eJazzNews Archive

Celebrating the Life and Music of Ella Fitzgerald

Originally published on eJazzNews ·

On May 24, 2007, eJazzNews published Verve Records’ announcement of We All Love Ella: Celebrating the First Lady of Song, a tribute album to Ella Fitzgerald produced by Phil Ramone. It was released in June 2007 to mark what would have been Fitzgerald’s 90th birthday: she was born in Newport News, Virginia, on April 25, 1917, and died in Beverly Hills on June 15, 1996.

What the announcement said

The release listed the singers and their songs and let several of them explain what Fitzgerald meant to them. Natalie Cole said “A-Tisket, A-Tasket” was the first jazz song she ever learned, practiced until she sounded exactly like Ella. k.d. lang said she bought her first Ella record at 20 and studied it as a musician from then on. Diana Krall called Fitzgerald the greatest improviser and scat singer and recorded “Dream a Little Dream of Me” with pianist Hank Jones. Dianne Reeves said the biggest influence on her was the joy in Fitzgerald’s singing, and Ledisi said Ella made “Blues in the Night” seem easy until she tried it herself.

The announced track list ran to 13 songs: Natalie Cole (“A-Tisket, A-Tasket”), Chaka Khan (“Lullaby of Birdland”), Queen Latifah (“The Lady Is a Tramp”), Diana Krall and Hank Jones, Cole and Khan together on “Mr. Paganini,” Dianne Reeves (“Oh, Lady Be Good!”), Lizz Wright (“Reaching for the Moon”), Ledisi, Linda Ronstadt (“Miss Otis Regrets”), Gladys Knight (“Someone to Watch Over Me”), Etta James (“Do Nothing Till You Hear from Me”), k.d. lang (“Angel Eyes”) and Michael Bublé (“Too Close for Comfort”).

The album as released

The finished album added two tracks the announcement did not mention: the first release of a duet between Fitzgerald and Stevie Wonder on “You Are the Sunshine of My Life,” recorded live at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in 1977, and “Airmail Special” by the young Canadian singer Nikki Yanofsky. Most of the tracks were backed by an orchestra arranged and conducted by Rob Mounsey. The release coincided with a concert at the Galen Center of the University of Southern California, co-hosted by Natalie Cole and Quincy Jones and broadcast on PBS in the Great Performances series. Reviews were mixed: The Boston Globe found the album hit-and-miss, while several critics singled out Ledisi’s “Blues in the Night” and Yanofsky’s scat singing.

The Krall and Jones track has had a life of its own on Spanish-language Wikipedia, whose article on “Dream a Little Dream of Me” cites this eJazzNews announcement for that version.

Since 2007

Several of the people behind the album have since died: Hank Jones in May 2010 at 91, Etta James in January 2012, Phil Ramone in March 2013 and Natalie Cole on December 31, 2015. For Fitzgerald’s place among the great singers, see our guides to the greatest female jazz singers and jazz singers.

Where to start listening

  • We All Love Ella: Celebrating the First Lady of Song (Verve, 2007): the tribute itself.
  • Dee Dee Bridgewater, Dear Ella (Verve, 1997): an earlier tribute; its “Cotton Tail” was added to the Australian edition of the 2007 album.

Sources

This page is based on an article from the original eJazzNews archive (2001 to 2018), with background and sources added in 2026. The original text is not republished here. You can read the original as it appeared on eJazzNews via the Internet Archive.
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