CALLAWAY
CAPTURES THE ESSENCE OF ELLA
Ray Mark Rinaldi
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
10-17-1996
To Ella with Love
Ann Hampton Callaway (After 9)
Ann Hampton
Callaway shows some guts releasing a tribute to Ella Fitzgerald just a few months after
the singer's death. Fitzgerald was a national treasure, a musical Mother Teresa to the
masses, and anything less than skilled reverence on the part of Callaway would invite a
dismissing "who-does-she-think-she-is" from fans.
But Callaway - who actually
started the project well before Ella' s death in June - can stand tall. This album does
just what a tribute should do: pay homage to a familiar vocalist's best tricks while
preserving the new performer's own style.
To be sure, Callaway's no Ella. She's a jazzy pop singer living in a rock and roll era,
while Fitzgerald was a pop-ish jazz singer, a once-in-a-generation voice that reigned just
when her genre did. Still, Callaway's smart and versatile enough to pull it off
charmingly. Ella fans will likely approve.
On Harold Arlen's "Let's Fall in Love," the phrasing is distinctly lilting and
breezy. With Jerome Kern's "A Fine Romance," Callaway couples Ella's little girl
innocence and sense of humor.
Cole Porter's "Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye," recalls Fitzgerald's purity, while
Rodgers and Hart's "Little Girl Blue" captures Ella' s under-rated torchy side.
The arrangements, traded off by Andy Farber, Mitch Farber and George Andrews, are
well-researched and executed. Duke Ellington's "Do Nothin' Till You Hear From
Me," for example, is all duked up with a growling, sensual muted trumpet solo
contributed by Wynton Marsalis.
The album has its weaker moments. "That Old Black Magic" is more aggressive
Rosemary Clooney than silky Fitzgerald. The Gershwins' "Embraceable You," is the
set's closest thing to a cheap imitation - ironic considering it's the kind of song
Callaway would triumph over if she was doing Callaway and not somebody else.
But Callaway takes several opportunities to make the album her own. In the middle of
"How High the Moon" she adds her own vocalese melody and lyrics (mixed in
perfectly by producer Warren Schatz), a subsong that proves what a clever writer and
confident performer she is. It also gives her a chance to scat, a skill she has in
significant measure.
