Ella Fitzgerald: The Enchanting Ella Fitzgerald,Live at Birdland 1950-1952

<>The play list mixed. There's the classic material that became staples during her long recording and performing career like "In a Mellotone", "Goody Goody" and "These Foolish Things". She has fun with the lyrics, as on "How High the Moon", which she continued to do throughout her career. But this album also captures Fitzgerald's efforts to cover some of the top pop singles of the day notably Johnny Ray's Walkin' My Baby Back Home and Doris Day's Be Anything, But Be Mine. This was popular with the audience and they actually stopped talking enough to listen. When Fitzgerald did one of those ballads she was noted for, the audience reverted to the New York addiction to talking during the performance. She also worked in her friendly spoofing of Louis Armstrong adopting his mannerisms for Frim Fram Sauce. Air Mail Special is the vehicle for that special Fitzgerald scatting. On most of the tracks, she is backed on the piano by master accompanist, Hank Jones, along with husband Ray Brown on bass.

These broadcasts were recorded by Boris Rose on an early tape machine. Baldwin Street Music engineer Doug Pomeroy did a remarkable job transferring this material eliminating surface noise without affecting the music. The result is excellent sound that captures the flavor of Fitzgerald's performances. As always, Ted Ono's liner notes are informative and interesting. Highly recommended.