27 Uninterrupted Minutes of Ella Fitzgerald in Concert (LINKS UPDATED)

[PalJoey]

Posted: 11/29/07 at 1:25pm

At the Montreux Jazz Festival, 1981. Ella had been appearing there since 1969 and it was her last appearance at the festival.

I wasn't in Switzerland, of course--I was flat broke in the East Village--but I had seen her the week before at Carnegie Hall--"from the balcony, way up high," as the song goes. She performed that night with Zoot Sims, Clark Terry and Jimmy Rowles.

In these 3 clips Ella does 3 solos--"After You've Gone," Jobim's "Wave" and "Mack the Knife," then she does "I've Got a Crush on You" as an encore.

Then the all-star musicians come out--including Dizzy Gillespie and Milt Jackson!--and she does a 9-minute jam session with them, scatting along with their instrumental riffs.

When I first started going to see her in 1973, I would get annoyed when there was a jam session--I didn't want to hear those other guys play, I wanted to hear Ella sing! Finally, it dawned on me: the jam session where you could really see Ella's love for music. It was where she became once again the kid singer on the bus with the boys in the band, staying up all night and trying to keep up with their musical inventiveness. Only now she was their equal. Ella loved those men on their saxes and keyboards and drums as if they were gods.

Part One: "After You've Gone" and "Wave"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLFHvp2D9oQ

Part Two: "Mack the Knife" and "I've Got a Crush on You"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xm_fLxWUs3Q

Part Three: Jam Session
http://youtu.be/9QCiRUaY2bM


(LINKS UPDATED)

Updated On: 4/26/11 at 01:25 PM

[PalJoey]

Posted: 11/29/07 at 2:53pm

PM me if you need help saving YouTube files to your hard drive.

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 11/29/07 at 3:29pm

That does it PJ. I WILL sleep with you. I surrender!

[PalJoey]

Posted: 11/29/07 at 3:44pm

What do I get if I post a Sarah Vaughn concert?

[PalJoey]

Posted: 11/29/07 at 6:41pm

"Now Ella, Ella and her fellas, are making a wreck, such a wreck of this same old song..."

[PalJoey]

Posted: 11/29/07 at 10:58pm

From 1950--Ella is still in awe of them. She hadn't done the songbooks yet, she's just started doing the Jazz at the Philharmonic concerts, she's still a girl singer with a pure, sweet voice, in love with the boys in the band.

http://youtu.be/xgXythJAkhw
(LINK UPDATED)

Updated On: 4/26/11 at 10:58 PM

[PalJoey]

Posted: 4/25/11 at 4:23pm

Another old Ella thread to wish her happy birthday.

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 4/25/11 at 8:11pm

That was 27 minutes of pure heaven!

[PalJoey]

Posted: 4/25/11 at 8:27pm

Here's a 20-minute Ella concert from Swedish television, 1965.

Download here:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=JSTZQ11G

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 4/25/11 at 8:30pm

Hell yes!!

[Unknown User]

Posted: 4/25/11 at 9:59pm

She is the best there ever was!

I did a story on Ella for a blog I write for and I still giggle at this one anecdote- Norman Granz rushed to play the first songbooks for Cole Porter. He listened half-heartedly and said acidly "My, what lovely diction that girl has."

Apparently he liked it better when the royalty checks started to come in.

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 4/25/11 at 11:01pm

The Youtube account is closed.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 4/25/11 at 11:14pm

Oh, the poor guy who posted those concert links! His ex-wife apparently has his YouTube account shut down. I'll repost.

Meanwhile, here is the playlist for the 20-minute Stockholm broadcast just above.:

Sweden 1963

Ella Fitzgerald - Vocals
Tommy Flanagan - Piano
Les Spann - Guitar
Jim Hughart - Bass
Gus Johnson - Drums

Programme:

No Moon At All
Just One Of Those Things
Running Wild
Georgia On My Mind
Desafinado
Hallelujah I Love Her So
Mack The Knife

[PalJoey]

Posted: 4/26/11 at 12:12pm

I updated the links.

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 4/26/11 at 12:13pm

Thanks!