[.ca] Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday & Carmen McRae at Newport

From Amazon.com:
In 1957, the Newport Jazz Festival presented three of the greatest jazz divas on successive nights, with the tape recorders rolling the whole time. Shortly thereafter came the original LP, Ella Fitzgerald & Billie Holiday at Newport. The constraints of vinyl, and the fact that she had not yet achieved the same stature as Holiday and Fitzgerald, kept Carmen McRae out of the picture. So the six previously unreleased McRae selections--along with three new Fitzgerald tracks--somewhat justify the new packaging of this album. But that reason doesn't really suffice. As William Ruhlman points out in his game but candid liner notes, none of the singers comes off very well here. Fitzgerald sings wonderfully, of course--when didn't she?--but her trio falls in and out of synch. Worse, the stage announcer's audible suggestion that she move closer to the microphone results in overmodulated distortion on four-fifths of the set ("Too Close for Comfort," one of the songs she sings here, is all too appropriate). Holiday, in her later years, sang with a reduced vocal range and waning energy, which she sometimes countered with sly sagacity. Here, two years before her death, she offers, alas, only a pallid version of that. Relatively few in-performance recordings of McRae exist from the 1950s, and this one offers a big, eager-to-please voice and plenty of technical fireworks. But McRae sounds almost frighteningly chipper. When she acknowledges applause with improbably bright "thank you"s, she sounds like Alvin the Chipmunk's older sister. Later "live" sets betray none of this nervousness, and you don't have to listen to too-loud Ella and too-tired Billie to get them. --Neil Tesser

Chronique amazon.fr:
Réédité par Verve, cet album rend compte de concerts donnés au festival de Newport, en juin 1957, où défilèrent trois grandes dames du jazz vocal. Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday et Carmen McRae se partagent les 24 titres de l'album où fleurissent nombre de standards immortels. L'enregistrement débute avec Ella Fitzgerald, au son velouté, jouant la partition avec coeur et sans déchirements excessifs, avant de poursuivre avec Billie Holiday, qui de sa voix plus aigre s'approprie les thèmes pour en redéfinir les contours. Réentendre "My Man" avec Mal Waldron au piano, c'est savourer la réharmonisation de Billie Holiday. Carmen McRae conclut l'enregistrement avec ses accents bluesy et sa voix faussement cassée, pour rejoindre, au panthéon des chanteuses, ses deux glorieuses aînées. At Newport, qui permet un survol rapide des possibilités vocales de ces trois grandes signatures du jazz vocal, se révèle un musée plein de richesses. --Jean-Michel Schlosser

Mixed Bag of Ella, Billie and Carmen:
What should have been a great recording of a historical concert given by Ella, Billie and Carmen on successive nights is in reality a mixed bag, mostly due to the uneven performances. Billie's appearance with her 6 songs is the real culprit. When she starts to sing her first of six numbers, she is obviously "not there" in spirit. She sounds tired, slow, and just out of it. Her first two numbers just drag. Strangely and amazingly, by her third number she actually sounds in tune and singing with more energy. "My Man" "Lover Come Back to Me" and "What Moonlight Can Do" sounds almost like the Billie of her golden years---in sync with the beat and band. Unfortunately her "Lady Sings the Blues" can be taken literally, she sounds as though the blues have gotten the best of her. It's sad listening to her here and comparing her to Ella, her colleague and rival, who sounds upbeat, energized and in great voice. This was really during Ella's peak period in performance so it's quite sad seeing the stark constrast between the two. Carmen sounds like a young girl singer, still finding her wings and not yet quite formed in her style. She tackles the songs and audience to the best of her abilities. Rarely has she come across as being so strident in her interpretive powers. Perhaps this was a big occasion for her; she was still lacking in performing concerts. Get the disc if you're strictly an Ella Fitzgerald fan because Billie's portion will leave you mostly disappointed.

It's Real...:
I was thrilled when I made this purchase recently, so close to Ella's birthday on April 25th, and the more I listen to it, the more developed becomes my love/hate relationship with this 1957 Newport Jazz Festival recording. Three jazz giants (Sarah Vaughan's performance is not included here, but it has just been re-released as "Linger Awhile: Live at Newport and More," available from amazon.com)perform well-known standards. We begin with Ella Fitzgerald, who comes out with the bouncy and swinging "This Can't Be Love," standard fare at many of her live concerts. The atmosphere on this recording is so real, that the feedback from the microphone on the first number makes you feel as though you are really present. Equally interesting is the patter of Fitzgerald and her musicians between sets. Ella scats to the highest degree on "Air Mail Special," incorporating, as she does so well, the lyrics to many other pop songs: "That's Amore," the theme from Davy Crocket, and even gives a nod to the Boswell Sisters with "The Music Goes Round and Round"--as well as to others. She croons a couple of nice mellow tunes, namely Gershwin's "I've Got a Crush on You." Ella is the best, and you get a real sense of her talents on this recording. Then comes Billie Holiday, who, after this jazz festival, will be dead in two years' time. The voice is almost gone and so is the spirit. It's only words--words that seem attached to no human being, to no spirit, to no soul--filling the air. The highlight of the Holiday set is her being presented and announced by Johnny Mercer (who also gives a nod, from the bandstand, to Gerry Mulligan). Holiday's "Willow Weep for Me" is adequate, as is her "What a Little Moonlight Can Do." But brace yourself; Holiday's voice is almost heartbreaking--gritty and very real, very seasoned, and that's what some people like about LadyDay--me, not so much. And finally, there's Carmen McRae who sounds a little harsh, a little brash, but her voice in 1957 sure could release your ear wax. McRae sounds as though she had swallowed the microphone wholesale, and even on the quiet numbers, the ballads, she doesn't know what "a little goes a long way" means. I think she was too busy trying to imitate the Sarah Vaughan of 1957 at this point in her career; McRae mellowed so sweetly as she aged. But here, even on "Midnight Sun" McRae is too loud, but the loudness and jazz cacophony work very well on "Skyliner" and on "Perdido," on which she gets a request to accompany herself on the piano. Overall, this is a must own for jazz fans, but these recordings do not represent the best work of each of these giant jazz voices. Good listening! --dan

Ella Swings Newport:
After languishing in the vaults for a few years, Verve Records finally released a CD version of this album, with the usual bonus tracks (absent from the original album is a set by Carmen McRae). For fans of Ella's live performances, this is a terific album to have. Her rendition of "Body and Soul" is worth the price of the CD alone. Having been recorded in 1957, the sound quality leaves a bit to be desired (which explains my rating of only four out of five stars). Fitzgerald's performance is strong throughout the recording, and is typical of the excellent work she did in that period. Billie Holiday's set, on the otherhand, is not this singer's best work, but gives the listener a good idea of how she sounded near the end of her career. McCrae also turns in a fine set that is a good document of he rvoice at this relatively early stage of her career. While this may not be the best of Ella's live performances (Ella in Berlin and Ella in Rome are better), all in all, this is a great CD to have.

Absolutly breathtaking...:
Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday and Carmen McRae live at the 1957 Newport Jazz Festival, a jazz lovers dreaam come true... Fitzgerald is in top form costantly improvising, Holiday sounds mature and knowing, McRae sounds energized and even plays some piano. This is wonderful, all three sigers are in trio settings which is nice for a change, since on thier LP's they are usually backed by string sections and orchestras. Now all we really need from Verve are Anita O'Day's classic performances from the Newport Jazz Festival, wouldn't that be nice.

• This Can't Be Love - Ella Fitzgerald
• I Got It Bad (And That Ain't Good) - Ella Fitzgerald
• Body and Soul - Ella Fitzgerald
• Too Close for Comfort - Ella Fitzgerald
• Lullaby of Birdland - Ella Fitzgerald
• I've Got a Crush on You - Ella Fitzgerald
• I'm Gonna Sit Right Down (And Write Myself a Letter) - Ella Fitzgerald
• April in Paris - Ella Fitzgerald
• Air Mail Special - Ella Fitzgerald
• I Can't Give You Anything But Love - Ella Fitzgerald
• Nice Work If You Can Get It - Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday
• Willow, Weep for Me - Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday
• My Man - Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday
• Lover, Come Back to Me - Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday
• Lady Sings the Blues - Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday
• What a Little Moonlight Can Do - Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday
• I'll Remember April - Ella Fitzgerald, Carmen McRae
• Body and Soul - Ella Fitzgerald, Carmen McRae
• McRae Introduces "Skyliner" - Ella Fitzgerald, Carmen McRae
• Introduction to Midnight Sun - Carmen McRae
• McRae Introduces the Band and "Midnight Sun" - Ella Fitzgerald, Carmen McRae
• Midnight Sun - Carmen McRae
• Love Is Here to Stay - Carmen McRae
• Perdido - Ella Fitzgerald