Ella in Berlin: Mack the Knife
Encyclopedia
Ella in Berlin is a live album
Live album
A live album is a recording consisting of material recorded during stage performances using remote recording techniques, commonly contrasted with a studio album...

 by the American jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 singer Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Jane Fitzgerald , also known as the "First Lady of Song" and "Lady Ella," was an American jazz and song vocalist...

. This album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame
Grammy Hall of Fame Award
The Grammy Hall of Fame Award is a special Grammy award established in 1973 to honor recordings that are at least twenty-five years old and that have "qualitative or historical significance"...

 in 1999, which is a special Grammy award established in 1973 to honor recordings that are at least twenty-five years old, and that have "qualitative or historical significance."
One of Fitzgerald's most acclaimed live performances, at this concert in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

, Fitzgerald successfully improvised the lyrics for the song, "Mack the Knife
Mack the Knife
"Mack the Knife" or "The Ballad of Mack the Knife", originally "Die Moritat von Mackie Messer", is a song composed by Kurt Weill with lyrics by Bertolt Brecht for their music drama Die Dreigroschenoper, or, as it is known in English, The Threepenny Opera. It premiered in Berlin in 1928 at the...

" after forgetting them. In recognition for this, she received the Best Female Vocal Performance (Single) and the Best Vocal Performance, Female (Album) at the 3rd Grammy Awards.

During her Scat
Scat singing
In vocal jazz, scat singing is vocal improvisation with wordless vocables, nonsense syllables or without words at all. Scat singing gives singers the ability to sing improvised melodies and rhythms, to create the equivalent of an instrumental solo using their voice.- Structure and syllable choice...

 solo on "How High the Moon", Fitzgerald quotes the Charlie Parker
Charlie Parker
Charles Parker, Jr. , famously called Bird or Yardbird, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer....

 composition "Ornithology", which is in fact based on the chord changes for "How High the Moon", as a springboard for her own scat improvisation. This recording of "How High the Moon" is considered one of Fitzgerald's best scat solos, if not one of the best in jazz, along with Betty Carter
Betty Carter
Betty Carter was an American jazz singer renowned for her improvisational technique and idiosyncratic vocal style...

's "Sounds (Movin' On).

Track listing

Original Verve release from 1960 Ella in Berlin: Mack the Knife on MG VS-64041; featuring 9 tracks.

Side One:
  1. "Gone with the Wind
    Gone with the Wind (song)
    "Gone with the Wind" is a popular song. The music was written by Allie Wrubel, the lyrics by Herb Magidson. The song was published in 1937. A version recorded by Horace Heidt was a #1 song in 1937.Diane E...

    " (Herb Magidson
    Herb Magidson
    Herbert A. "Herb" Magidson was an American popular lyricist. His work was used in over 23 films and four Broadway reviews. He won the first Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1934....

    , Allie Wrubel
    Allie Wrubel
    Allie Wrubel was an American composer and songwriter.-Biography:Born in Middletown, Connecticut, Wrubel attended Wesleyan University and Columbia University before working in dance bands. He began his musical career in Greenwich Village, New York where he roomed with his close friend James Cagney...

    ) – 2:25
  2. "Misty
    Misty (song)
    "Misty" is a jazz standard written in 1954 by the pianist Erroll Garner.Originally composed as an instrumental following the traditional 32-bar format, the tune later had lyrics by Johnny Burke and became the signature song of Johnny Mathis, reaching #12 on the U.S. Pop Singles chart in 1959...

    " (Johnny Burke
    Johnny Burke (lyricist)
    Johnny Burke was a lyricist, widely regarded as one of the finest writers of popular songs in America between the 1920s and 1950s.-Biography:...

    , Erroll Garner
    Erroll Garner
    Erroll Louis Garner was an American jazz pianist and composer known for his swing playing and ballads. His best-known composition, the ballad "Misty", has become a jazz standard...

    ) – 2:38
  3. "The Lady Is a Tramp
    The Lady Is a Tramp
    "The Lady Is a Tramp" is a show tune from the 1937 Rodgers and Hart musical Babes In Arms in which it was introduced by former child star Mitzi Green. This song is a spoof of New York high society and its strict etiquette...

    " (Richard Rodgers
    Richard Rodgers
    Richard Charles Rodgers was an American composer of music for more than 900 songs and for 43 Broadway musicals. He also composed music for films and television. He is best known for his songwriting partnerships with the lyricists Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II...

    , Lorenz Hart
    Lorenz Hart
    Lorenz "Larry" Milton Hart was the lyricist half of the famed Broadway songwriting team Rodgers and Hart...

    ) – 2:40
  4. "The Man I Love
    The Man I Love (song)
    "The Man I Love" is a popular standard, with music by George Gershwin and lyrics by his brother Ira. Originally part of the 1924 score for the Gershwin government satire Lady, Be Good as "The Girl I Love", the song was deleted from the show as well as from both the 1927 anti-war satire Strike Up...

    " (G. Gershwin, I. Gershwin) – 3:42
  5. "Summertime
    Summertime (song)
    "Summertime" is an aria composed by George Gershwin for the 1935 opera Porgy and Bess. The lyrics are by DuBose Heyward, the author of the novel Porgy on which the opera was based, although the song is also co-credited to Ira Gershwin by ASCAP....

    " (G. Gershwin, I. Gershwin, DuBose Heyward
    DuBose Heyward
    Edwin DuBose Heyward was a white American author best known for his 1925 novel Porgy. This novel was the basis for the play by the same name and, in turn, the opera Porgy and Bess with music by George Gershwin.-Life and career:Heyward was born in 1885 in Charleston, South Carolina and was a...

    ) – 3:02


Side Two:
  1. "Too Darn Hot
    Too Darn Hot
    "Too Darn Hot" is a popular song written by Cole Porter for his musical Kiss Me, Kate . In the stage version, it is sung at the start of Act 2, and in the 1948 original Broadway production, it was sung by Lorenzo Fuller and Eddie Sledge and Fred Davis...

    " (Porter) – 3:17
  2. "Lorelei
    Lorelei (song)
    "Lorelei" is a song composed by George Gershwin, with lyrics by Ira Gershwin; it was written for their musical Pardon My English .It is about the Loreley legend.-Notable Recordings:...

    " (G. Gershwin, I. Gershwin) – 3:27
  3. "Mack the Knife
    Mack the Knife
    "Mack the Knife" or "The Ballad of Mack the Knife", originally "Die Moritat von Mackie Messer", is a song composed by Kurt Weill with lyrics by Bertolt Brecht for their music drama Die Dreigroschenoper, or, as it is known in English, The Threepenny Opera. It premiered in Berlin in 1928 at the...

    " (Marc Blitzstein
    Marc Blitzstein
    Marcus Samuel Blitzstein, better known as Marc Blitzstein , was an American composer. He won national attention in 1937 when his pro-union musical The Cradle Will Rock, directed by Orson Welles, was shut down by the Works Progress Administration...

    , Bertolt Brecht
    Bertolt Brecht
    Bertolt Brecht was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director.An influential theatre practitioner of the 20th century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the...

    , Kurt Weill
    Kurt Weill
    Kurt Julian Weill was a German-Jewish composer, active from the 1920s, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for his fruitful collaborations with Bertolt Brecht...

    ) – 4:39
  4. "How High the Moon
    How High the Moon
    "How High the Moon" is a jazz standard with lyrics by Nancy Hamilton and music by Morgan Lewis. It was first featured in the 1940 Broadway revue Two for the Show, where it was sung by Alfred Drake and Frances Comstock....

    " (Nancy Hamilton, Morgan Lewis
    Morgan Lewis (songwriter)
    Morgan 'Buddy' Lewis was a writer of jazz songs, some of which were also recorded in the pop music genre.-External links:...

    ) – 6:58

CD track listing

Verve re-issue from 1993 The Complete Ella in Berlin: Mack the Knife on Verve 314 519 564-2; featuring 13 vocal performances.

The 1993 re-issue, and all later releases, include 4 bonus tracks. Tracks 1 and 2 were recorded at the Berlin concert in January 1960 and had been rediscovered on a reel-to-reel tape of the initially recorded for radio broadcast. Tracks 7 and 8 were mistakenly identified as being part of the live recording made from the concert, both tracks had appeared on a Dutch pressing of the album in 1960. The two performances had actually been recorded in August 1956 and previously released on the 2 LP set Jazz at the Hollywood Bowl on Verve MG V 8231-2. The mistake was discovered post-production of this CD release.
  1. Setting up the Stage – 0:20
  2. "That Old Black Magic" (Harold Arlen
    Harold Arlen
    Harold Arlen was an American composer of popular music, having written over 500 songs, a number of which have become known the world over. In addition to composing the songs for The Wizard of Oz, including the classic 1938 song, "Over the Rainbow,” Arlen is a highly regarded contributor to the...

    , Johnny Mercer
    Johnny Mercer
    John Herndon "Johnny" Mercer was an American lyricist, songwriter and singer. He is best known as a lyricist, but he also composed music. He was also a popular singer who recorded his own songs as well as those written by others...

    ) – 3:51
  3. "Our Love Is Here to Stay
    Our Love Is Here to Stay
    "Our Love Is Here to Stay" is a popular song and a jazz standard. The music was written by George Gershwin, the lyrics by Ira Gershwin, for the movie The Goldwyn Follies which was released shortly after George Gershwin's death. It is performed in the film by Kenny Baker...

    " (George Gershwin
    George Gershwin
    George Gershwin was an American composer and pianist. Gershwin's compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are widely known...

    , Ira Gershwin
    Ira Gershwin
    Ira Gershwin was an American lyricist who collaborated with his younger brother, composer George Gershwin, to create some of the most memorable songs of the 20th century....

    ) – 3:19
  4. "Gone with the Wind
    Gone with the Wind (song)
    "Gone with the Wind" is a popular song. The music was written by Allie Wrubel, the lyrics by Herb Magidson. The song was published in 1937. A version recorded by Horace Heidt was a #1 song in 1937.Diane E...

    " (Herb Magidson
    Herb Magidson
    Herbert A. "Herb" Magidson was an American popular lyricist. His work was used in over 23 films and four Broadway reviews. He won the first Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1934....

    , Allie Wrubel
    Allie Wrubel
    Allie Wrubel was an American composer and songwriter.-Biography:Born in Middletown, Connecticut, Wrubel attended Wesleyan University and Columbia University before working in dance bands. He began his musical career in Greenwich Village, New York where he roomed with his close friend James Cagney...

    ) – 2:25
  5. "Misty
    Misty (song)
    "Misty" is a jazz standard written in 1954 by the pianist Erroll Garner.Originally composed as an instrumental following the traditional 32-bar format, the tune later had lyrics by Johnny Burke and became the signature song of Johnny Mathis, reaching #12 on the U.S. Pop Singles chart in 1959...

    " (Johnny Burke
    Johnny Burke (lyricist)
    Johnny Burke was a lyricist, widely regarded as one of the finest writers of popular songs in America between the 1920s and 1950s.-Biography:...

    , Erroll Garner
    Erroll Garner
    Erroll Louis Garner was an American jazz pianist and composer known for his swing playing and ballads. His best-known composition, the ballad "Misty", has become a jazz standard...

    ) – 2:38
  6. Applause and Fanfare Interlude – 0:19
  7. "The Lady Is a Tramp
    The Lady Is a Tramp
    "The Lady Is a Tramp" is a show tune from the 1937 Rodgers and Hart musical Babes In Arms in which it was introduced by former child star Mitzi Green. This song is a spoof of New York high society and its strict etiquette...

    " (Richard Rodgers
    Richard Rodgers
    Richard Charles Rodgers was an American composer of music for more than 900 songs and for 43 Broadway musicals. He also composed music for films and television. He is best known for his songwriting partnerships with the lyricists Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II...

    , Lorenz Hart
    Lorenz Hart
    Lorenz "Larry" Milton Hart was the lyricist half of the famed Broadway songwriting team Rodgers and Hart...

    ) – 2:40
  8. Fanfare and Announcement – 0:28
  9. "The Man I Love
    The Man I Love (song)
    "The Man I Love" is a popular standard, with music by George Gershwin and lyrics by his brother Ira. Originally part of the 1924 score for the Gershwin government satire Lady, Be Good as "The Girl I Love", the song was deleted from the show as well as from both the 1927 anti-war satire Strike Up...

    " (G. Gershwin, I. Gershwin) – 3:42
  10. "Love for Sale" - Recorded in August 1956 (Cole Porter
    Cole Porter
    Cole Albert Porter was an American composer and songwriter. Born to a wealthy family in Indiana, he defied the wishes of his domineering grandfather and took up music as a profession. Classically trained, he was drawn towards musical theatre...

    ) – 2:57
  11. "Just One of Those Things
    Just One of Those Things (song)
    "Just One of Those Things" is a popular song written by Cole Porter for the 1935 musical Jubilee.The song was later featured in two Doris Day musical films, Lullaby of Broadway and Young at Heart .-Influence in popular culture:...

    " - Recorded in August 1956 (Porter) – 3:53
  12. "Summertime
    Summertime (song)
    "Summertime" is an aria composed by George Gershwin for the 1935 opera Porgy and Bess. The lyrics are by DuBose Heyward, the author of the novel Porgy on which the opera was based, although the song is also co-credited to Ira Gershwin by ASCAP....

    " (G. Gershwin, I. Gershwin, DuBose Heyward
    DuBose Heyward
    Edwin DuBose Heyward was a white American author best known for his 1925 novel Porgy. This novel was the basis for the play by the same name and, in turn, the opera Porgy and Bess with music by George Gershwin.-Life and career:Heyward was born in 1885 in Charleston, South Carolina and was a...

    ) – 3:02
  13. "Too Darn Hot
    Too Darn Hot
    "Too Darn Hot" is a popular song written by Cole Porter for his musical Kiss Me, Kate . In the stage version, it is sung at the start of Act 2, and in the 1948 original Broadway production, it was sung by Lorenzo Fuller and Eddie Sledge and Fred Davis...

    " (Porter) – 3:17
  14. Applause and Fanfare Interlude – 0:24
  15. "Lorelei
    Lorelei (song)
    "Lorelei" is a song composed by George Gershwin, with lyrics by Ira Gershwin; it was written for their musical Pardon My English .It is about the Loreley legend.-Notable Recordings:...

    " (G. Gershwin, I. Gershwin) – 3:27
  16. "Mack the Knife
    Mack the Knife
    "Mack the Knife" or "The Ballad of Mack the Knife", originally "Die Moritat von Mackie Messer", is a song composed by Kurt Weill with lyrics by Bertolt Brecht for their music drama Die Dreigroschenoper, or, as it is known in English, The Threepenny Opera. It premiered in Berlin in 1928 at the...

    " (Marc Blitzstein
    Marc Blitzstein
    Marcus Samuel Blitzstein, better known as Marc Blitzstein , was an American composer. He won national attention in 1937 when his pro-union musical The Cradle Will Rock, directed by Orson Welles, was shut down by the Works Progress Administration...

    , Bertolt Brecht
    Bertolt Brecht
    Bertolt Brecht was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director.An influential theatre practitioner of the 20th century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the...

    , Kurt Weill
    Kurt Weill
    Kurt Julian Weill was a German-Jewish composer, active from the 1920s, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for his fruitful collaborations with Bertolt Brecht...

    ) – 4:39
  17. Fanfare and Announcement – 0:23
  18. "How High the Moon
    How High the Moon
    "How High the Moon" is a jazz standard with lyrics by Nancy Hamilton and music by Morgan Lewis. It was first featured in the 1940 Broadway revue Two for the Show, where it was sung by Alfred Drake and Frances Comstock....

    " (Nancy Hamilton, Morgan Lewis
    Morgan Lewis (songwriter)
    Morgan 'Buddy' Lewis was a writer of jazz songs, some of which were also recorded in the pop music genre.-External links:...

    ) – 6:58
  19. Applause and Closing Fanfare – 1:06

Personnel

  • Ella Fitzgerald
    Ella Fitzgerald
    Ella Jane Fitzgerald , also known as the "First Lady of Song" and "Lady Ella," was an American jazz and song vocalist...

     – vocals
    Singing
    Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...

  • Paul Smith
    Paul Smith (pianist)
    Paul Smith , is a jazz pianist. He has performed in various genres of jazz, most typically bebop. However, he has also performed in cool jazz, swing music, and traditional pop.He was born in San Diego, California...

     – piano
    Piano
    The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...

  • Jim Hall
    Jim Hall (musician)
    James Stanley Hall is an American jazz guitarist.-Biography:Educated at the Cleveland Institute of Music, Hall moved to Los Angeles where he began to attract national, and then international, attention in the late 1950s...

     – guitar
    Guitar
    The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

  • Wilfred Middlebrooks – double bass
    Double bass
    The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...

  • Gus Johnson
    Gus Johnson (jazz musician)
    Gus Johnson was the drummer in various jazz bands, including that of Jay McShann for many years. In the 1960s he played for saxophonist Gerry Mulligan and accompanied singer Ella Fitzgerald in her 1960 concert in Berlin...

     – drums

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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