Ella Fitzgerald • Live at Falkoner Theatre

One can never have too many Ella Fitzgerald records. She was remarkably consistent during her prime years (which lasted for over four decades) and was prolific both in the number of her recordings and live performances. And although she used certain routines for some songs, she always found places to be creative.

Ella’s The Stockholm Concert 1966 was released by the Pablo label awhile back and captured her on Feb. 7, 1966. Now comes the previously unreleased Live At Falkoner Theatre, her Copenhagen concert from the night before (Feb. 6). Ella Fitzgerald was on a European tour with the Duke Ellington Orchestra at the time and, at 48, was in one of her peak periods. While she recorded with Ellington on other occasions, on this concert the bandleader is absent altogether. None of his sidemen get solos, and the singer (who is joined by her regular trio of pianist Jimmy Jones, bassist Joe Comfort, and drummer Gus Johnson) could just as well have been accompanied by a studio orchestra.

However, Ella is such fine form that that reservation really does not matter. While five of the ten songs from this set would also appear on The Stockholm Concert, these versions are often quite different. Among the highlights of this welcome release are “Lover Man” (who said that Ella could not sing ballads with feeling?), “Something To Live For,” “Let’s Do It,” and a joyful “So Danco Samba.” The highpoint is her fresh and lively rendition of “How High The Moon” which is filled with spontaneous ideas rather than just recreating the riffs from her famous recording. She quotes a lot of songs (including “It’s A Hard Day’s Night”) and typically swings up a storm.

Ella Fitzgerald • Live at Falkoner Theatre
Gearbox GB 4002
www.gearboxrecords.com

Scott Yanow

Since 1975 Scott Yanow has been a regular reviewer of albums in many jazz styles. He has written for many jazz and arts magazines, including JazzTimes, Jazziz, Down Beat, Cadence, CODA, and the Los Angeles Jazz Scene, and was the jazz editor for Record Review. He has written an in-depth biography on Dizzy Gillespie for AllMusic.com. He has authored 11 books on jazz, over 900 liner notes for CDs and over 20,000 reviews of jazz recordings. Yanow was a contributor to and co-editor of the third edition of the All Music Guide to Jazz. He continues to write for Downbeat, Jazziz, the Los Angeles Jazz Scene, the Jazz Rag, the New York City Jazz Record and other publications.