Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Essential Cole Porter Song Book (LP)

Fitzgerald was sometimes seen as a "libretto" singer, more interested in swing and harmony than the emotional weight of a song. That was generally left to singers like Billie Holiday or Carmen McRae and Betty Carter. But with Porter, she was dealing with an artist whose rhythmic sophistication equaled her own, and these songs in which rhyme and reason, music and meaning were pretty much the same thing. There have been misguided attempts to label the songs of Broadway and Tin Pan Alley as "America's classical music," which misses the point. But if the word means anything at all, these performances are classics and among the first great works of the era of the long-playing record. With new notes by Brian Morton and the renowned Paris Jazz Magazine.