Following in Ella's Footsteps

In 1956, Ella Fitzgerald recorded The Cole Porter Songbook, the first of eight songbooks she would release in the next eight years.  With this series, Ella explicitly paid tribute to the talents of great composers and lyricists who defined popular music at midcentury.  They include George and Ira Gershwin, Harold Arlen, Irving Berlin, Duke Ellington, Richard Rodgers, Lorenzo Hart, and Johnny Mercer.  One of the great pleasures of that era was listening to Ella and such incomparable singers as Frank Sinatra, Mel Tormé, Nat King Cole, Billy Eckstine, Rosemary Clooney, and Tony Bennett bring out the beauty, subtlety, and wit of this material.

Reinterpreting the Great American Songbooks
This body of work, collectively called the Great American Songbook, continues to attract interpreters today.  Dianne Reeves, born in 1956 just as Ella embarked on her songbook series, is among the best of them.  Reeves was featured in the recent movie about Edward R. Murrow, Good Night, and Good Luck, singing such standards as “Straighten Up and Fly Right,” “One for My Baby,” and “Solitude.” 

Michael Feinstein, also born in 1956, is noted for his interpretations of the Gershwins, an appreciation that deepened during the six years he spent helping Ira Gershwin to catalog his music archives.  He also became a fast friend of Gershwin’s next-door neighbor Rosemary Clooney.

The emergence of a new generation of interpreters testifies to the enduring appeal of the Great American Songbook.  Harry Connick, Jr., turned to standards when arranging the soundtrack for When Harry Met Sally and has focused on them ever since, while guitarist and singer John Pizzarelli took his cue from his father, famous jazz guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli, and built his career around interpretations of classic songs.  They are both worth a listen.

But if you still long for the inimitable sounds of Frankie, Mel, Nat, and the rest, you’re in luck.  In this era of CD reissues and online ordering, their unforgettable music is just a few mouse clicks away.