It suddenly occurred to me the other day that there were likely to be a number of videos featuring Ella Fitzgerald singing live available on the Internet. Funnily enough my listening to the greatest female singer of the twentieth century has tended to be restricted to material recorded in the studio, though the live stuff I managed to hear was deeply impressive.
Anyway, I've put things right of late by watching and listening to a great deal of the great lady live and I can tell you it's stunning. Utterly flawless. A complete joy. My favourite at the moment is an improvised sequence with the Count Basie band at Montreux from 1979. Quite late in her career, but her voice has lost none of its youthful exuberance. Not quite sure why this is entitled A Tisket a Tasket since she doesn't actually sing her first ever hit, but who cares when something sounds this good?
(By the way, here's a link to the actual song, and if it doesn't make you cheerful you need serious help.)
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