Customer Reviews

Norman Granz Jazz In Montreux [DVD] [2008]

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Songs performed: Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone; Sweet Georgia Brown; Some Other Spring; Make Me Rainbows; After You've Gone; Round Midnight; Dindi; Fine and Mellow; (I Don't Stand) A Ghost of a Chance With You; Flying Home; You've Changed; Honeysuckle Rose; St. Louis Blues; B & E (Basella); I've Got a Crush on You
What a surprise to see this 1979 concert on DVD - most of the material featured on a couple of Pablo LPs issued many years ago, so it is a thrill to find that Norman Granz also filmed the show for posterity (let's hope there is a lot more in his archive waiting for release). We see Ella in amazingly ebullient vocal form, obviously inspired and invigorated by the Count Basie band on stage with her (Note: Basie himself only appears on the ecstatic 'Basella' extended jam). Her voice went through a change around about 1971, developing a noticeably wider vibrato, not to everyone's taste. Of this later stage in her evolution, this concert represents a thrilling peak. She sings with incredible energy, control and of course, faultless pitch. Those who only know her from the Cole Porter and other Songbook series may be surprised at the hard-driving Soulfulness she displays here: her fantastically inventive 'scat' improvisations are a highlight of this performance. Her stage presence between numbers is endearingly gauche, even girlish, but utterly genuine. Even when she muffs lyrics, as she frequently does (singing an impressionistic, almost meaningless version of the lyrics to the old Billie Holiday torcher 'Some Other Spring') she carries it off through sheer musicianship alone. Did she ever sing a bad note in her life? One quibble: the vision mixing and general camera work is irritatingly erratic; but then, it reflects the exciting spontaneity of this presentation. I was so lucky, when I was a teenager, to see Ella and Basie perform in London around this time, one of the most memorable nights of my life. Terrible to think we'll never see either of them again - but this DVD is a wonderful reminder of two of the greatest performers in jazz on their last joyous perfoming peak.

Wow! i had heard Ella sing on recordings and on radio and bought this dvd to see what she was like.i had no idea she was so good.she storms into the first number"please dont talk about me hen im gone" and into the second "sweet georgia brown" showing without doubt that she is a master of her art.Her "Basella" number with Count basie is an amazing show of how ella can realy make the band swing and the things she does with her trobone player and saxaphonist in this number is truely amazing.A must for any ella lover

All I can say, as an ardent Ella & Basie fan, is that I felt privilaged to be able to see this concert. What wonderful technology we have now that allows a concert so fantastic as this to be preserved for ever. I could'nt stop my feet tapping.

I would say that Ella Fitzgerald was a little past her best by this stage. This isn't to say that its terrible. In fact its good most of the time - but she's certainly lost something from her voice which 20 years earlier was absolutely the best.

Unfortunately a further mark against the DVD for me is the fact that Count Basie only plays on one number. I bought the DVD as much for Count Basie as I did Ella Fitzgerald. Ella's regular pianist plays with the Basie Orchestra for the rest of the DVD/concert.

So it would would have been a 4 star DVD, but a 1/2 star is lost because Ella is a past her best and its another 1/2 star off for the misleading picture on the front of the DVD.