The four-disc
Ella Fitzgerald box set released by
Proper is one of the most complete assessments of her early career, with 100 songs taking listeners from her debut with the orchestra of
Chick Webb in 1935 all the way to the end of her
Decca contract in 1952. (As fans will know, this set says nothing about the wonderful things she was about to accomplish with the
Verve label in the '50s and '60s.) During her
Webb and
Decca years,
Ella performed a mixture of light
novelties and sturdy
standards (or soon-to-be
standards), with the dreaded
novelties (
"A-Tisket, A-Tasket," "Stone Cold Dead in the Market [He Had It Coming]") usually paying the way for the songs she liked to sing (and her fans liked to hear). Although her prewar and postwar period is often maligned, or unfairly compared to her later standard of excellence,
Ella (like
Billie Holiday) was able to spin gold -- or at least silver -- out of nearly everything she recorded. An added bonus is
Decca's pairing of her with their other stars of the period, like
Louis Armstrong,
the Ink Spots, and
Louis Jordan. ~ John Bush
