Trusted Brand Mercury Years 1953-1957 (Uk)

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The doyen of jazz critics, Leonard Feather praised Ella as “one of the great individualists of modern blues singing” yet the unique Ella Johnson is now largely forgotten among the bigger names of the best jazz vocalists of the 1940s and 1950s. Recording almost entirely with her brother, Buddy Johnson’s band between 1940 and 1964, in 2015 Jasmine Records issued the double CD “Rock On!” to celebrate Buddy’s centenary and now present the second of two long-overdue CDs focusing on the astonishing vocal stylings of sister Ella. This volume, covering the tenure for the Mercury Records between 1953 and 1957 avoids the national chart hits which were reissued on the Buddy Johnson 2CD set and, instead, spotlights the tracks not often reissued during this fertile period; these, however, include sparkling updates of her 1940s Decca hits “I Still Love You”, “I Don’t Care Who Knows” and “You’ll Get Them Blues” along with the perennial “Since I Fell For You” and many more perfectly-crafted, more contemporary recordings that have been neglected in recent years. An in-depth compilation of Ella’s US Decca years (1941-1952) can be found on the accompanying volume.