The setting is less grand than suggested by the title of a new Ella Fitzgerald album, The Moment of Truth: Ella at the Coliseum. In this case, the coliseum is not in Rome or Los Angeles, nor is it the former Oakland A’s ballpark commonly referred to as “the Coliseum” in Oakland — but the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Arena in Oakland, California.
Jazz giant Fitzgerald’s presence elevated any event, however, and that was the case on June 30, 1967, when she performed at a concert that also included the Duke Ellington Orchestra and other luminaries.
The Moment of Truth documents Fitzgerald’s set, and her incomparable alto is in typically fine form. She bounces and glides, blares and coos, bellows and whoops and scats and swings to the audience’s delight. “If you love her, clap!” someone shouts.
The album, released Friday, Feb. 28, features performances of nine songs unearthed from the private tape collection of Verve Records founder Norman Granz. The vinyl release offers outstanding sound quality and extensive, informative liner notes by the critic Will Friedwald. He notes that while it was unusual for Fitzgerald to sing contemporary pop tunes, the set includes her only known performance of two classics from the mid-1960s — the Burt Bacharach and Hal David penned “Alfie” and Bob Crewe’s “Music to Watch Girls By.”
Fitzgerald is accompanied by a piano trio, and on several songs by the Ellington orchestra, with whom she had a lengthy 1960s collaboration. Ellington doesn’t play, however, and the understated arrangements leave the spotlight entirely to Fitzgerald. She’s in a playful mood in her on stage banter, teasing a late arrival, impersonating Louis Armstrong, and ruling out a striptease.
