Cast
Ella Fitzgerald — Singer
Program notes
On 31 August 1963, the First Lady of Song was at the Olympia in Paris. The concert came during a prolific period in her career, with albums such as Ella Sings Broadway, Sings the Jerome Kern Songbook and Ella and Basie! At the age of forty, the diva was at the top of her game and swept the Parisian public off their feet with her clear, suave and authentic vocal tone on the great jazz classics.
At the top of the programme we hear "You're nobody 'till somebody loves you," "A lot of livin' to do" (also recorded by Elvis Presley), "Fine Romance," written for the film Swing Time with Fred Astaire and Ginger Ginger and "Misty," a jazz classic that inspired director Clint Eastwood in his early days. To close the concert, she sang "Mack The Knife" (a cover of Bertolt Brecht's 'Mackie's Lament' with music by Kurt Weill), at times imitating the voice of her great friend Louis Armstrong.