Amoeba Music

Singer and bassist Casey Abrams' new album revels in jazz, blues, and soul, featuring both originals and covers, including his version of the title track that he performed as an American Idol contestant. More jazzy than his previous releases, Put a Spell on You has a light-hearted, jam-style atmosphere, recorded with his trio at an abandoned church with plenty of reverb.

Here’s a secret: old, never-before released live recordings don’t come around every day. Especially not of old jazz legends in their prime. In 2017, when blown-out cell phone footage of any Ed Sheeran concert known to man is readily available online, this point might get lost a bit. So when a rare concert of Ella Fitzgerald performing at the short-lived Hollywood nightclub Zardi’s Jazzland in 1956 surfaces, you better bet you’ve got something special on your hands. Ella at Zardi’s presents this context entirely: there’s crowd noise, back and forth between audience and performer, clicking cocktails, and all the assorted ambiance of a dusky jazz nightclub to be found in this mix. But, most of all, it’s Ella herself. From the moment she begins to sing until the moment she stops, she owns all the air in the room. Norman Granz, founder of Verve records, makes the opening introduction to the Zardi’s congregation: “This is for real, for me she’s the greatest there is – Miss Ella Fitzgerald!” Can you really argue with that?