Ivie Anderson was so highly regarded that she was the longest-serving vocalist with the Duke Ellington Orchestra

Ivie Anderson was a jazz singer who was so versatile and highly regarded that she was the longest-serving female vocalist with the Duke Ellington Orchestra, occupying that exacting role from 1932 through to 1942, a vital and exciting formative era for Ellington's music. Born in 1905, she began performing in her native Los Angeles in 1921, and by 1925 was singing at New York's famous Cotton Club and toured with stage musicals, before joining Earl Hines in 1930. She was soon hired by the Duke, and enjoyed a lengthy stay with him, as he made the most of her fine jazz feel, and her ability to work across a range of styles and material, from highly original renditions of up-tempo material like her much-lauded recording of 'It Don't Mean A Thing' to sensitive treatments of ballads like 'I Got It Bad And That Ain't Good' which place her alongside the likes of much better known peers as Billie Holiday. This great value 50-track 2-CD set primarily comprises recordings with the Ellington orchestra for the Brunswick, Columbia, RCA-Victor, Variety & Master labels across the era, including the 1942 pop and R&B hits 'I Got It Bad' and 'Hayfoot, Strawfoot', plus later solo recordings for the Excello and Black & White labels, including her 1944 hit 'Mexico Joe'. It also includes a version with Duke of 'All God's Chillun Got Rhythm' which she performed in the 1942 Marx Brothers movie 'A Day At The Races'. It's a thoroughly enjoyable and, we hope, nicely representative overview of the most important period of her career and a fine showcase for a distinctive performer who has not received the recognition her talent merits.

Track Listing

• It Don't Mean A Thing
• Delta Bound
• Happy As The Day Is Long
• Get Yourself A New Broom
• I'm Satisfied
• Ebony Rhapsody
• Troubled Waters
• Cotton
• Truckin'
• Isn't Love The Strangest Thing
• Kissin' My Baby Goodnight
• Oh, Babe ! Maybe Someday
• Shoe Shine Boy
• I've Got To Be A Rug Cutter
• My Honey's Lovin' Arms
• Did Anyone Ever Tell You'
• There's A Lull In My Life
• The Old Plantation
• Alabamy Home
• All God's Chillun Got Rhythm
• If You Were In My Place
• Carnival In Caroline
• Swingtime In Honolulu
• You Gave Me The Gate
• When My Sugar Walks Down The Street

• Watermelon Man
• La De Doody Do
• In A Mizz
• I'm Checkin' Out, Goom Bye
• A Loney Co-Ed
• You Can Count On Me
• Killin' Myself
• Solitude
• Stormy Weather
• Mood Indigo
• So Far, So Good
• Me And You
• At A Dixie Roadside Diner
• Five O'clock Whistle
• I Got It Bad
• Rocks In My Bed
• I Don't Mind
• Hayfoot, Strawfoot
• Mexico Joe
• Play Me The Blues
• On The Sunny Side Of The Street
• You Ought To Know
• He's Tall, Dark And Handsome
• Empty Bed Blues
• Big Butter And Egg Man

Additional Details

Label: Acrobat

Genre: Jazz

Language: English

Run Time: 140 mins

Region: 0

Release Date: 09/07/18

UPC: 824046326722