ELLA FITZGERALD: "Like Someone In Love"

Original released on LP Verve MGV 4004

(US, December 1957)

Being one of the queens of jazz, Ella Fitzgerald's abilities as a balladeer have been somewhat underrated over the years. Thus, efforts like this 1957 orchestral ballad album arranged and conducted by Frank DeVol have always taken a backseat to jazz albums like 1960's "Ella In Berlin" or 1963's "Ella & Basie". Unfortunately, this is an injustice to Ella in her capacity as the The FIrst Lady of Song. The performances here are ballad readings of the top rank, Ella's crooning blends well with DeVol's arrangements that are lush, on tracks like "Close Your Eyes" and "Midnight Sun", and tender on ballads like "I Never Had a Chance" and "Then I'll Be Tired of You". Her ethereal tone breathes life into these ballads and it accentuates the elegance and romance inherent in these pages from the Great American Songbook and she sprinkles some horn-like jazz phrasing in all the right places for that added zest and colour to thrill any jazz listener. Jazz fans will be delighted to discover that cool jazz maestro Stan Getz appears here too (on "There's a Lull in My Life", "What Will I Tell My Heart", "Midnight Sun" & "You're Blasé"). His obbligatos (check out "What Will I Tell My Heart") and solo spots (play "You're Blasé") here form the cherry on top of a very musically delicious cake. This album is one of Ella's finest and is on par with similar evergreen ballad albums from her peers like Nat King Cole's "Love Is The Thing" and Frank Sinatra's "Nice n' Easy". (Le Real Luc Ow in AllMusic)