SwingDJs

The Wikipedia entry for Ella Fitzgerald says of her late 1930s recordings with Chick Webb:

Ella recorded nearly 150 sides during her time with the orchestra, most of which, like "A-Tisket, A-Tasket", were "novelties and disposable pop fluff."

I think they are referring to songs like the ones on this CD. What do you think about this material? Is it disposable? Perhaps more importantly, is it good to dance to?

For some reason- and I think it was because she was a teenager at the time- the record companies gave Ella a ton of crappy material to record.

That being said, if you can get past the awful content of the lyrics, her voice is amazing and the band swings like crazy (if you are a Chick fan...)

I dont play much early Ella, preferring to play Billie instead most of the time, but songs I do enjoy from this era of Ella include: When I Get Low I Get High and Undecided. I tend to stay away from the Tisket-Tasket stuff, but it's a fuzzy line between why I like one song and not another. Her voice is very front and center in these recordings, so if the lyrics dont speak to you or the melody causes too much side-to-side moving with a desire to pinch Ella's cheeks then its less likely to be able to just mesh with the band behind-- and consequently less likely to make me want to get up an move a lot.

Haydn wrote:The Wikipedia entry for Ella Fitzgerald says of her late 1930s recordings with Chick Webb:

Ella recorded nearly 150 sides during her time with the orchestra, most of which, like "A-Tisket, A-Tasket", were "novelties and disposable pop fluff."

I think they are referring to songs like the ones on this CD. What do you think about this material? Is it disposable? Perhaps more importantly, is it good to dance to?

There's a lot of classic pop tunes in that long list and the writer dismisses them all with a few ill-chosen words which indicates laziness or a lack of knowledge.

Ignore him. Especially since he seems to not realize the Ella was a pop singer for the most part.

Albert System wrote:For some reason- and I think it was because she was a teenager at the time- the record companies gave Ella a ton of crappy material to record.

That being said, if you can get past the awful content of the lyrics, her voice is amazing and the band swings like crazy (if you are a Chick fan...)

It swings like crazy even if someone is not a Chick Webb fan. I don't wanna know people who dislike CW. Squares.

fredo wrote:... the melody causes too much side-to-side moving with a desire to pinch Ella's cheeks then its less likely to be able to just mesh with the band behind-- and consequently less likely to make me want to get up an move a lot.

I do not understand what you wrote, Fredo.

yeah, I dont know what I was writing either. haha

hahaha

Haydn wrote:The Wikipedia entry for Ella Fitzgerald says of her late 1930s recordings with Chick Webb:

Ella recorded nearly 150 sides during her time with the orchestra, most of which, like "A-Tisket, A-Tasket", were "novelties and disposable pop fluff."

I think they are referring to songs like the ones on this CD. What do you think about this material? Is it disposable? Perhaps more importantly, is it good to dance to?

Most jazz-record-store toadies have that general opinion of most of the entire Swing Era of music: that "Jazz" did not fully blossom as a musical form until Charlie Parker freed it and shifted the emphasis from rigid group arrangements to individual improvisation. They are wrong, but they are entitled to their opinion.

Ella's earlier stuff with Chick Webb is less "mature" than her later work, but that is mostly because she was a kid, herself. It still is great stuff.

You can edit the Wikipedia entry, yourself, if it bothers you so much.

The source quoted was the NYT's pop music critic Stephen Holden in an article "Ella Fitzgerald, the Voice of Jazz, Dies at 79". Read in context of his full praising obituary the comment doesn't sound as negative as it does when pulled out in isolation

wspeid wrote:The source quoted was the NYT's pop music critic Stephen Holden in an article "Ella Fitzgerald, the Voice of Jazz, Dies at 79". Read in context of his full praising obituary the comment doesn't sound as negative as it does when pulled out in isolation

Exactly.

It also stems from the casual, superficial impression that the one signature song "A-Tisket A Takset" certainly does leave, not to the full range of what Ella recorded with Chick Webb.

Haydn wrote:The Wikipedia entry for Ella Fitzgerald says of her late 1930s recordings with Chick Webb:

Ella recorded nearly 150 sides during her time with the orchestra, most of which, like "A-Tisket, A-Tasket", were "novelties and disposable pop fluff."

That sounds like vandalism or a POV statement to me, depending on whether the citation is correct. There's too many revisions for me to find out when it first said that.

For some reason- and I think it was because she was a teenager at the time- the record companies gave Ella a ton of crappy material to record.

I'm listening to the NPR Jazz Profile on Ella and it mentions that "A-tisket A-tasket" was actually written by Ella herself and given to Chick and his arrangers to write up for the band. Chick's band wanted a "hit" song, like the Boswells had at the time, and this song was her first pop hit.

fredo wrote:

For some reason- and I think it was because she was a teenager at the time- the record companies gave Ella a ton of crappy material to record.

I'm listening to the NPR Jazz Profile on Ella and it mentions that "A-tisket A-tasket" was actually written by Ella herself and given to Chick and his arrangers to write up for the band. Chick's band wanted a "hit" song, like the Boswells had at the time, and this song was her first pop hit.

o-composed with Van Alexander, IIRC.

Haydn wrote: I think they are referring to songs like the ones on this CD. What do you think about this material? Is it disposable? Perhaps more importantly, is it good to dance to?

Them are gold nuggets in Seattle! Maybe not all of them, but eyeballing the list, Dipsy Doodle, Vote for Mr. Rhythm, Undecided, Sing me a Swing Song get played a lot. For some reason her version of Tisket a Tasket doesn't swing that well for me , but it's a historical song for reasons that Freddie posted.

And the version of Mr. Shane [Bei ... Schon] is great! I've only heard it a couple of times, forget who has it, either Kevin Tamura, Travis or Freddie, but it's a super nice version.