| We All Love Ella: Celebrating the First Lady of Song | |
| Type: | tribute |
| Artist: | Various |
| Cover: | weallloveella.jpg |
| Released: | June 6, 2007 |
| Recorded: | 2006–2007 (exc. track 14) |
| Genre: | Jazz, big band |
| Length: | 36:31 |
| Label: | Verve |
| Producer: | Phil Ramone (exc. track 9) |
We All Love Ella: Celebrating the First Lady of Song is a 2007 tribute album to Ella Fitzgerald produced by Phil Ramone for Verve Records, released to mark the 90th anniversary of her birth. The "all-star" list of featured vocalists is backed for most part by an orchestra led by Rob Mounsey. The album contains the first release of a duet of Ella Fitzgerald and Stevie Wonder, who joined her on stage with her small band at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in 1977.
Ramone described the album as "a celebration, a hug, and a kiss" to Fitzgerald and that the album was intended to pass her music to a new generation.[1]
The album's release coincided with a concert at the Galen Center of the University of Southern California featuring several of the musicians on the album. It was broadcast on PBS as part of their Great Performances series.[2] The concert was co-hosted by Natalie Cole and Quincy Jones and featured Ruben Studdard and Dave Koz, James Moody, Take 6 and Patti Austin, Wynonna Judd, and Nancy Wilson.[2]
Christina Pazzanese felt the album was "hit-and-miss" in her review for The Boston Globe.[3] Pazzanese described Natalie Cole as the best at capturing Fitzgerald's "sunny buoyancy" and praises k.d. lang's "smokey lusciousness" on "Angel Eyes". She was particularly critical of Gladys Knight, Dianne Reeves and Diana Krall, describing them as "a major letdown", "tepid, overly polite" and "plodding" respectively.[3] In The Philadelphia Daily News, Jonathan Takiff wrote that the album left him feeling "oddly underwhelmed" with only Etta James and Michael Bublé offering the "Mona Lisa-like moodiness of Fitzgerald's magical delivery". Takiff criticized producer Phil Ramone's "creamy smooth production [which] buffed away all the edges".[4] The album received a 4 star review in The Evening Standard, which wrote that the album was "remarkably all-star" and it was a "jazz fact that you have to expire if you want to be marketed properly".[5]
Rashod Ollison in The Baltimore Sun and Jeff Simon In The Buffalo News both highlighted Ledisi's "Blues in the Night" and Nikki Yanofsky's scat singing on "Airmail Special".[6] [1] Simon praised Yanofsky's "phenomenal channelling" of Fitzgerald and Ollison felt her performance was "mouth-dropping".[6] [1] Simon also wrote the album had "some surprises, even shocks".[6]