Ella Fitzgerald - Ella Live on Stage: The George and Ira Gershwin Songbook '2022

Tracks list

Tracklist:

01. Somebody Loves Me (Live At Carnegie Hall/1949)
02. Oh, Lady, Be Good! (Live At Carnegie Hall/1949)
03. A Foggy Day (In London Town) (Live At Bushnell Memorial Hall/1954)
04. 'S Wonderful (Live At Zardi’s, 1956)
05. I've Got A Crush On You (Live At Zardi’s, 1956)
06. I've Got A Crush On You (Live At The Newport Jazz Festival,1957)
07. I Loves You Porgy (Live At Teatro Sistina, Rome, Italy / 1958)
08. A Foggy Day (Live At Teatro Sistina, Rome, Italy / 1958)
09. Nice Work If You Can Get It (Live (1958/Chicago))
10. How Long Has This Been Going On (Live (1958/Chicago))
11. Summertime (Live (1958/Chicago))
12. Porgy And Bess Medley: I Loves You Porgy/Porgy I's Your Woman (Bess, You Is
My Woman Now) (Live (1958/Chicago))
13. 'S Wonderful (Late Show - Live (1958/Chicago))
14. Love Is Here To Stay (Live)
15. Summertime (Live at the Deutschlandhalle, Berlin, 1960)
16. I’ve Got A Crush On You (Live At The Crescendo)
17. But Not For Me (Live At The Crescendo)
18. Lorelei (Live At The Crescendo)
19. Nice Work If You Can Get It (Live At The Crescendo)
20. Love Is Here To Stay (Live At The Crescendo)
21. ’S Wonderful (Live At The Crescendo)
22. How Long Has This Been Going On? (Live At The Crescendo)
23. Someone To Watch Over Me (Live)
24. Summertime (Live)
25. Someone To Watch Over Me (Live 7/28/64)
26. Summertime (Live At Juan-les-Pins, France / 7/28/64)
27. Someone To Watch Over Me (Live 7/29/64)
28. Summertime (Live (7/29/64-Juan-les-Pins))
29. They Can't Take That Away From Me (Live 7/29/64)
30. How Long Has This Been Going On? (Live At The Cote d'Azur, 7/28/1966)


 moreBorn in 1917 in Newport News, Virginia, Fitzgerald grew up in a
working-class family in Yonkers, New York. Her parents split up soon after her
birth, and she was largely raised by her mother, Temperance "Tempie" Fitzgerald,
and her mother's boyfriend Joseph "Joe" Da Silva. She also had a younger
half-sister, Frances, who was born in 1923. To help with the family's finances,
Fitzgerald often worked odd jobs including, at times, running bet money for
local gamblers. By her teens, the self-professed tomboy was active in sports and
often played in local baseball games. Influenced by her mother, she also enjoyed
singing and dancing, and spent many hours singing along to records by Bing
Crosby, Connee Boswell, and the Boswell Sisters. She also began taking the train
to see shows with friends at Harlem's Apollo Theater. In 1932, her mother died
from injuries sustained in a car accident. Deeply distraught over the loss,
Fitzgerald went through a difficult period that found her skipping school and
getting in trouble with the police. She was subsequently sent to a reform
school, where she endured abuse by her caretakers. Eventually breaking free from
the reformatory, she found herself on her own in New York during the height of
the Great Depression. Despite her struggles, she worked to pursue her love of
performing. In 1934, she entered and won an amateur contest at the Apollo,
singing Hoagy Carmichael's "Judy" in the style of her idol, Connee Boswell. In
the house band that night was saxophonist Benny Carter, who took the young
vocalist under his wing and encouraged her to keep developing her career.

More contests followed, and in 1935 Fitzgerald won a weeklong spot singing with
Tiny Bradshaw at the Harlem Opera House. There, she met influential drummer
Chick Webb, who agreed to try her out with his orchestra at a one-nighter at
Yale University. She won the crowd over, and spent the next few years with the
drummer, who became her legal guardian and reworked his show to feature the
singer. The band's fame grew exponentially with Fitzgerald, as they dominated at
the Savoy battle of the bands, and issued a string of Decca 78s, scoring hits "A
Tisket-A-Tasket," in 1938, and the B-side "T'aint What You Do (It's the Way That
You Do It)," as well as "Liza," and "Undecided." As the singer's career was on
the rise, Webb's health had begun to decline. Though only in his thirties, the
drummer, who had struggled with congenital spinal tuberculosis throughout his
life, would purportedly collapse from exhaustion after playing a set.
Nonetheless, he forged onwards, hoping to keep his band working through the
Depression. In 1939, not long after undergoing major surgery at Johns Hopkins
Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, Webb died. Following his death, Fitzgerald
continued to front his band with much success until 1941, when she decided to
pursue a solo career.

Sticking with Decca, Fitzgerald was teamed with the Ink Spots, Louis Jordan, and
the Delta Rhythm Boys for several best-sellers, and in 1946 began working
regularly for manager Norman Granz's Jazz at the Philharmonic. Though often
regarded as a pop vocalist during her time with Webb, Fitzgerald had begun to
experiment with scat singing, a sound she further developed during these years.
She toured with Dizzy Gillespie's big band, and soon adopted bebop as an
integral part of her style, punctuating her live sets with instrumental-style
scat solos that wowed audiences and earned her respect from her fellow
musicians. Her recordings of "Lady Be Good," "How High the Moon," and "Flying
Home" during 1945-1947 were released to great acclaim and helped solidify her
stature as a major jazz vocalist. It was while working with Gillespie that she
met and married bassist Ray Brown, living with him from 1947 to 1953, during
which time she often performed with his trio. The couple also adopted a son, Ray
Brown, Jr., (born to Fitzgerald's half-sister Frances in 1949) who would go on
to his own career as a pianist and vocalist. In 1951, the singer paired with
pianist Ellis Larkins for the duets album Ella Sings Gershwin, on which she
interpreted George Gershwin songs, prefiguring her later Songbooks series.

After appearing in the film Pete Kelly's Blues in 1955, Fitzgerald signed with
Norman Granz's Verve label. Her longtime manager, Granz had specifically
launched Verve with the sole purpose of better showcasing her voice. Beginning
with 1956's Sings the Cole Porter Songbook, she would record an extensive series
of Songbooks albums, interpreting the music of the Great American Songbook
composers, including Cole Porter, George and Ira Gershwin, Rodgers & Hart, Duke
Ellington, Harold Arlen, Jerome Kern, and Johnny Mercer. The prestigious albums,
which earned Fitzgerald her first four Grammys at the 1959 and 1958 Grammy
Awards, further raised her stature as one of the great singers of all time.
Other soon-to-be-classic albums followed, including her 1956 pairing with Louis
Armstrong Ella & Louis, 1957's Like Someone in Love, and 1958's Porgy and Bess
with Armstrong. Also under Granz's guidance, Fitzgerald toured often, issuing a
handful of highly regarded live concert albums. Among them, 1960's Ella in
Berlin included her off-the-cuff take on "Mack the Knife" in which she forgot
the lyrics and improvised her own. One of the best-selling albums of her career,
Ella in Berlin earned her Grammy Awards for Best Vocal Performance Single Record
or Track, Female, and Best Vocal Performance Album, Female. The album was later
inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999.

Verve was sold to MGM in 1963, and by 1967 Fitzgerald found herself without a
contract. She spent the next few years recording for a number of labels like
Capitol, Atlantic and Reprise. Her albums during these years also found her
updating her repertoire with modern pop and rock songs such as Cream's "Sunshine
of Your Love" and the Beatles' "Hey Jude." She sang traditional hymns on 1967's
Brighten the Corner, while 1969's Ella included her last U.S. chart single with
a cover of Smokey Robinson's "Get Ready." Nonetheless, Fitzgerald remained an
immensely popular and highly regarded performer. In 1967, she was bestowed with
the Bing Crosby Award (later named the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award) at the
10th Annual Grammy Awards.

However, her later years were again marked by the influence of Granz after he
founded the independent Pablo Records. A concert album, Jazz at the Santa Monica
Civic '72, featuring Fitzgerald, pianist Tommy Flanagan, and the Count Basie
Orchestra, gained popularity via mail-order sales and helped Granz launch the
label. More albums followed throughout the '70s and '80s, many pairing the
singer with artists like Basie, Oscar Peterson, and Joe Pass, among others.
While diabetes affected her eyes and heart during this period, forcing her to
take breaks from performing, Fitzgerald always retained her joyful style, and
exuberant sense of swing. Away from the stage, she was committed to helping
disadvantaged youth, and made contributions to various charity organizations. In
1979, she was honored with a Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Medal of
Honor Award. Also, in 1987, President Ronald Reagan awarded her the National
Medal of Arts. More accolades followed, including a Commander of Arts and
Letters award from France, and numerous honorary doctorates from Yale, Harvard,
Dartmouth, and other institutions. Following a concert at New York's Carnegie
Hall in 1991, she retired from her career. Fitzgerald passed away on June 15,
1996, at her home in Beverly Hills, California. In the decades following her
death, Fitzgerald's reputation as one of the most influential and recognizable
figures in jazz and popular music only increased. She remains a household name
around the world, and has received a number of posthumous accolades, including
four Hall of Fame Grammys and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. ~ Matt Collar

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