The album is drawn from the beloved jazz vocal stylist’s performance at the famous venue on August 16, 1958. This came just a few months after she recorded the classic Ella Fitzgerald Sings The Irving Berlin Songbook LP. At the Hollywood Bowl concert, Ella performed selections from that album to a sellout crowd, with an orchestra conducted and arranged by Paul Weston, in their only live work together. Weston had also arranged and conducted the studio sessions. The event was also the only time that Fitzgerald performed these arrangements live with a full orchestra.
The Irving Berlin Songbook LP went on to bring Ella her first Grammy, at the inaugural awards, for Best Vocal Performance, Female; it was also nominated for Album Of The Year and took its place among the “songbook” records that stand as a cornerstone of the Verve catalog and among the greatest achievements of her remarkable career.