ELLA FITZGERALD
The Voice that embraced the World
Bande No. 1
Bande No. 1
ELLA FITZGERALD
LIVE IN EAST BERLIN 1967
It all began with a coincidence and complicity between Ronald Trisch, the head of the East German music agency, and Horst Lippmann, the West Berlin representative of major American artists. In January 1967, Ella Fitzgerald toured Europe with Duke Ellington and his orchestra. After a concert in West Berlin, January 25 was a day off. They jumped at the chance to organize a somewhat adventurous "detour" for Ella to East Berlin. At 11 p.m. on Wednesday evening, 3,000 people flocked to the Friedrichstadt Palace. This appearance in East Berlin would be the only one of her career. For almost an hour and a half, she treated the audience to some twenty tracks from the other side of the wall, alternating timeless standards with the hits of the moment, from the Beatles to Nancy Sinatra...
ELLA FITZGERALD
LIVE IN EAST BERLIN 1967
ELLA FITZGERALD
LIVE IN EAST BERLIN 1967
The story of this discovery
"It was in Potsdam, not far from Berlin, that the analog stereo tapes of this unique concert were found, but they were incomplete. Luckily, a year earlier we had met Ulf Drechsel, director of the RBB archives and son of Karlheinz Drechsel, one of the emblematic figures of Jazz in East Germany and one of the organizers of the Ella's concert in 1967. Luckily, his father had kept the mono analog tapes! But there were also incomplete. The concert had to be reconstructed, and the version of each track that most perfectly revealed the magic of the moment had to be chosen prior to the restoration work."
Frédéric D'ORIA-NICOLAS
Musical treasure seeker
THE FORMATS OF THIS DISCOVERY
Le Journal du Dimanche
“The restorations of The Lost Recordings are worthy of those devoted to master paintings”
Bande No. 2
Bande No. 2
ELLA FITZGERALD
LIVE AT THE CONCERTGEBOUW 1961
On February 10, 1961 at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, just one year after her famous Berlin concert, Ella Fitzgerald once again found herself in front of a packed house. Following a sober introduction of the musicians by Norman Granz, Ella Fitzgerald took to the stage. With the freshness of the eternal, slightly impertinent little girl, she propels herself one note into the rhythm of "Too Close for Comfort". Her voice settles, she holds her audience by the hand, gently, surely. Ella takes to the stage as if in her own living room. She welcomes each spectator like a privileged guest. Each song is a glass of champagne that she offers with grace. At times melancholy, at times playful, most of the time laughing, dynamic and catchy. "Hilariously inventive Ella! As Bing Crosby once said: "Man, woman or child, Ella is the greatest of them all”.
ELLA FITZGERALD
LIVE AT THE CONCERTGEBOUW 1961
ELLA FITZGERALD
LIVE AT THE CONCERTGEBOUW 1961
The story of this discovery
"It was in 2017, during our first trip to the Dutch national archives that we discovered this previously unreleased concert by Ella Fitzgerald with Oscar Peterson's concert who performed during the same evening, Bill Evans' recording in Hilversum and Sarah Vaughan's performance in Laren. I remember our emotion when we heard Ella's first notes... No one talked in the studio anymore, we were all caught up in this incredible performance and we knew then that it was a historic moment."
Frédéric D'ORIA-NICOLAS
Musical treasure seeker
THE FORMATS OF THIS DISCOVERY
Jazz Magazine
"Ella's Art here achieves a sort of perfection, intense and light at the same time, readable by all and totally generous"
A complicated childhood for a golden career
Ella Fitzgerald was born in Virginia on April 25, 1917 to an unknown father. At the age of 15, she decided to move in with her aunt in Harlem, following the death of her mother. Passionate about dance and music, she won first prize in an amateur show contest organized in Harlem in 1934. This success allowed her to be spotted by the drummer and bandleader Chick Webb who hired her as a singer in his big band. Very quickly, Ella Fitzgerald becomes the star and also the mascot of the group, recording many hits in her care.
A successful career
At just 22 years old, Ella Fitzgerald learns of the death of her mentor Chick Webb and takes over the direction of the group which she renames Ella and Her Famous OrchestraThe group disbanded a few years later in 1942. From there, Ella Fitzgerald multiplies collaborations with various vocal ensembles and fashionable personalities, she begins a brilliant solo career that allows her to find the top of the charts. During this same period, she lends her voice in the great bebop orchestra of Dizzy Gillespie, demonstrating in this modernist context gifts of improvisation out of the ordinary transcended by an immense technical virtuosity. Her manager, Norman Granz, promoted the singer, whose genius he perceived as universal, by founding the Verve label.
Ella Fitzgerald embarked on historic recordings that soon assured her the aura of a true international star. After three anthology records with Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald established her reputation once and for all by revisiting the repertoire of the great American composers in her own way. Rewarded with prestigious distinctions, including 4 Grammy Awards in the category of best female variety singer, the one nicknamed "The First Lady of Song" was at the height of her popularity in the mid-1960s, both in the United States and internationally. In 1967, the Grammy Academy gave her a "Lifetime Achievement Award" for a life dedicated to music.
The end of a queen of her discipline
At the turn of the 70's, jazz began to lose steam and lost a part of its audience. Ella Fitzgerald nevertheless managed to bounce back in a grandiose way to begin what would be the last chapter of her gigantic career. Still very present in public despite her increasingly serious health problems due to her diabetes, she forms a magnificent duet with Joe Pass who is considered the ideal artist for the end of her career. Ella Fitzgerald will receive from Ronald Reagan, the National Medal of Arts and will even be elevated to the rank of national treasure.
Her diabetes became more complicated and made her almost blind. During 1993, the disease worsened so much that she had to have both her legs amputated. Ella Fitzgerald finally died in Beverly Hills on June 15, 1996, surrounded by her family.
“Just don't vie up trying to do what you really want to do. When there is love and inspiration, I don’t think you can go wrong.”
OUR HAPPY MUSIC LOVERS