The first half of Ella Fitzgerald's stellar career is represented on this 4CD set, from her beginnings as singer with Chick Webb's Orchestra, via her own big band leading days and duets with the likes of Louis Armstrong and Louis Jordan, to her emergence as the queen of scat in the 1940s and her first set of Gershwin songs, made with pianist Ellis Larkins. As the First Lady Of Song, Ella's career is also a history of the development of jazz singing - she practically defined the idiom from the 1940s to the '50s. This is an essential jazz document.