Album Reviews

This impeccably produced (by Norman Granz, who literall built Verve Records and later Pablo around her), career summing concert takes Ella from her beginnings with the Chick Webb Orchestra to her then current quartet featuring Tommy Flanagan, Keeter Betts, Joe Pass and Freddie Waits, all brilliantly choreographed by master showman/producer/record executive Norman Granz along with Newport producer George Wein. 

In between, Ella is joined by pianist Ellis Larkins for three duets and later, during a much deserved break, Roy Eldridge, Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, and Al Grey take center stage individually in a small group setting followed by the Jazz At Carnegie All-Stars. 

Record producers John Hammond and Teo Macero have rearranged the order for home listening so it begins with Ella and her quartet on side one, Ella and Chick Webb's Orchestra and then the aforementioned duets on side two, a medley with guest artists sitting in with her quartet followed by the Jazz at Carnegie All-Stars on side three, and a final side of a long Ella medley concluding with a heartfelt "People," that she throws back at her adoring audience. By then her voice is getting tired but the weaker it gets, the greater the adulation from the audience.

Ella covers I've Gotta Be Me," "Good Morning Heartache," "Miss Otis Regrets (She's Unable to Lunch Today)" and many others from the great American songbook that she's long been associated with, making them fresh and young sounding despite her being 66 years old. She still sounds full-voiced and in control throughout most of the concert. Even on her very first hit, "A-Tisket A-Tasket," where she's supposed to sound like a child, she manages to pull it off.

I think there are more Ella reissues on vinyl than Patricia Barber or even Diana Krall, but even so, I wouldn't know where to stop with Ella, or tell you which to get and which to pass on there are so many great ones and it's difficult to tire of the near perfection of her voice and how she managed it, but this one strikes me as special for a number of reasons.

For one thing, while she lived another 23 years and performed for much of that time, it was a warm, career covering event— a living tribute—while she was still in fine voice, backed by musicians who had worked with her throughout her career, for another the recording quality is absolutely superb.

Some engineers know how to work with Carnegie Hall and some know how to work against it. The ones who are afraid to work with it, usually produce close-miked affairs that take the natural hall sound out of the recording, some who try to work with it get lost in a wash of reverb.

Stan Tonkel here pulls it off brilliantly, mixing just the right amount of direct and reverberant sound to give you an intimate, yet warm and reverberant, spatially rich presentation. Images are three dimensional, solid and transparent on a satisyingly large soundstage with the audience well-miked and just the right distance away to convey the hall's size. Most importantly, Ella, center stage, sounds just right.

1973 was a weird period of time for anyone old enough to have lived through it. Societal norms were breaking down, New York City was going broke and looked like a garbage strewn, graffiti covered graveyard of a city. Yet here in Carnegie Hall it was the 1940s and '50s, Ella was in full swing singing standards  and all was right with the world. No wonder you can feel the love from the audience even when it wasn't clapping.