ELLA FITZGERALD & JOE PASS
...Again (Pablo/Original Jazz Classics)
Reviewed by Shaun Dale

---

Picking favorites from the catalog of an artist like Ella Fitzgerald is never easy. Over the decades of her career, she displayed a wide range of styles and skills, each meritorious on its own. For me, though, when it comes down to it, the three duet albums she recorded with guitarist Joe Pass are the Ella I turn to again and again.

While she doesn't show the power and prowess that made her an artist among equals when she attacked bebop in the forties, or the precision that redefined popular music with her Songbooks in the fifties, four decades into her career, Ella Fitzgerald displayed an emotional depth that was too often lacking in some of her earlier efforts. No one was better equipped to help her display that depth than Pass, who could cover for an entire rhythm section or push a song forward with a driving solo and do it all on an unamplified guitar. Every note the man plays on this set of standards defines swing, and he plays every note in the presence of the quintessential female swing voice.

If the Fitzgerald/Pass combination has somehow escaped your attention, this is a perfect introduction to one of the perfect pairings in jazz.

Track List:

I Ain't Got Nothin' But The Blues * 'Tis Autumn * My Old Flame * That Old Feeling * Rain * I Didn't Know About You * You Took Advantage Of Me * I've Got The World On A String * All Too Soon * The One I Love (Belongs To Somebody Else) * Solitude * Nature Boy * Tennessee Waltz * One Note Samba

© 2001 - Shaun Dale