DAVE DAVIES, HOST:
Jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald's concert career in the 1960s is amply documented on record, with live albums from Berlin, Rome, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Hamburg, Stockholm and the French Riviera. Now comes a newly released concert of Ella in Oakland. Jazz historian Kevin Whitehead says it's all right.
(SOUNDBITE OF "DON'T BE THAT WAY (LIVE AT THE COLISEUM)")
ELLA FITZGERALD: (Singing) Don't you cry. Honey, don't you be that way. Clouds in the sky should never make you feel that way. The rain will bring the violets of May. Tears are in vain. So, honey, don't you be that way.
KEVIN WHITEHEAD, BYLINE: Ella Fitzgerald, 1967, with a gaggle of Duke Ellington's horn players on a tune she first recorded in the '30s, "Don't Be That Way." It's from an Oakland Coliseum concert, newly issued as "The Moment Of Truth." That momentous title suggests it was made at some crucial juncture for Ella and not at one more all-star roadshow on which Ellington also appeared, although that series was coming to an end. "The Moment Of Truth" actually gets its name from her set's rather glib opening tune, a sort of swinging call to the altar.
(SOUNDBITE OF "THE MOMENT OF TRUTH (LIVE AT THE COLISEUM)")
FITZGERALD: (Singing) There'll come a time when he looks at you. Pulls you through and through and calls your name. That'll be the day when you say I do for you discover that you're too tired of playing a game. And then you both know you're through scheming. Oh, promise me starts to sing in your ear. You're wide awake, boy. You're not dreaming. Then the moment of truth is near.
WHITEHEAD: The Ellington horns again there, playing what are too obviously not Ellington arrangements. On their shared concerts, Duke often set in on piano with Ella, remember, but he doesn't do so here. Duke loved her but may have been pushing back against the high-handed ways of concert promoter Norman Granz. Ella had her own complaints about the pace of work on Granz's European tours.
By 1967, she was a showbiz star and could act the part, razzing audience members who arrive late or leave early and injecting a Sonny and Cher reference into the lyric to Cole Porter's "Let's Do It."
Still, at age 50, Fitzgerald remained one of the greatest interpreters of American popular song and a great stage performer. She'll go from one number's extravagant ending directly into the next song's gentle opening verse, instantly recalibrating.
(SOUNDBITE OF "YOU'VE CHANGED (LIVE AT THE COLISEUM)")
FITZGERALD: (Singing) There's a very funny feeling that this feeling's been a stealing through my brain is not to be ignored. But to really tell the truth, though I'm not a well-known sleuth, I honestly believe that you are bored. You've changed...
(APPLAUSE)
FITZGERALD: ...(Singing) That sparkle in your eye's is gone.
WHITEHEAD: Fitzgerald was in fine voice in 1967. She can get a little shouty on excitable passages - the glass-shattering Ella, if you will. And she has to reach for a few low notes, but she does reach them. Her middle range is as luxurious as ever. A highlight of her Oakland show is her lone recording of a '60s pop song jazz singers took to right away, Burt Bacharach and Hal David's "Alfie."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ALFIE (LIVE AT THE COLISEUM)")
FITZGERALD: (Singing) I believe in love, Alfie. Without true love, we just exist, Alfie. Until you find the love you've missed, you're nothing, Alfie. When you walk, let your heart lead the way.
WHITEHEAD: Ella Fitzgerald's "Alfie" is so good, it survives a short detour into and out of Dean Martin's "You're Nobody 'Til Somebody Loves You." That isn't the only bizarre choice here. She also sings the flyway if insidiously catchy advertising jingle "Music To Watch Girls By." Ella ends her set with a staple of her '60s act, "Mack The Knife," where she, like so many 20th century Americans from all walks of life, felt the call to imitate singer Louis Armstrong's growling.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MACK THE KNIFE (LIVE AT THE COLISEUM)")
FITZGERALD: (Singing) Oh, Suky Tudry and old Lucy Brown. (Scatting) Yes, the line forms - sing it, Ella. Hello, darling, yes. Look out there, Bobby Darrin. Me and you both singing the same song or two.
WHITEHEAD: There's a whiff of Ellington feeling in the saxophone backgrounds there, but this music's not about the horn section. The pivotal Ellingtonian here is Duke's longtime drummer Sam Woodyard, who anchors Fitzgerald's trio. The album "The Moment Of Truth: Ella At The Coliseum" presents her 1967 Oakland set in concert order, omitting only a couple of tunes she'd recorded with Duke the year before. With her stage patter included, you get a good look at Ella Fitzgerald on the road, even if she wasn't at a crossroads.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MUSIC TO WATCH GIRLS BY (LIVE AT THE COLISEUM)")
FITZGERALD: (Singing) It's keeping track of the pack, watching them watching back, that makes the world go round. What's that sound? Because they make the most collective sighs. They're making music to watch girls by. The girls watch the boys while the boys watch the girls who watch the boys go by. Eye to eye. Together, they convene to make the scene, which is the name of the game. Watch a guy watch a dame on every street in town. Up and down, and over and across, romance is boss. Guys talk. Girl talk. It happens everywhere. Eyes watch girls walk with tender love and care. It's keeping track of the pack, watching them watching back, that makes the world go round.
DAVIES: Jazz historian Kevin Whitehead reviewed "The Moment Of Truth: Ella At The Coliseum," on Verve. Kevin is the author of "New Dutch Swing," "Why Jazz?" and "Play The Way You Feel." On tomorrow's show, in a new book, Amanda Knox shares the difficulties she faced after being convicted and later acquitted of killing her roommate during a study abroad program in Italy. She'll also talk about her journey to reclaim her identity from the notorious tabloid stories that defined her for years. I hope you can join us.
(SOUNDBITE OF JONAH DAVID'S "RHYTHM-A-NING")
DAVIES: To keep up with what's on the show and get highlights of our interviews, follow us on Instagram at @nprfreshair. FRESH AIR's executive producer is Danny Miller. Our technical director and engineer is Audrey Bentham. Our managing producer is Sam Briger. Our interviews and reviews are produced and edited by Phyllis Myers, Ann Marie Baldonado, Lauren Krenzel, Therese Madden, Monique Nazareth, Thea Chaloner, Susan Nyakundi and Anna Bauman. Our digital media producer is Molly Seavy-Nesper. Roberta Shorrock directs the show. For Terry Gross and Tonya Mosley, I'm Dave Davies.
(SOUNDBITE OF JONAH DAVID'S "RHYTHM-A-NING") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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