genre that most often typifies the potential of hi-fi and what it can do to engage our emotions. It's no wonder the hallways of any hi-fi show will be resonating with the sounds of sparsely-arranged recordings of great women singers. It's the genre that best shows off the systems that manufacturers and dealers are trying to sell.

Now, you can have all of those best demo tracks on one record. Showstoppers by Julie London, Diana Krall, Rickie Lee Jones, Nina Simone, Janis Ian, Phoebe Snow, Jennifer Warnes, Dusty Springfield, Shelby Lynne and many more. Every single track is an audiophile demo classic. Drop the needle and drop your friend's jaw!

Michael Fremer, of AnalogPlanet.com and Stereophile Magazine, walks you through each track and its historic place with very thorough and entertaining liners.

Plating and pressing was done at Quality Record Pressings.

Ever have that moment where you want to really light up your system — either for a late-night session by yourself or for when you've got company — and you don't want to keep changing records to keep the hit parade going? This record ends that issue. You've only got to make one selection.

This title is not eligible for discount.

When it comes to vocal jazz, the ladies win. “Body and Soul” features great jazz standards sung by some of the best-known and most influential female jazz vocalists in history. Ella, Billie, Nina, Dinah, Sarah: these performers are so beloved that their first names are enough. This album presents signature recordings by these legendary ladies.

2xLP Compiling Two 1962 Albums: “Ella Swings Brightly with Nelson” & “Ella Swings Gently With Nelson”

Two great original albums placed on a double vinyl. “Ella Swings Brightly with Nelson” is a 1962 studio album by the American jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald, accompanied by an orchestra arranged by Nelson Riddle, that won the singer a Grammy for Best Female Vocal Performance. The other is “Ella Swings Gently With Nelson,” which Fitzgerald and Riddle also recorded and released in 1962.

Although the accent is on ballads, several of the songs are taken at medium tempos and she swings throughout. Highlights include “Georgia on My Mind,” “The Very Thought of You," “It’s a Pity to Say Goodnight,” “Darn That Dream” and “Body and Soul.”

Pressed And Plated At R.T.I.

60th anniversary audiophile reissue of Ella Fitzgerald Sings The Cole Porter Songbook, the legendary recording which launched Norman Granz’s Verve Records label. The vinyl box set includes three 180-gram LPs cut from the original mono tapes by Ryan Smith at Sterling Sound, and pressed and plated at RTI.

Gatefold Tip-On LP Jackets From Stoughton Printing

Worthy of audiophile treatment. Not every Christmas tune meets that high standard. But every song on this album, with each song chosen by Acoustic Sounds owner and CEO Chad Kassem, sounds better than it ever has before. These are some of the most familiar - and in most cases, well-recorded - Christmas tracks ever. We feel we’re bringing you a record that you and your family will enjoy every year forevermore. These truly are The Wonderful Sounds Of Christmas.

From the peaceful solemnity of Harry Simeone Chorale’s “The Little Drummer Boy” to the festive spirit of Jose Feliciano’s “Feliz Navidad,” The Wonderful Sounds Of Christmas brings you the very best examples of holiday songs ever recorded. With wonderful music in abundance, this Christmas compilation offers a celebration of the season’s most joyous and cherished songs. Truly, Christmas has never sounded better!

Christmas compilations have been perennials for the music industry for many decades, but rarely has there ever been a collection like this one in which the nuances of Christmas recordings are presented with such care. The masterful audio quality on this compilation captures every musical moment - as if you were listening to the delicate sound of a snowflake touching your ear.

This title is not eligible for discount.

“This LP is a classic. Ella Fitzgerald is heard at the peak of her powers during a Berlin concert that is famous for her unique version of ‘Mack the Knife’; when she forgot the words in midperformance, she substituted spontaneous and remarkable lyrics of her own. This music (which also includes a hot version of ‘How High the Moon’) is essential for all serious jazz collections.”
- Scott Yanow (All Music)

The dream of creating an American opera such as Scott Joplin’s "Treemonisha", written in 1911, inspired George Gershwin a good twenty years later to amazing compositional feats. While Gershwin had brought his musical and musical comedies with great éclat to Broadway, he wanted his through-composed stage work "Porgy And Bess" to be regarded as a legitimate opera.

No matter whether one regards this exceptional work as »American folk opera« (The New York Times) or as a veristic portrayal of African-American life, central to the work is the expressionistic orchestral music that includes (work) songs, spirituals and elements of jazz, and the cast of singers, which, at the insistence of Gershwin, featured African-American singers.

This stipulation will certainly have suited Verve boss Norman Granz who engaged not only a fresh and lively big band but also a classical string orchestra to support his successful duo of Ella and Louis. Thanks to this superb line-up, the catchy song "I Got Plenty O’ Nuttin’" rolls along sleekly with swing and drive, while "Summertime" and "Bess, You Is My Woman Now" wafts away to the sound of heavenly violins. Listening to this music, you couldn’t care less about the genre or category, just as long as these two genial musicians perform wonderfully arranged material from the American Song Book. The incomparable nasal twang of Armstrong’s solo trumpet seeks out unerringly jazz elements where you would least expect them.

Musicians:

• Ella Fitzgerald (vocal)
• Louis Armstrong (trumpet, vocal)

Recording: August 1957 in Los Angeles and October 1957 in Chicago
Production: Norman Granz

About Speakers Corner

At the beginning of the 90s, in the early days of audiophile vinyl re-releases, the situation was fairly straightforward. Companies such as DCC, Mobile Fidelity, Classic Records and, of course, Speakers Corner all maintained a mutual, unwritten ethical code: we would only use analogue tapes to manufacture records.

During the course of the present vinyl hype, many others have jumped on the bandwagon in the hope of securing a corner of the market. Very often they are not so ethical and use every imaginable source to master from: CDs, LPs, digital files, MP3s – or employed existant tools from the 80s and 90s for manufacturing.

A digital delay is gladly used when cutting a lacquer disc because tape machines with an analogue delay have become quite rare and are therefore expensive. When cutting the lacquer, the audio signal is delayed by one LP revolution against the signal, which controls the cutter head, and for this a digital delay is very often employed. Of course, the resultant sound signal is completely digital and thus only as good as this delay.

We should like to emphasise that Speakers Corner Records on principle only uses the original master tape as the basis for the entirely analogue cutting of lacquer discs. In addition, the pressing tool is newly manufactured as a matter of principle. We have one digital recording in our catalogue (Alan Parsons / Eye In The Sky“), but even in this particular case we used the analogue tapes for cutting.

We only employ existing tools for manufacturing if an improved result is not forthcoming, e.g. the title Elvis Is Back, which was mastered by Steve Hoffman and Kevin Gray, or several titles from our Philips Classics series, which in any case Willem Makkee cut from the original masters at the Emil Berliner Studios in the 90s. It goes without saying that we only used the mother and that new tools were made for our production.

To put it in a nutshell: we can ensure you that our releases are free from any kind of digital effects – excluding the exception above – and that the lacquer discs are newly cut.

Musicians:

• Ella Fitzgerald (vocal)
• Chick Webb Orchestra

Recording: July 1973 at Carnegie Hall, New York

Format: 2LPs 33rpm / gatefold sleeve

About Pure Pleasure

At the beginning of the 90s, in the early days of audiophile vinyl re-releases, the situation was fairly straightforward. Companies such as DCC, Mobile Fidelity, Classic Records and, of course, Pure Pleasure all maintained a mutual, unwritten ethical code: we would only use analogue tapes to manufacture records.

During the course of the present vinyl hype, many others have jumped on the bandwagon in the hope of securing a corner of the market. Very often they are not so ethical and use every imaginable source to master from: CDs, LPs, digital files, MP3s – or employed existent tools from the 80s and 90s for manufacturing.

A digital delay is gladly used when cutting a lacquer disc because tape machines with an analogue delay have become quite rare and are therefore expensive. When cutting the lacquer, the audio signal is delayed by one LP revolution against the signal, which controls the cutter head, and for this a digital delay is very often employed. Of course, the resultant sound signal is completely digital and thus only as good as this delay.

We should like to emphasize that Pure Pleasure Records on principle only uses the original master tape as the basis for the entirely analogue cutting of lacquer discs. In addition, the pressing tool is newly manufactured as a matter of principle.

We only employ existing tools for manufacturing if an improved result is not forthcoming, e.g. the title Elvis Is Back, which was mastered by Steve Hoffman and Kevin Gray, or several titles from our Philips Classics series, which in any case Willem Makkee cut from the original masters at the Emil Berliner Studios in the 90s. It goes without saying that we only used the mother and that new tools were made for our production.

To put it in a nutshell: we can ensure you that our releases are free from any kind of digital effects and that the lacquer discs are newly cut.

This title is not eligible for discount.

Fourteen numbers from the heyday of swing, composed sometime between 1930 and 1945 - played and sung time and time again in ballrooms, or on the radio to advertise biscuits or war bonds, were recorded by Ella in completely new and personal interpretations in 1961. No one should be put off by the rather unfortunate cover. Clap Hands... is absolutely top notch as regards musicality, perfect recording quality, superb accompaniment by a small ensemble, with room for improvisations; it offers a wonderful opportunity to discover something new in these evergreens, despite the occasionally banal lyrics. The songs of this recording conjure up bygone days, with listeners in the 21st century being offered a highly personal homage to one of the most successful periods in the 100-year history of jazz.

Originally released in 1962.

Musicians:

Ella Fitzgerald, vocals
Herb Ellis, guitar
Gus Johnson, drums
Stan Levey, drums
Lou Levy, piano
Wilfred Middlebrooks, bass
Joe Mondragon, bass

This title is not eligible for discount.

Ella Fitzgerald is widely heralded for her clean phrasing, scat-singing and a confident sense of swing. Viewed as one of the world's most popular jazz singers, she performed alongside Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Frank Sinatra and Duke Ellington. Her outstanding performances on record and live yielded both critical and popular success during her lifetime. Lullabies Of Birdland consists of recordings from 1945 to 1955. It offers a wonderful set of swing-era standards, impossible to listen to without imagining yourself sipping cognac in a smoky jazzclub on Broadway.

"...these are all truly classic Verve titles that you simply don't want to miss...most importantly, the sound of these reissues is nothing short of astounding. Particularly the early Billie and Ella mono records are incredible treasures of sonic beauty. I'd definitely ask Santa for the whole set, or, if you want to cherry pick, the most classic titles. Whatever you decide, you owe yourself at least a half dozen!" Winner of a 2012 Positive Feedback Online Writers' Choice Award - Danny Kaey, Positive Feedback Online, November/December 2011

Considered one of Ella's greatest recordings, she's backed on this 1960 release by pianist Paul Smith. Let No Man Write My Epitaph was a 1960 Hollywood movie featuring Fitzgerald. The album hits at a depth of emotional understanding that critics often complained was missing in Ella's reading of jazz lyrics, and once again establishes her as one of the supreme interpreters of the Great American Songbook.

This title is not eligible for discount.

• Louis Armstrong, trumpet, vocals
• Ella Fitzgerald, vocals
• Louie Bellson, drums
• Ray Brown, bass
• Herb Ellis, guitar
• Oscar Peterson, piano

This title is not eligible for discount.