So, I’ve decided to do something to express myself here on
Facebook/online a bit more than I did in 2016. So let’s try to do a weekly
#MusicMonday bit and see where it goes. To start things off, let’s go with one
of my all-time favorite singers. While people will go out “stanning” for Rihanna,
Lady Gaga, or Beyoncé (and I have no problem with any of them, cool your jets),
I’m also out stanning for Ella Fitzgerald. Now, I love me some Sarah Vaughn or
Lena Horne, but I consider Ms. Fitzgerald to be the Queen of Jazz. Given a voice
sent from high above, she used it to the greatest of her ability in a career
that spanned over 50 years. I often consider her to be the greatest singer of
the 20th century. Here we listen to her cover of “How High the Moon”
from the late 40s. Oddly enough, while Ella had a few songs that were
introduced by her, her strongest suit was having a superb arrangement of an
already established song as she belted it out as only she could. This song was
introduced in a Broadway play called “Two for the Show” back in 1940. You could
probably consider the most famous version to be that by the great Les Paul and
Mary Ford. I can get into a whole other paragraph about how great an impact Les
Paul had on music, but not today. In that version—seriously, go listen to that
version—the music break is handled by seamless guitar playing from Paul and
wonderful, groundbreaking multi-track effects of Ford’s voice. Here, Ella
eschews the structure of the song to just guide us through with the skill of
scat, her specialty. I guarantee this will not be the only time Ella Fitzgerald
gets a mention from me.
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