The Great American Songbook, Produced By Norman Granz

I suspect that most music fans (at least of a certain age) are familiar with the classic "Song Book" series that Ella Fitzgerald recorded with producer Norman Granz on the Verve label in the late 1950s and early 1960s. 

These are without question the definitive interpretations of the standard American song catalog.  As Ira Gershwin guipped, "I didn't know how good our songs were until I heard Ella sing them." 

The eight albums that Granz and Ella released are:

-Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Song Book (1956)
-Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Rodgers & Hart Song Book (1956)
-Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Song Book (1957)
-Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Irving Berlin Song Book (1958)
-Ella Fitzgerald Sings the George And Ira Gershwin Song Book (1959)
-Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Harold Arlen Song Book (1961)
-Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Jerome Kern Song Book (1964)
-Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Johnny Mercer Song Book (1964)

Ella's recordings of the works of these great songwriters did more than any other performer to define what would become known as "The Great American Songbook."  If that seems obvious today, it was extraordinary in the context of race relations in America in the 1950s and 60s.  As Frank Rich of the New York Times wrote in his 1996 obituary of Ella Fitzgerald, she "performed a cultural transaction as extraordinary as Elvis's integration of white and African-American soul.  Here was a black woman popularizing urban songs often written by immigrant Jews to a national audience of predominantly white Christians." 

As extraordinary as Ella's songbook series was, it was at best the third songbook series.  The first appears to have been recorded by Lee Wiley, a popular, sultry-voiced singer, who, in 1939, released an album of four 78s with eight songs by George and Ira Gershwin.  She followed up with collections of 78s by Cole Porter, Rodgers & Hart, Harold Arlen, Vincent Youmans, and Irving Berlin.  The last two, which appeared in the early 50s, were issued on 10" LPs.  

I have no idea if legendary producer, jazz impresario, label owner, and civil-rights pioneer Norman Granz was inspired by Lee Wiley.  But in 1952, he began to produce and record a series of "songbook" albums with the Oscar Peterson Trio.  Backed by Barney Kessel or Herb Ellis on guitar and Ray Brown on bass, Peterson's interpretations of the works of the giants of American song are a tour de force.  From 1952-1955, Granz released 10 "Peterson Plays" LPs on his Clef label.  Original copies of the albums tend to be expensive and/or hard to find in good condition. However, a few of the titles are available as reissues. 

Fun fact: Canadian Oscar Peterson was "discovered" by Norman Granz in the summer of 1949 during Granz's visit to Montreal to set up a concert by his group of traveling jazz all-stars, known as "Jazz At The Philharmonic" (JATP).  Grantz was so impressed by the young pianist that he arranged to bring him to New York to be a "surprise" guest at a JATP concert at Carnegie Hall in September.  Peterson was an immediate hit, and within a few months, he was one of the stars of the JATP show.  

Another fun fact: JATP stalwart and Oscar Peterson Trio bassist Ray Brown was married to Ella Fitzgerald from 1947-1953.

Barely a year after the last LP in the Clef Records "Peterson Plays" series hit the stores in early 1955, Granz was back in the studio to start what would turn out to be by far the most important of the songbook series releases -- Ella Fitzgerald's eight-album masterpiece.  With this series, not only did Granz cement Ella's reputation as the greatest singer in the history of American popular music, he also created what would turn out to be the definitive account of the golden era of of American song.  Fun fact: By 1956, when the first of Ella's songbook albums was released, Granz had created a new label called Verve Records.  Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Song Book (MG V-4001-2) was the first album released on the new Verve label.

Astonishingly, Granz wasn't yet done with the American songbook.  In 1957, he took the Oscar Peterson Trio back into the studio to start another series!  To change things up a bit, Granz replaced the guitar in Peterson's trio with drummer Ed Thigpen.  (If you hear a selection from one of the Peterson songbook albums and don't know which series it's from, listen to whether it has a guitar or drums.)

From 1957 to 1961, Granz released nine albums in the second "Oscar Peterson Plays" song book collection.  If you're counting, that's 19 Oscar Peterson LPs of the American songbook.  All of Ella Fitzgerald's song book releases were double albums except for Jerome Kern and Johnny Mercer.  Her Gershwin songbook ultimately totaled five LPs.  I'm no good at math, but between Fitzgerald and Peterson, Granz produced nearly 40 albums of music from the American songbook.

But wait, there's more!  In 1952 Granz convinced Fred Astaire to record a four-album career retrospective, including many of the classic songs Astaire had introduced on Broadway or in his hit movies.  The set was titled The Astaire Story, and while it wasn't billed as a songbook album per se, the vast majority of the songs are by Irving Berlin, George and Ira Gershwin, Cole Porter, and Jerome Kern.  The collection was released as a signed, limited edition box set by Mercury Records in 1953.  Fun fact: Granz already had the Oscar Peterson Trio (Peterson, Barney Kessel and Ray Brown) in the studio recording Peterson's first songbook series.  So Granz used them as the backing band for Astaire's sessions, adding Alvin Stoller on drums, Flip Phillips on tenor sax, and Charlie Shavers on trumpet.

Bottom line: While Ella deservedly gets credit for her definitive interpretation of the songbook, if anyone ever asks you who invented "The Great American Songbook," the answer is Norman Granz.

Postscript: By the mid 60s, rock 'n' roll had just about killed off jazz, but the American songbook was alive and well.  In addition to nearly every popular vocalist of the 60s and 70s -- from Sinatra to Streisand -- a number of rock 'n' roll stars have had a go at the standards.  The growing list includes Ringo Star, Harry Nilsson, Carly Simon, Linda Ronstadt, Brian Ferry, Boz Scaggs, Willie Nelson, Paul McCartney, and Rod Stewart.

Enjoy the music!