Ella: The Lost Berlin Tapes finds the First Lady of Song at the height of her inimitable powers. The majestic series of Songbook albums recorded for Norman Granz's Verve label was in full flow – beginning in 1956 with The Cole Porter Songbook, sets devoted to Rodgers and Hart, Duke Ellington, Irving Berlin, the Gershwins and Harold Arlen had followed, with Jerome Kern and Johnny Mercer sets still to come in 1963 and 1964 respectively.

Berlin was clearly a happy stomping ground for Fitzgerald: she recorded her Grammy- winning Mack The Knife: Ella in Berlin there in 1960, and was back again the following year with Ella Returns To Berlin.

Unearthed from Granz's private archives, this previously unreleased 1962 live recording ranges from much-loved, crowd-pleasing classics such as ‘Mr. Paganini’ and a rip- roaring reprise of ‘Mack The Knife’, to the energizing gear- change of ‘C'est Magnifique’ and the Big Joe Turner-penned ‘Wee Baby Blues’. A brace of songs previously recorded for the landmark Gershwin set, ‘Someone To Watch Over Me’ and ‘Summertime’, are both outstanding. Whatever the tempo, whatever the setting, Fitzgerald invests everything she sings with an almost transcendental virtuosity on the one hand, and an absolute clarity of line on the other.