Knock em Dead Performance!

You should really skip to the last track, How High the Moon, to understand the reason that Ella Fitzgerald is considered a monument among jazz singers. In this performance, backed by Paul Smith and Jim Hall, she can singlehandedly take on the whole job of wowing a hall full of Europeans. On "How High", one of the great recordings of all time, Ella scats and quotes from several other tunes for at least 5 minutes, paying respect to Byrd, infusing energy and excitement to what must have been an exhausting finale. You have to admire her range and stamina as well as her expression. The other great track is "Mack the Knife" which pays tribute to Kurt Weil who was from Berlin and wrote the original in German, a fact well known by the audience. The other cuts are pretty typical of Ella, solid jazz standards, great tunes that belong to the American Song Book.