ELLA FITZGERALD - LIVE IN HELSINKI 1963 • 1965 - DOUBLE UHQCD

DOUBLE UHQCD

ELLA FITZGERALD

LIVE IN HELSINKI 1963 • 1965

UHQCD: the ultimate CD format, playable on all traditional CD players

38,00€

Delivered from 06/03/26

UHQCD 1

Just One of Those Things
Like Someone in Love

Crazy He Calls Me

In a Mellow Tone
No Moon at All

Georgia on My Mind

All of Me
Moonlight in Vermont

Misty

Hallelujah, I Love Him So
Mack the Knife

Don't Get Around Much Anymore

They Can't Take That Away From Me

Summertime

Lush Life
Runnin' Wild

Georgia On My Mind

UHQCD 2

A Lot of Livin' to Do

'S Wonderful

Desafinado

Tenderly

How High the Moon
Walk Right In
That Old Black Magic

Body and Soul

Here's That Rainy Day
The Angels Sing

A Hard Day's Night

Medley: Do Nothin' Till You Hear From Me/Mood Indigo/It Don't Mean a Thing
The Boy from Ipanema
Don't Rain on My Parade from "Funny Girl"
Mack the Knife

In 1960 Ella Fitzgerald bought a house in Copenhagen. It might seem surprising for someone born in Virginia to choose Denmark with its icy winters. There was indeed a part of folly in the decision, because she was once more in love. This time, the man was Swedish. But the chain of events had not been random. Norman Granz, her mentor, friend and producer had decided to leave the US and move to Switzerland around the same time. He was weary of battling away in a country fraught with racism, bogged down in the Cold War and witch hunts.

Ray Charles, Miles Davis and many other musicians were also victims of obnoxious prejudice and Europe became their new mecca. Granz had already led the way and Ella followed. However, she never definitively left the United States, where she continued to fight racism, supporting Martin Luther King and appearing with her blond “sister”, Marilyn Monroe. Across the Atlantic, she made more and more European tours, speaking German in Berlin, French in Paris, and Italian in Rome. She used English in Helsinki, where she gave two memorable concerts in April 1963 and March 1965. She felt a close affinity to Copenhagen. One thing was sure, she was happy, and it showed.

It took us at The Lost Recordings months of talks and two trips to Helsinki to unearth the tapes of these concerts, never before published as records. We were immediately struck by Ella’s virtuosity – her vocal acrobatics – and the quality of her voice, whose very essence and tonal confidence still shine through. This imposing woman’s stage presence is magnetic, masking her stage fright in the wings and the shyness she had retained since childhood.

After listening to these concerts, it is clear that her musical legacy extends beyond the musical framework of jazz. Her repertoire included not only the composers of The Great American Songbook, such as Cole Porter, Irving Berlin and George Gershwin, but also popular Broadway numbers, songs by The Beatles and South American music. The last piece of the puzzle: she knew no boundaries. She swept up everything along her way. Her timbre, her style and her very presence are immediately recognisable. She was inimitable. Whether she was living in Harlem, London, Los Angeles, Copenhagen or Helsinki, she was the very embodiment of swing, of scat, and of jazz. Ella and music are one.

Ella Fitzgerald, vocals
Tommy Flanagan, piano
Les Spann, guitar & flute
Jim Hughart, bass
Gus Johnson, drums

*Ella Fitzgerald, vocals
Tommy Flanagan, piano
Ketter Betts, bass
Gus Johnson, drums

Recorded at Kulttuuritalo, Helsinki, Finland, on 1.IV.1963 and *23.III.1965
MONO ℗ 1963 & 1965 YLE

Ref.:TLR-2504064
Photos: © Jean-Pierre Leloir

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DOUBLE UHQCD

ELLA FITZGERALD

LIVE IN HELSINKI 1963 • 1965

The History of this discovery

"It is thanks to Ulf Drechsel’s perseverance that we were finally able to connect with the Finnish archives at Yle. It took nearly a year of correspondence and two successive trips to Helsinki to uncover at last the tapes of these previously unreleased concerts.
Ella’s presence on stage was magnetic, masking her stage fright in the wings and the shyness she had retained since childhood. In Finland, her repertoire included not only the composers of The Great American Songbook, such as Cole Porter, Irving Berlin and George Gershwin, but also popular Broadway numbers, Beatles songs and South American music. Ella swept up everything on her path. She was inimitable. Whether she was living in Harlem, London, Los Angeles, Copenhagen or Helsinki, she was the very embodiment of swing, of scat, and of jazz. Ella is music."

Frédéric D'ORIA-NICOLAS
Musical treasure seeker