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Ella at Juan-Les Pins ELLA FITZGERALD Double CD VERVE 589 656-2

1. Hello Dolly!
2. Day In, Day Out
3. Just A-Sittin and A-Rockin’
4. I Love Being Here with You
5. People
6. Someone to Watch Over Me
7. Can’t Buy me Love
8. Them There Eyes
9. The Lady Is A Tramp
10. Summertime
11. Cutie Pants
12. I’m Puttin’ All My Eggs in One Basket
13. St Louis Blues
14. Perdido
15. A-Tisket, A-Tasket
16. Mack the Knife
17. A-Tisket, A-Tasket
18. Honeysuckle Rose
19. Intro to second performance
20. Hello, Dolly!
21. Day In Day, Day Out
22. Just A-Sittin’ and A-Rockin’
23. I Love Being Here With You
24. People
25. Somebody To Watch Over Me
26. Can’t Buy Me Love
27. Them there Eyes
28. The Lady is a Tramp
29. Summertime
30. Cutie pants
31. I’m Puttin’ All My eggs in One basket
32. St Louis blues
33. Perdido
34. A-Tisket, A-Tasket
35. Goody, Goody
36. The Boy From Ipanema
37. They Can’t Take That away from Me
38. You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To
39. Shiny Stockings
40. Somewhere in The Night
41. I’ve Got You Under My Skin
42. Blues In The Night
43. Too Close for Comfort
44. Mack the Knife
45. When Lights Are Low/A-Tisket, A-Tasket
46. The Cricket Song
47. How High The Moon
48. A Tisket, A-Tasket/ When lights Are Low

 

Tracks 1 to 18 come from the first performance of this concert on 28 July 1964, the remainder from the concert on the following evening.

Ella Fitzgerald – Vocals
Roy Eldridge – Trumpet
Tommy Flanagan – piano
Bill Yancey – Bass
Gus Johnson – Drums

Collecting Ella Fitzgerald records is like acquiring money; there is no such thing as having too much! It had not been intended to record these sessions, but a French TV company recorded all of it, for editing into a future programme. As well as the sublime vocal talents of the greatest female singer in the history of jazz, there are some other interesting features in these two CD’s. They were recorded in the open air to an audience estimated at about 4000 people, it is remarkable therefore that the acoustics are pretty good. There is a little rumble of thunder here or there and some background noise from crickets, but of much more importance is the warmth of the audience and their obvious appreciation of the amazing Lady Fitz. In John Chilton’s Book on Roy Eldridge (see review on this site), the fact that Roy was never too comfortable working with Ella emerged, he felt she hogged the whole show and never allowed the spotlight to swing in his direction. On the evidence of this performance you can see what he meant, he is not really featured to any great extent and he mostly plays muted. His performance, not surprisingly, is not the best Roy Eldridge you have ever heard, but it is still better than most could have done when working with Ella. Her performances were an expression of her love for the audience and their love for her; there is not a lot of room for a third party in that situation.

Tommy Flanagan gives his usual immaculate performance as her pianist, he seems happy in that role although he is more than adequate in the solo department himself. It is often forgotten that he who was the original pianist with John Coltrane before McCoy Tyner took over.

The two performance demonstrate Ella as a true jazz artist, whilst there is a format to the programme, she varies the delivery and the programme as to how she feels on a particular show. The very different performances of St Louis Blues are probably the best example of this.

Thank goodness that that TV crew forgot to switch off! We would have missed these musical delights completely if they had done.

 

Don Mather

 

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