The Namesake

Ella Fitzgerald – Nice Work If You Can Get It

My wife bought me “Ella in Hollywood” a while back, and it became a regular item in the CD carousel. Ella Fitzgerald is one of my all time favorites. I’m not exactly sure when I started listening to her, probably sometime in my early 20’s. The song “Round Midnight” is one of my favorite songs of all time, and her version is my absolute favorite version. That’s the first song by Ella that I remember actually identifying with “Ella” (even though the song was originally composed by Thelonious Monk). I have several of her recordings, but the “Ella in Hollywood” set is my favorite of all the ones I own. There are 4 discs in the set. They are recordings thought to be long lost of a 12 night stand in a small club in Hollywood. After their initial recording they went into a recording vault, were forgotten about, and then found almost 50 years later. They are a marvelous set. Ella sounds amazing! The band is super tight. The selections of songs are incredible. Simply amazing! When Christine was pregnant we would listen to those discs quite a bit. It seemed as if they were always on. When they weren’t on we would often find ourselves mimicking Ella talking to the crowd, along with her distinctive “thank you!” that she was always delivering (you would need to hear the CD’s to know what I mean). When our daughter was born we had narrowed our list down to a few names. Ella was my outright favorite. Partly because I loved the name, and partly because I love Ella Fitzgerald. That said, I was certain that Christine was not on board, but turns out….she was. Ella is officially Ella Miller Cruiess, but unofficially she is Ella Fitzgerald Miller Cruiess. The unofficial version will be the one she grows up knowing....weather my wife knows this or not.

So it seems fitting that the first artist in the Ella Music Project be her namesake. I thought I would start with an easy one – “Nice Work If You Can Get It”. This is a Gershwin song that Ella initially recorded in 1959 for the Ella Gershwin Songbook. Here is a link to listen to a portion of the song - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3EtGeQ6-HY

Ella’s reaction….. The song comes in at 3:34. At first Ella seems uninterested, but as soon as the vocals come in she sat stock still. That is until around the three minute mark, just as the song is winding down. At that point she seems to lose interest, and by the end of the song has completely lost interest. Good reaction, but not the best. Maybe we need to take note of the length of the songs... Clearly this is a low key number, so it doesn't have to be upbeat for her. Just the same it is a good start to the project.