[SYN-014 874757001425]
The sunny, devil-may-care singing you hear on these 14 vintage tracks is so infectious in its enthusiasm that it just has to be the work of someone deep in the blush of youth. And indeed it is. Ella Fitzgerald was still in her teens when much of this material was recorded. What's amazing is that, for most of the distinguished 60-year career that followed, Fitzgerald's voice held on to that charming girlishness, even as her technique grew ever more dazzling. Proof positive that high musical spirits can beat the ravages of age, at least for a while. By the time of her death in 1996, she'd long ago earned the honorary title First Lady of Song. — Mac Randall