Ella Fitzgerald on Soviet vinyl: 'Begin the Beguine' [Танцуем Бегин, We Dance Beguine], 1960 issue

"My, what marvelous diction that girl has" - this was how Cole Porter [К. Портер] characterized Ella Fitzgerald's landmark recordings of his collected works, a sentiment someone in the Soviet Ministry of Culture echoed...and this person saw fit to have a definitive recording of "Begin the Beguine" dubbed onto one of their "Around the World"/Вокруг Света LPs, number 8 [8 Серия], side 7314.
As the Russians credited her on labels, Элла Фитцджеральд [Ella Fitsdzhyerald] needs no introduction. She was one of the 20th century's finest vocalists, and her Great American Songbook recordings for Verve Records helped propel her from a small jazz vocal career into more mainstream recognition across the country. Her manager, Norman Granz, came up with the idea of concept albums of great American jazz and pop hits for Ella to sing, arranged and accompanied by Buddy Bregman's orchestra, then pressing them on his Verve label alongside other jazz greats. The Soviet Ministry of Culture took notice, so they grabbed a copy and added her "Begin the Beguine" [Танцуем Бегин, We Dance Beguine] to their World Music Soviet Songbook of sorts, pressed here on Aprelevka Factory "Torch" label in 1960.
Ella's fantastic diction comes through clearly, even on a low-fidelity dubbing such as this. The record is in good shape and is still an improvement over records made just a few years earlier. In spite of the Soviet vinyl technical faults [this might have been dubbed at the wrong speed], the record still has the charm Ella and the musicians put into it years before.

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