Decca Records

Recorded in front of an enthusiastic Saturday night audience in Berlin’s Deutschlandhalle, Mack The Knife vividly demonstrates Ella Fitzgerald’s unparalleled improvisational vocal artistry. With her regular quartet at the time – pianist Paul Smith, guitarist Jim Hall, bassist Alfred Middlebrooks and drummer Gus Johnson – the albums swings furiously. While emphasizing as usual the Great American Songbook – “Gone With The Wind,” “The Lady Is A Tramp,” “The Man I Love,” “Summertime,” “Too Darn Hot,” “Misty” and “Lorelei” – Mack The Knife culminates in brilliant, extended excursions on Kurt Weill’s title piece and a breathtaking, scat-singing romp on “How High the Moon.”

Unplanned as a recording, this performance was serendipitously immortalized when Fitzgerald’s manager/producer and visionary Verve label founder Norman Granz allowed WDR, West German Radio, to record and broadcast the performance. The LP was a major hit, peaking at No. 11 on Billboard magazine’s 200 albums chart and becoming a landmark in the legacy of live jazz vocal artistry – the album that, out of many Ella classics, has maintained her undisputed position as the First Lady of Song for more than 80 years since she exploded onto the scene with Chick Webb in 1935.

Tracklist:

1. Setting Up The Stage: Tuning Up...
2. That Old Black Magic
3. Our Love Is Here To Stay
4. Gone With The Wind
5. Misty
6. Applause And Fanfare Interlude
7. The Lady Is A Tramp
8. Fanfare And Announcement
9. The Man I Love
10. Love For Sale
11. Just One Of Those Things
12. Summertime
13. Too Darn Hot
14. Applause And Fanfare Interlude
15. Lorelei
16. Mack The Knife
17. Fanfare And Announcements
18. How High The Moon?
19. Applause And Closing Fanfare