Ella Fitzgerald virtually invented the live album. The reason is simple: her performances were so consistently amazing that almost every live show was special enough to warrant a recording. In a sense, for Ella Fitzgerald, every night was a moment of truth. But this previously unknown concert stands out from the rest. In the summer of 1967, Ella Fitzgerald found herself in a particularly interesting place. She was in the midst of a remarkably rewarding three-year touring and recording partnership with Duke Ellington and was incorporating hit pop songs from the late 1960s into her concert repertoire—two of which are presented here on record for the first time. The tapes were recently unearthed from the private collection of Verve Records founder Norman Granz. Mixed directly from 4-track tapes recorded by Wally Heider, they are of a higher quality than most "lost" recordings. The recordings include Ella's first recordings of the hit songs "Alfie" and "Music to Watch Girls By." Ella's band consists of the rarely heard but hard-swinging trio Jimmy Jones, Bob Cranshaw, and Sam Woodyard. The Ellington band captured here was at its peak, featuring Cat Anderson, Cootie Williams, Harry Carney, Paul Gonsalves, Jimmy Hamilton, Johnny Hodges, and Russell Procope.
