LPCDreissues: Looking forward to the past

As surely as audiences around the world loved to hear Ella Fitzgerald perform, producer Norman Granz loved to record jazz's First Lady in performance. This 1974 live set from Ronnie Scott's has a special aura of excitement, since English fans were enjoying their first opportunity to witness Fitzgerald off the concert stage and in the more intimate confines of a nightclub. Her performance is both indicative of her basic show of the time, with set-pieces like "The Man I Love" and "It Don't Mean a Thing," and specifically tailored to her audience with the local favorite "Ev'rytime We Say Goodbye" and a request, "The Very Thought of You." The presence of two other giants in the accompanying quartet, pianist Tommy Flanagan and guitarist Joe Pass, ensures that the nonpareil Fitzgerald swing quotient is upheld and the ballads gain an extra measure of poignancy.
Track listing:Sweet Georgia Brown, They Can’t Take That Away from Me, Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye, The Man I Love, It Don’t Mean a Thing (If it Ain’t Got That Swing), You’ve Got a Friend, Lemon Drop, The Very Thought of You, Happy Blues