How many different ways can Polygram/Verve repackage (and resell) the same material? There have been the Compact Jazz series, the Jazz Masters series, the Essential series, and the Jazz 'Round Midnight series, not to mention various permutations of "best of" collections. Make way for one more repackaging effort, this time around going under the name The Ultimate Series. This series has been inaugurated with compilations from five jazz singers; instrumentals are slated to follow soon. 

  Let's take a look at what the Ella Fitzgerald and Nina Simone packages in this new series have to offer. Each contains 16 tracks adding up to about an hour's worth of music. Ella's contributions are taken from her decade with Verve from 1954-1964. At least nine of these tracks have already been issued on previous compilations (not to mention the CD reissue of the original album) and four have appeared on more than one compilation. There is however, one track which may not have been issued on CD yet, a version of "Robbin's Nest" from a 1949 JATP concert. However, Caveat emptor! The version of "Too Close for Comfort" heard on this disc is NOT, as touted both in the liner notes and on the back cover, the duet with Joe Williams promised. While a Williams/Fitzgerald duet of "Too Close" does exist, this ain't it folks. The diligent repackagers at Verve really blew it here. Not only is this not the duet version, it isn't even Ella's version. Only Joe William's voice is heard on this cut. Now, I've got nothing against Joe and he does a fine job with this song, but this isn't what the unsuspecting buyer is shelling out the bucks for. For shame! (This isn't the first time Polygram/Verve has failed to match the track on a compilation with the description in the liner notes, either. With the Anita O'Day volume of Jazz Masters, the liner notes promise the Bill Holman arrangement of "Old Devil Moon." What is actually on the disc is a version with the Oscar Peterson Quartet.) 
 
Accuracy seems to be better on the Nina Simone set. Still, at least 12 of the 16 cuts have appeared on previous compilations, nine of them more than once. All of them, which come from Nina's work with Philips from 1964-66, have appeared on compact disc in some form. Oddly, nothing is included from Nina's album on Verve from the mid-1970s. 

  Some brief musical considerations: In an attempt to incorporate tunes identified with Ella from before her signing with Verve, live versions of some songs have been included. The live version of "A-Tisket, A-Tasket" unfortunately finds Ella in less-than-prime vocal form. In all, the variation in sound quality between the live and studio cuts on this disc make for a very uneven overall impression. While the Nina Simone disc includes some live tracks as well, it works better as a unified whole. 

  The concept behind this series is interesting. Jazz musicians are (ostensibly) asked to select the tracks for the disc and provide comments in the liner notes. Joe Williams did the honors on the Ella disc, while Dianne Reeves was called in for the Nina Simone offering. Still, considering the large amount of worthwhile material languishing in the Verve archives still awaiting reissue in digital format, the desires of jazz fans would be much better served by putting some energy into bringing out this material, rather than the continued recycling of material evidenced by this rather superfluous series.