Ella Fitzgerald: tapes of a live performance from 1967 found

Lost recordings of a concert by. have been found and “prepared” for publication Ella Fitzgerald from 1967 in Oakland, which include jazz standards along with his renditions of pop songs of the era such as “Alfie” and “Music to Watch Girls By.”

The iconic jazz singer was recorded live at the Oakland Coliseum, California, in June of that year, but until recently the tapes were buried in the private collection of Norman Granz, the late founder of Verve Records.

This label is now publishing them for the first time, under the title “The Moment of Truth: Ella at the Coliseum”.

Fitzgerald performs a series of jazz numbers, including “Mack the Knife,” “Bye Bye Blackbird,” Cole Porter’s “Let’s Do It (Let’s Fall in Love)” and “You’ve Changed” (performed in the 1950s by Billie Holiday).

But there is also room for a personal interpretation of “Alfie”, the ballad of Burt Bacharach And Hal David for Michael Caine’s film of the same name – released a year before this concert. The song was a hit for Cilla Black and Dionne Warwick.

Another live rendition has been heard before – albeit a low-quality pirate recording – and so this is the first time a Fitzgerald version has officially appeared on record.

Also unreleased is his version of “Music To Watch Girls By”, a song from 1966. Andy Williams’ version had entered the charts in the United States the month before Fitzgerald’s performance, while Bob Crewe’s original had been a success of the previous year.

The interpretation of Fitzgerald (who passed away in June 1996) is lively and interpreted in a somewhat rough manner. In her performance the great singer is accompanied by Jimmy Jones on piano, Bob Cranshaw on bass and Sam Woodyard on drums, as well as members ofDuke Ellington Orchestra to brass instruments and reeds.

Although Ellington himself does not appear on it, the album continues the Fitzgerald-Ellington connection that began in 1957 with “Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Song Book”, which won the first Grammy Award for best jazz performance. The pair also collaborated on 1965’s “Ella at Duke’s Place” and on two live albums recorded the following year: “Ella and Duke at the Cote D’Azur” and “The Stockholm Concert”, 1966.

Unlike some rediscovered live recordings, which are not sonically perfect, “The Moment of Truth: Ella at the Coliseum” is clean, having been mixed and mastered from multitrack analog tapes.

The album is released on February 28th.