THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Ella Fitzgerald virtually invented the live album. The reason is simple: Her performances were so consistently great that almost any live show was special enough to release as a record.
In a sense, for Fitzgerald, every night was The Moment of Truth. But this previously unknown concert stands out from the pack. In the summer of 1967 she was in a particularly interesting place: She was in the middle of an especially rewarding three-year touring and recording collaboration with Duke Ellington and was incorporating hit pop songs of the late ’60s into her concert repertoire — two of which are presented here for the first time on record.
Tapes were unearthed in the collection of Verve Records founder Norman Granz — mixed directly from four-track tapes recorded by Wally Heider — resulting in higher-fidelity audio than most lost recordings. This album includes the first Ella recordings of the hit songs Alfie and Music To Watch Girls By and her band features the rarely heard but hard-swinging trio of Jimmy Jones, Bob Cranshaw and Sam Woodyard. The Ellington band captured here was at its peak, featuring Cat Anderson, Cootie Williams, Harry Carney, Paul Gonsalves, Jimmy Hamilton, Johnny Hodges and Russell Procope.
Let’s Do It (Let’s Fall In Love), the second single from her never-before-released live album, The Moment of Truth: Ella At The Coliseum. Let’s Do It (Let’s Fall In Love) offers a sinfully playful twist on the highly esteemed Cole Porter classic from the 1928 Broadway show Paris. Ella adds her own sprinkle of magic by not only extending the chorus of the track, but by switching up the melody and mixing in pop culture references of the time.
The full live album, The Moment Of Truth: Ella At The Coliseum was recorded at the Oakland Coliseum on June 30, 1967. Ella alongside her band was a sight to behold. There was never a moment when she was not doing her absolute best work. The first lady of song strikes again with a song that makes you want to move to the sweet rhythms and melodies she seamlessly weaves together.”
