The 1st Annual Grammy Awards were held on May 4, 1959. They recognized musical accomplishments by performers for the year 1958. Two separate ceremonies were held simultaneously on the same day; the first hotel in Beverly Hills, California, and the second in the Park Sheraton Hotel in New York City. Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, Domenico Modugno, Ross Bagdasarian, and Henry Mancini, each won 2 awards.
Nelson Smock Riddle Jr. was an American arranger, composer, bandleader and orchestrator whose career stretched from the late 1940s to the mid-1980s. He worked with many vocalists at Capitol Records, including Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole, Judy Garland, Dean Martin, Peggy Lee, Johnny Mathis, Rosemary Clooney and Keely Smith. He scored and arranged music for many films and television shows, earning an Academy Award and three Grammy Awards. He found commercial and critical success with a new generation in the 1980s, in a trio of Platinum albums with Linda Ronstadt.
Porgy and Bess is a studio album by jazz vocalist and trumpeter Louis Armstrong and singer Ella Fitzgerald, released on Verve Records in 1959. The third and final of the pair's albums for the label, it is a suite of selections from the George Gershwin opera Porgy and Bess. Orchestral arrangements are by Russell Garcia, who had previously arranged the 1956 jazz vocal recording The Complete Porgy and Bess.
Ella at Duke's Place is a 1965 studio album by Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington, accompanied by his Orchestra. While it was the second studio album made by Fitzgerald and Ellington, following the 1957 song book recording, a live double album Ella and Duke at the Cote D'Azur was recorded in 1966. Ella at Duke’s Place was nominated for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance at the 1967 Grammy Awards.
Ella Swings Brightly with Nelson is a 1962 studio album by the American jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald, accompanied by an orchestra arranged by Nelson Riddle.
Frank Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely is the fifteenth studio album by American singer Frank Sinatra. It was released on September 8, 1958, through Capitol Records.
Digital III at Montreux is a 1979 live album featuring a compilation of performances by Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, Joe Pass, and Ray Brown, recorded at the 1979 Montreux Jazz Festival. It was produced and has liner notes by Norman Granz. The cover photo is by Phil Stern.
Take Love Easy is an album by the jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald with guitarist Joe Pass, released in 1974.
Fitzgerald and Pass...Again is a 1976 studio album by Ella Fitzgerald, accompanied by jazz guitarist Joe Pass, the second of four duet albums they recorded together after Take Love Easy (1973).
Fine and Mellow is an album by Ella Fitzgerald, recorded in early 1974 but not released until 1979. The album won the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album in 1980, Fitzgerald's second win in four years.
Ella and Basie! is a 1963 studio album by Ella Fitzgerald, accompanied by Count Basie and his orchestra, with arrangements by Quincy Jones and Benny Carter. It was later reissued with slightly different cover art as On the Sunny Side of the Street.
Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Song Book is a 1957 studio album by the American jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald, accompanied by Duke Ellington and his orchestra, focusing on Ellington's songs.
Ella Fitzgerald Sings the George and Ira Gershwin Song Book is a box set by American jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald that contains songs by George and Ira Gershwin with arrangements by Nelson Riddle. It was produced by Norman Granz, Fitzgerald's manager and the founder of Verve Records. Fifty-nine songs were recorded in the span of eight months in 1959. It is one of the eight album releases comprising what is possibly Fitzgerald's greatest musical legacy: Ella Fitzgerald Sings The Complete American Songbook, in which she recorded, with top arrangers and musicians, a comprehensive collection of both well-known and obscure songs from the Great American Songbook canon, written by the likes of Cole Porter, Rodgers & Hart, Irving Berlin, Duke Ellington, George and Ira Gershwin, Harold Arlen, Jerome Kern, and Johnny Mercer.
Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Jerome Kern Song Book is a 1963 studio album by the American jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald accompanied by an orchestra arranged and conducted by Nelson Riddle. The album focuses on the songs of the composer Jerome Kern.
Dream Dancing is a 1978 album by Ella Fitzgerald. Twelve of the tracks on this album were recorded in June 1972 and originally released on Fitzgerald's 1972 Atlantic album, Ella Loves Cole. In 1978, Pablo Records repackaged the album with the addition of two new recordings from February 1978.
Dear Ella is a 1997 studio album by Dee Dee Bridgewater, recorded in tribute to Ella Fitzgerald, who had died the previous year.
What's New is an album of traditional pop standards released by American singer/songwriter/producer Linda Ronstadt in 1983. It represents the first in a trilogy of 1980s albums Ronstadt recorded with bandleader/arranger Nelson Riddle. John Kosh designed the album covers for all three albums.
Wild Is Love is a 1960 concept album by the American singer and pianist Nat King Cole, arranged by Nelson Riddle. The album chronicles a narrator's attempts to pick up various women before he finds love at the conclusion of the album. The album formed the basis for an unsuccessful musical, I'm With You, that starred Cole and was intended as a potential Broadway vehicle for him. A television special also called Wild Is Love resulted from the album, and was shown in Canada in late 1961. The television special was not shown in the United States until 1964 due to the brief presence of physical contact between the African American Cole and a performer of Canadian European descent, Larry Kert, that was seen as offensive by commercial sponsors.
Guitar Forms is a 1965 album by Kenny Burrell, featuring arrangements by Gil Evans. Evans' orchestra appears on five of the album's nine tracks, including the nearly 9-minute "Lotus Land". Three tracks are blues numbers in a small group format and there is one solo performance: "Prelude #2".
Afro/American Sketches is a jazz album by Oliver Nelson recorded in late 1961 and released in 1962. It is his first big band album as a leader.
