The 3rd in the series, 1957's Ella Fitzgerald Sings The Duke Ellington Songbook is the only one that features the composer as a performer, the only one that features a jazz composer, and, consequently, the only one that is by rights a jazz project. Ella even gets to do quite a bit of her signature scat singing on the 2 albums that make up the project. Her work thereon won her the Grammy for Best Jazz Performance, Individual in 1959.
Ken has approached this afternoon concert quite differently from the others this year -- only he and Ted Rosenthal will join Clairdee and Julie Alsin for a chamber reading of 14 of the Ellington/Strayhorn sides from this album.