{"id":18863,"date":"2020-06-06T05:30:36","date_gmt":"2020-06-06T09:30:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=18863"},"modified":"2020-05-19T08:11:18","modified_gmt":"2020-05-19T12:11:18","slug":"album-review-ella-100-live-at-the-apollo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2020\/06\/06\/album-review-ella-100-live-at-the-apollo\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Ella 100 &#8211; Live at the Apollo!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-18864\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ella_100.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"350\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ella_100.jpg 350w, http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ella_100-300x300.jpg 300w, http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ella_100-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/>The First Lady of Song, Ella Fitzgerald was among the most influential vocalists of the 20<sup>th<\/sup> century. Her distinctive voice, her seemingly effortless and natural delivery and her winning personality combined to great effect. April 2017 marked the 1200<sup>th<\/sup> anniversary of her birth, and to commemorate her life and work, an all-star lineup of musicians gathered at Harlem\u2019s Apollo Theater.<\/p>\n<p>Rather than merely roll out a parade of current-day artists, each paying his or her tribute in song, the organizers took a different, more inspired approach. Actor David Alan Grier introduced the proceedings in the guise of a radio program broadcasting \u201cAmateur Night at the Apollo.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Then, backed by the Count Basie Orchestra, a procession of A-list vocalists did indeed pay tributes, by covering material popularized by Fitzgerald. Singers on the program \u2013 captured on <i>Ella 100: Live at the Apollo!<\/i> \u2013 include Patti Austin, Cassandra Wilson, Lizz Wright, Afro Blue and others.<\/p>\n<p>Grier\u2019s moderation reminds the audience of Fitzgerald\u2019s place in music history, but in the end, it\u2019s the music itself that\u2019s the focus of the set. Each vocalist brings her own personality to bear on the material, but there\u2019s a solid balance of reverence and energy. The orchestra keeps things rooted in the style that the music demands.<\/p>\n<p>Upbeat tunes like \u201cA-Tisket, A-Tasket\u201d (by Austin with a rousing male vocal chorus) feature alongside a soulful and raspy turn by Andra Day (\u201cAin\u2019t Misbehavin\u2019\u2019) and more contemporary arrangements (David Alan Grier singing \u201cDo Nothin\u2019 Till You Hear From Me\u201d).<\/p>\n<p>The musicianship and vocal work is uniformly excellent and polished throughout, and the production values are, of course, top-notch. The bits of dialogue are long enough to provide context yet brief enough to avoid hampering the flow. And even though the evening is vocal-focused, a showcase number, \u201cBack to the Apple!\u201d gives the Count Basie Orchestra an opportunity to struts its stuff.<\/p>\n<p>After an intermission, the set list settles in to more romantic material, but the energy returns quickly. A big fish comes in the form of \u201cYou\u2019ll Have to Swing It (Mr. Paganini),\u201d but the evening gives the final word to Fitzgerald herself, who passed away in 1996. A recording of her onstage in Budapest, \u201cPeople\u201d provides a fine way to conclude the evening.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The First Lady of Song, Ella Fitzgerald was among the most influential vocalists of the 20th century. Her distinctive voice, her seemingly effortless and natural delivery and her winning personality [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18864,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,49,65],"tags":[4205],"class_list":["post-18863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-jazz","category-new-release","category-review","tag-ella-fitzgerald","cat-42-id","cat-49-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18863"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18863\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18865,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18863\/revisions\/18865"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}