ELLA FITZGERALD Live In Helsinki 1963 & 1965 | The Lost Recordings (UK/EU limited edition 35-track triple album 3-LP pressed on 180-gram black vinyl from lacquers cut by Kevin Gray at Cohearant Audio, restored from the original analogue tapesusing Phoenix Mastering™ and pressed by Phoenix Pressings® with a slow pressing cycle and new stampers every 500 copies. This triple-album set gathers two previously unreleased Ella Fitzgerald concerts recorded at the Kulttuuritalo in Helsinki,on 1 April 1963 and 23 March 1965. Both are presented in their original mono, drawn from the YLE tapes and issued here on record for the first time. By the early 1960s Fitzgerald had grown deeply attached to Europe. She had bought a house in Copenhagen in 1960, following her mentor and producer Norman Granz, who had left an America mired in Cold War tensions and racial prejudice for Switzerland. Fitzgerald never abandoned the United States, where she continued to support the civil rights movement, but she toured the continent ever more widely, and the two Helsinki dates capture her at ease and in exceptional voice. Unearthing the tapes took The Lost Recordings months of negotiation and two trips to Helsinki. What emerges is Fitzgerald's virtuosity and vocal command in full, alongside the magnetic stage presence that masked the shyness and stage fright she carried from childhood. The repertoire ranges far beyond the jazz idiom, taking in the Great American Songbook of Cole Porter, Irving Berlin and George Gershwin, Broadway numbers, Beatles material and South American song. She is accompanied across the set by Tommy Flanagan on piano, with Les Spann, Jim Hughart, Gus Johnson and Keter Betts appearing across the two concerts. Presented inside a gatefold sleeve with gold-foil signature print, invidually hand-numbered and limited to just 4000 copies. Recommended).