On August 16, 1958, just a few months after Ella Fitzgerald recorded her now-classic album, Ella Fitzgerald Sings The Irving Berlin Songbook, The First Lady Of Song performed selections from that album live at the Hollywood Bowl to an adoring, sold-out crowd. Conducted and arranged by Paul Weston, who also arranged and conducted the studio sessions, this concert marked the only time that Ella performed these iconic arrangements live with a full orchestra.

Widely considered her greatest achievement, Ella’s Songbook records, with peerless renditions of the best songs by America’s greatest composers, are the cornerstone of the Verve catalog and the undisputed standard for jazz vocal recordings. At the inaugural Grammy Awards, her Irving Berlin album won Ella her first Grammy for “Best Vocal Performance, Female,” and was also nominated for “Album Of The Year.” Aside from the lucky audience at the Hollywood Bowl that night, it wasn’t generally known, until the discovery of these tapes, that Ella had ever performed any of the Songbook arrangements in concert, let alone that such a pristine and sonically sumptuous recording existed.

Across 15 songs, Ella and the orchestra performed dazzling arrangements of some of Irving Berlin’s best-known songs including the classic ballads “How Deep Is The Ocean” and “Supper Time,” Hollywood tunes “You’re Laughing At Me” and “Get Thee Behind Me Satan,” and swinging up-tempo numbers “Cheek To Cheek,” “Top Hat,” “I’ve Got My Love To Keep Me Warm,” “Heat Wave,” and “Puttin’ On The Ritz.” The concert pops with an electricity not found on the studio recording as Ella feeds off the energy and enthusiasm of the crowd, whose applause and adulation bookend each song.

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1. The Song Is Ended
2. You’re Laughing at Me
3. How Deep Is the Ocean
4. Heat Wave
5. Suppertime
6. Cheek to Cheek
7. Russian Lullaby
8. Top Hat White Tie and Tails
9. I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm
10. Get Thee Behind Me Satan
11. Let’s Face the Music And Dance
12. Always
13. Puttin’ on the Ritz
14. Let Yourself Go
15. Alexander’s Ragtime Band