Ella Fitzgerald - 1961-62 Twelve Nights In Hollywood, Vol. 1 to 4 (2010) [update now including vol. 3 & 4]

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Ella, the jazz diva

The first words she utters are “Thank you… thank you… thank you very much ladies and gentlemen!” Generally she thanks her enthusiastically applauding audience three times with her strange juvenile voice, occasionally exchanging a few humorous words with the public before engaging into a next title. A kind of ritual.
But she's not a girl anymore on this double live album, she's a buxom 44 jazz diva almost at the peak of her career.

With Louis Armstrong

Around 1956, she had started working on her sumptuous series of the Great American Songbook recordings “Ella Fitzgerald sings the (artist) Songbook” (Cole Porter, Duke Ellington, George and Ira Gershwin, Rodgers and Hart, Irving Berlin, Harold Arlen, Jerome Kern, Johnny Mercer, and later Antonio Carlos Jobim), and in 1959 she recorded “Porgy and Bess” with Satchmo aka Louis Armstrong…

But even then, in 1961, there's no sign whatsoever of her starting to be "blasé", she's always a remarkable hard-working professional and will remain during all her career. Above all, she's a bewitching voice with a somehow juvenile texture but also an amazing ability to imitate other jazz singers, first of all the great Satchmo.

At ease in any jazz style (swing, bebop…) and tempo, with a voice changing according to the songs from juvenile to mature, and a superb phrasing, she's also an incredible scatter. Ella was really made for the stage, the only place where she could unveil her otherwise hidden flamboyance.

Vol. 1 & 2
Accompanied by a fine line-up (Lou Levy on piano, the great Herb Ellis on guitar, Wilfred Middlebrooks on bass and Gus Johnson on drums), she delivers a repertoire largely chosen among her “Songbook” series.

From classic standards like “On The Sunny Side Of The Street”, “My Heart Belongs To Daddy”, “'Round Midnight”, Take The 'A' Train”, "Caravan", “A-Tisket, A-Tasket”, “The Lady Is A Tramp”, to more confidential numbers, she transforms any song into a fascinating performance.

So actually, each of these 36 tracks is a spellbinding moment even if a few “tour de force” inevitably emerge, generally the longest numbers where she totally let it go : her singing-growling-scatting on “Perdido” and her astonishing version of “Take The 'A' Train” on CD 1, and at the end of CD 2 , her humorous dubbing Ellis guitar on “Blue Moon” or her swinging tempo and scat crescendo (!) on the following 7-minute “Joe Williams' Blues” where she gets wild : a real jubilation! By the way, “Crescendo” is the name of the L.A. club where these “Twelve nights” were recorded live.

Among the other tracks, I would mention the rejoicing “Across The Alley From The Alamo”, the nostalgic retro feeling she puts in “Mr. Paganini”, her version of the exotic “Caravan”, the soulful blues flavor she infuses to “One For My Baby”, her sense of swing on “That Old Black Magic” for example, and more generally, her appealing natural elegance.

At the same time, her voice sometimes plunges you in sudden unexplained waves of melancholy as if you could feel the true sorrow lying deep in her soul.

Vol. 3 & 4

Vol. 3 covers the end of the May 1961 series of ten performances at the Crescendo Club with the same line-up as on the first two volumes. Vol. 4 is composed of songs recorded during Ella's couple of shows at the same place a year later (June 1962) with a modified combo. Herb Ellis, who was probably busy elsewhere, was not replaced, and Ella is backed by a trio : Paul Smith on piano, the same Wilfred Middlebrooks on the upright bass and Stan Levey on drums. No problem since Ella's voice is filling the space so much hat she's worth two instruments !

Cole Porter

Still joking with the audience, trying her best to satisfy the requests, even with songs she's not sure of remembering the lyrics, she leans on her incredible mastery of live performances and sounds completely liberated. Her memory fails her on the lyrics of “Candy” ? She keeps her cool and her humor, and improvises ! And of course that triggers huge clapping from the audience. A great professional !

Her fantastic swinging scat sounds even wilder than on the previous volumes. Her long versions of “How High The Moon” and “Stompin' At The Savoy” are just incredible.

On slow romantic late-night numbers, mi-tempo tunes (“Exactly Like You”, “Rock It For Me”) or fast jump and swing titles (“Anything Goes” and “It's All Right With Me” from her fetish composer Cole Porter, the mambo-flavored “You're Driving Me Crazy”, the famous “Mack The Knife”...), she's completely at ease.

This third volume ends with W.C. Handy's iconic “St Louis Blues”. Ella takes it on the fast path and turns it into a superb jumping scat. Your foot can't resist stomping whatever is beneath it and you wonder if she is driven by the musicians tempo or if she is the driver. It sounds like it's rather the second option. You also wonder if she worked long and hard to reach such a complete vocal mastery or if it's a natural gift. Probably both.

Thirteen months later, Ella returned to the Crescendo Club for two nights. The 20 new songs taped during these shows, featured on the fourth and last volume of this great box-set, show that the lady hasn't lost a bit of her talent or her seducing spontaneity on stage.

From Cole Porter and the Gershwin brothers to Milton Ager, Ray Charles and Louis Armstrong, and many less familiar songwriters/composers to the non-specialists of vocal jazz, Ella goes through classics like “All Of Me“, “Broadway”, “It Had To Be You”, “How Long Has This Been Going On”, “Taking A Chance On Love” or “Hallelujah, I Love Him So” as well as more confidential but no less appealing numbers like for example Cole Porter's “C'est Magnifique”, “Good Morning Heartache” (originally sung by Billie Holiday), Armstrong's swinging “Ol' Man Mose”, “Bewitched” and the final double version of “Bill Bailey”.

This final part concludes the show on as rather funny and mischievous note with her two versions of “Too Darn Hot” and especially of “Bill Bailey” where she gives a glimpse of her incredible talent for imitating other famous singing mates of the time like her friend Louis Armstrong or Dinah Washington.

Less scat than on Vol. 3 and more romantic slow or mid-tempo titles and requests from the audience on which Lady Fitzgerald's voice carries as much moving emotions as good humor, joking and sometimes even laughing during the songs. Her song “Bewitched” could perfectly describe the state her performances put both the audience and now the listener in. A true masterpiece! ■

Ella Fitzgerald condensed bio
Ella Jane Fitzgerald is born in Virginia in 1917 and moves to Yonkers, NY with her mother and her stepfather. The small family is poor and Ella wants to dance. Her mother died in 1932. Ella, who was 15 years old, stayed a few months with her stepfather until suddenly moving to Harlem by an aunt (rumors of abuse from her stepfather have been mentioned by several of her biographers).

Ella with drummer Chick Webb

Badly affected by these changes, she starts missing school and walking on the wild side (for example she works as a runner for a local gambling parlor, picking up their bets and dropping off money) until getting in trouble with the law and sent to a reform school, from which she escapes and has to survive alone in Harlem during the Great Depression.

She is saved by her voice : in 1934, she is selected for an Amateur Night at the Apollo Theater. She is supposed to dance but changes her mind at the last moment for singing : she conquers the audience!

With the Chick Webb Orchestra

In the band that night is saxophonist and arranger Benny Carter who takes her under his mentoring wing. In January 1935, she wins the opportunity to sing for a week with the Tiny Bradshaw band at the Harlem Opera House. There she meets drummer and bandleader Chick Webb who accepts to take her in his band. By mid 1936, Ella makes her first recording, turning to bebop & scat singing after the public's declining interest for swing.

Ray Brown (left), Ella
& Dizzy Gillespie, 1947

In 1938, at the age of 21, Ella records an adaptation of the nursery rhyme “A-Tisket, A-Tasket”: the record sells 1 million copies, hits number one, and stays on the charts for 17 weeks. Suddenly, Ella Fitzgerald is famous.

When Chick Webb dies untimely in June 1939, she becomes the leader of the band, renamed “Ella Fitzgerald and Her Famous Band”, until 1941 when she decides to go solo.

Norman Granz & Ella

In 1946, she marries Dizzy Gillespie's bassist Ray Brown who introduces her to producer and manager Norman Granz. After leaving altogether her label Decca, Moe Gale, her agent since 1934, and her manager Milt Gabler, Ella signs in 1955 with Granz who founds Verve Records specially for her, the beginning of a lifelong business relationship and friendship.

Ella with Marilyn Monroe

Norman Granz is a civil rights activist who has precise plans to transform and desegregate the jazz music industry. Ella is indeed victim of the segregation. In 1954, for example, while she is en route for a tour of Australia organized by Granz, PanAm Airways refuses her and her musicians to board the plane in Honolulu causing the cancellation of her first two dates planned in Sydney. Granz will sue the company for discrimination and will win in court.

With Duke Ellington

The following year, to be able to perform at the famous but segregated club Mocambo in L.A., Ella will need all the help of her fan friend Marilyn Monroe who put the pressure on the club owner to let her perform there.

In 1949, Granz had launched a new touring concept : Jazz at the Philharmonic. Ella gets on board, relocates to L.A., records with the great Louis Armstrong, works on her new project : her famous songbook series of covers. The first opus devoted to Cole Porter is released in 1956. Duke Ellington, George and Ira Gershwin, Johnny Mercer, Irving Berlin, Rodgers and Hart will follow in the next years...

In 1969, she also performs pop/rock covers from Cream ("Sunshine of Your Love"), the Beatles ("Hey Jude", “Got To Get You Into My Life”, “Savoy Truffle”), Smokey Robinson ("Get Ready", 'The Hunter Gets Captured By The Game”, “Ooo, Baby Baby”), Randy Newman (“Yellow Man”, “I Wonder Why”), Eddie Floyd & Steve Cropper (“Knock On Wood”), and many numbers from Burt Bacharach. Many of these performances were recorded, especially on her album “Sunshine Of Your Love” (1969).

L to R: Frank Sinatra, Ella & Count Basie

Very affected by the passing of Martin Luther King in 1968 and Louis Armstrong in 1971, and later by health problems, most of them due to diabetes, she still gives some memorable concerts as a legendary two-week performance in New York with Frank Sinatra and Count Basie in 1974.

Oscar Peterson (piano) and his trio
with Herb Ellis on guitar

During the 1970s and 1980s she tours regularly with her accomplices Tommy Flanagan, Joe Pass, Count Basie, Eddie Lockjaw Davis, Roy Eldridge, Ray Brown, André Previn, Oscar Peterson, Clark Terry…

In 1981 she's invited to sing at the White House by Ronald Reagan, and start to work on her last Songbook project devoted to Antonio Carlos Jobim.

Deeply concerned by child welfare, she establishes the Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation in 1993, and supports several nonprofit organizations leading medical research on heart disease, diabetes, retina affections…

By the 1990s, Ella had recorded over 200 albums. In 1991, she gave her final concert at New York’s renowned Carnegie Hall.

Badly affected by diabetes, she has both legs amputated below the knees in 1993 and is losing her sight.

On June 15, 1996, Ella Fitzgerald dies in her Beverly Hills home in L.A.. She had sung with some of the greatest jazz musicians of her time  (Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Oscar Peterson, Joe Pass…) and had reached the status of a diva, generally reserved for opera artists. ■

Video documents
► Yonkers, New York Getty Square, 1920  (photorama) : https://youtu.be/NMERtvIVd08
► Harlem in the 1930s : https://youtu.be/SRQCet13AiQ
► Chick Webb, “Stompin' at the Savoy” : https://youtu.be/zgX5_waK--w
► Ella Fitzgerald interview, Canada, 1974 : https://youtu.be/dunLgfk3XWI

Concert videos

► With the Oscar Peterson Trio, Jazz At The Philharmonic tour, Amsterdam, Netherlands, introduced by Norman Granz, 1957 (Ella arrives on stage at time 00:45:25) : https://youtu.be/fxhxLub53uc /or/ https://youtu.be/1E6AmMlbFAk
► Australia, 1960 : https://youtu.be/DcL9ff2MOdU?t=157 /or/ https://youtu.be/DcL9ff2MOdU
► Italy, 1960 : https://youtu.be/fcg2wxHST2k

With the Tommy Flanagan Trio

► Sweden, 1963 : https://youtu.be/KtKLJBHPSIM
► With Roy Eldridge, Japan, 1964 : https://youtu.be/GKcsVrUkxRg
► Antibes Jazz Festival, France, 1964 : https://youtu.be/2400BxgdFzg
► London, 1965 : https://youtu.be/l7XkpN29kNE
► With the Tommy Flanagan Trio, Helsinki, Finland, 1965 : https://youtu.be/7Cw4PzBtW60
► Copenhagen, Denmark, 1965 : https://youtu.be/-BbAbb_BZ_U

With Duke Ellington

► With Duke Ellington, Milano, Italy, 1966 (Ella appears at time 00:57:20) : https://youtu.be/URx8TtVyfy8
► With Duke Ellington, France, 1966 : https://youtu.be/tmALIF7c3lY (full) /or/ https://youtu.be/1n7fE6EZECE?t=1415 (Ella only)
► Berlin, 1968 : https://youtu.be/o5WQfkRZKFc

With Joe Pass

► Montreux Jazz Festival, 1969 : https://youtu.be/ZJ5ToNi_Fo0
► Netherlands, 1974 : https://youtu.be/OJZ8WYBOzrY?t=57
► With Joe Pass, Hanover, Germany, 1975 : https://youtu.be/2olBE4C5_Gk
► Montreux Jazz Festival, 1977 : https://youtu.be/33XR5ArcNUg /or/ https://youtu.be/BKz6H2G-Lhc
► With Andre Previn, Pittsburgh, 1978 or 1979 : https://youtu.be/rnU5OYKFqoM
► North Sea Jazz Festival, Netherlands, 1979 : https://youtu.be/qqz9FyIFjxU
► Jazz At The Philharmonic tour, Tokyo, 1983 : https://youtu.be/AseCVkTXp1k?t=2073

Ella Fitzgerald, 1917-1996