Ella Fitzgerald – Live in Helsinki 1963/65 (UHQCD dublu)

In 1960, Ella Fitzgerald bought a house in Copenhagen. It may seem surprising that someone born in Virginia would 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 a coincidence: Norman Granz, her mentor, friend and producer, had decided around the same time to leave the US and move to Switzerland. He was tired of fighting in a country marked by racism and embroiled in the Cold War and political witch hunts. Ray Charles, Miles Davis and many other musicians were also victims of repugnant prejudice, and Europe became their new Mecca. Granz had already gone ahead, and Ella followed him. However, she never left the United States for good, where she continued to fight racism, support Martin Luther King, and perform with her blonde “sister” Marilyn Monroe. On the other side of the Atlantic, she undertook more and more European tours, speaking German in Berlin, French in Paris and Italian in Rome. In Helsinki, where she gave two unforgettable concerts in April 1963 and March 1965, she spoke English.

Frédéric D’Oria-Nicolas, the musical treasure hunter behind The Lost Recordings, describes the path the label had to take to make this release possible as follows: “It took almost a year of correspondence and two consecutive trips to Helsinki before we were finally able to track down the tapes of these previously unreleased concerts. Ella’s stage presence was magnetic and overshadowed her stage fright and shyness. The concert repertoire in Finland included not only composers from 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 everyone away; she was inimitable. No matter where she lived – Harlem, London, Los Angeles, Copenhagen, or Helsinki – she was the very embodiment of swing, of scat, and of jazz. Ella is music!”

“The Lost Recordings” is celebrated worldwide for preserving an invaluable musical legacy and for the unmatched quality of its Phoenix-Mastering™ restorations, and is releasing these legendary concerts – recorded at Kulttuuritalo, Helsinki, Finland, on April 1st, 1963, and on March 23, 1965 – now also as a double UHQCD in absolute reference quality.

MUSICIANS

April 1st, 1963 (UHQCD 1 & UHQCD 2, Track 1-5)
Ella Fitzgerald (vocals)
Tommy Flanagan (piano)
Les Spann (guitar & flute)
Jim Hughart (bass)
Gus Johnson (drums)

March 23, 1965 (UHQCD 2, Track 6-15)
Ella Fitzgerald (vocals)
Tommy Flanagan (piano)
Ketter Betts (bass)
Gus Johnson (drums)

UHQCD stands for Ultimate High Quality Compact Disc and is a joint development of the Japanese CD replication company Memory-Tech and the Audio Quality CD Company from Hong Kong. Unlike conventional CDs, UHQCDs are not pressed from polycarbonate, but cast from a photopolymer and cured with UV light. Another layer of high-purity polycarbonate is applied to the softer photopolymer for scratch protection. The combination results in significantly reduced reflection of laser light inside the CD and an unmatched precise edge transition between pits and lands of the CD. UHQCDs are 100% compatible with standard CD players. Musically, the result is a sound image strongly reminiscent of analog master tapes.

Lista pieselor

UHQCD 1

1.    Just One Of Those Things
2.    Like Someone In Love
3.    Crazy He Calls Me
4.    In A Mellow Tone
5.    No Moon At All
6.    Georgia On My Mind
7.    All Of Me
8.    Moonlight In Vermont
9.    Misty
10.    Hallelujah, I Love Him So
11.    Mack The Knife
12.    Don’t Get Around Much Anymore
13.    They Can’t Take That Away From Me
14.    Summertime
15.    Lush Life
16.    Runnin’ Wild
17.    Georgia On My Mind

UHQCD 2

1.    A Lot Of Livin’ To Do
2.    ’S Wonderful
3.    Desafinado
4.    Tenderly
5.    How High The Moon
6.    Walk Right In
7.    That Old Black Magic
8.    Body And Soul
9.    Here’s That Rainy Day
10.    The Angels Sing
11.    A Hard Day’s Night
12.    Medley: Do Nothin’ Till You Hear From Me, Mood Indigo, It Don’t Mean A Thing
13.    The Boy From Ipanema
14.    Don’t Rain On My Parade (From „Funny Girl”)
15.    Mack The Knife