Unlike such other jazz vocalists as Billie Holiday and Dinah Washington, Ella Fitzgerald was seldom identified as a blues singer. The First Lady of Song did, however, include an occasional blues in her repertoire, and this collection brings together 11 of her most inspired blues performances in such stellar company as Stan Getz, Roy Eldridge, Joe Pass, and the Duke Ellington and Count Basie orchestras. Like the best jazz instrumentalists, Ella used the 12-bar form as a vehicle for her limitless improvisatory gifts, whether singing lyrics or scatting. There's little sadness in Ella's blues, because, as Lee Jeske points out in the booklet notes, "all she ever wanted to do . . . was make you happy."

with Count Basie, Ray Brown, Harry Carney, Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, Harry "Sweets" Edison, Roy Eldridge, Mercer Ellington, Herb Ellis, Tommy Flanagan, Stan Getz, Paul Gonsalves, Freddie Green, Johnny Hodges, Joe Pass, Zoot Sims, Clark Terry, Cootie Williams, and others