Ella Fitzgerald - Live at Falkoner Theatre Copenhagen 6th February 1966

Ella Fitzgerald takes the stage at Copenhagen's Falkoner Theatre in 1966 on this live LP, a previously unreleased concert now heard for the first time.

The show took place the night before she recorded her celebrated Stockholm concert of 1966, and it finds her in the company of the Duke Ellington Orchestra and the Jimmy Jones Trio. Preserved from a Danish radio broadcast and released with the support of her estate, it captures Ella at ease in a country where she, like many Black American jazz musicians, found a warm and respectful welcome.

The set moves easily between Ellington favourites and her own showstoppers. "Satin Doll" swings with relaxed elegance, while "Sweet Georgia Brown" lets her phrasing dart and tumble over the rhythm with obvious delight.

"How High the Moon" remains one of her great vehicles for scat, and "Mack the Knife" closes the record with the playful confidence of a singer who owned every room she walked into. In between come tender ballads and a detour into bossa nova, all delivered with the effortless control that made her the First Lady of Song.

For anyone who treasures her live recordings, this is a genuine discovery, an intimate document of Ella in peak form with a band that could match her every move.