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Amazon.co.uk Review
Ella Fitzgerald's voice was satin to Louis Armstrong's sandpaper, but when you put them together on a single song, their chemistry was unimpeachable. This disc selects highlights from the three albums they made together at Verve (including their Porgy and Bess), and adds a spiffy live track from the Hollywood Bowl. Though they don't harmonise much (Armstrong's voice wasn't built for harmony), Ella's dignified swing and flashes of teasing wit play off Satchmo's gritty, good-humoured roar symbiotically. The material is mostly lightweight Tin Pan Alley stuff (lots of Gershwin, plus the likes of "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm"), and they fly it like a kite. --Douglas Wolk
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
68 reviews
78 of 84 people found the following review helpful
Truly the sweetest, most satisfying of jazz cd's out...
3 Nov 1999
Format:Audio CD
I was reading books to my daughter at Border's, when overhead I kept hearing the sweetest, purest, angelic voice singing to Louis Armstrong's playing. I knew it had to be Ella. Sure enough it was the best of Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong. I right away went and purchased the best CD of jazz I've ever heard. It's not just because the songs are popular again, because of movies like.."When Harry Met Sally." You just have to hear Ella and Louis together, they compliment each other. Her voice is pure and just so..perfect; his is raspy and undefinably cool. Truly a masterpiece for all time!
44 of 46 people found the following review helpful
Absolute Perfection
2 Sep 2003
Format:Audio CD
Who would have thought that it could have worked? The pitch-perfect, articulate, and yes, angelic voice of Ella Fitzgerald combined with the gravelly grunts and growls of Louis Armstrong...Two very different singers with very different styles getting together to record? But it does work, and the result is absolute perfection.
The way Louis and Ella blend, harmonize, and play off each other is simply astounding to hear. And I think that's the secret of why these two superstars were such stellar musicians: They loved making music. Just listen to the fun they're having on "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off" and "Gee, Baby, Ain't I Been Good to You." It's not only delightful, it's heavenly. Listen and lose yourself in the slow, unhurried harmonies of "Stars Fell on Alabama." And from the opening, emotion-packed trumpet statement of "Summertime," you know you're in for a powerful listening experience.
It's rare that you find a musician who really, I mean REALLY loves performing. To find two such artists on the same disc? Indescribable. These two greats were put on this earth to make music and they made music with all their might. And we're fortunate enough to have it with us. This disc is heaven. Buy it. Treasure it forever.
TOTAL TIME: 68:03
33 of 34 people found the following review helpful
A Must-Have (in one form or another)--but think twice.
13 Oct 2006
Format:Audio CD
With all due respect to some other reviewers, this is not "an album" made by Ella and Louis: it's a sampler comprising three Ella and Louis albums. Normally I would not even consider, say, a Sinatra anthology mixing three masterworks like "Only the Lonely," "In the Wee Small Hours," and "Come Fly with Me": each is a unique and integrally whole project. But I have the Ella and Louis LPs, so I picked up this compressed anthology to take some pressure off of the vinyl.
Like most "best-of" collections, it suffers a bit from uneven textures (the lush orchestration of "Summertime" seems like an intrusion on the intimate rapport established in the preceding numbers) and audio quality (variances in mics, mixing and engineering can be hard to disguise). So unless some of the tunes on this anthology seem absolutely essential, go with "Ella and Louis," if only for its more coherent, unified feel--like two supreme musical storytellers having an irresistable conversation in real time and in real space. (If you have a piano, imagine inviting both into your living room for the evening.)
Louis' meetings with Ella were his most successful collaborations with another major star (the Ellington get-together doesn't compare), and unfortunately I know of no extended, full-fidelity vinyl sessions featuring Pops with Bing Crosby. What's most noteworthy about their pairing is Ella's restrained deference to Louis, and Louis' passionate, animated trumpet solos (it was not unusual for him to "coast" at this stage of his career). The duets are at times a bit sloppy, or "under-rehearsed," especially following the trumpet solo, but the absence of polish is in this case all for the better. This is a recording about communication of the most "natural" sort, not about perfection or disciplined performance. To hear Pops singing unison, then in 3rds, with Ella on an up-tempo "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm" defies description. Simply his presence is enough to showcase Ella's grace and set us up for the sound of surprise when it's Louis' turn to sing solo.
Recently I heard a Wynton Marsalis tribute to Louis at the Lincoln Center. As fluent and dazzling as Wynton was, his performance made me appreciate Louis all the more. Perhaps Leonard Bernstein hit it on the head in his musical essay about jazz, "What Is Jazz?" Alternating between Louis' vocals and trumpet playing, he pointed out the similarity between the two, noting the hint of "pain" intermingled with the joy, or the brilliance of the trumpet sound, as evidence of the triumph of the human spirit over adversity, which might be said to be the essence of the blues itself. Fortunately, that sound is captured in virtually every note that Louis sings and plays on this recording.
Like most "best-of" collections, it suffers a bit from uneven textures (the lush orchestration of "Summertime" seems like an intrusion on the intimate rapport established in the preceding numbers) and audio quality (variances in mics, mixing and engineering can be hard to disguise). So unless some of the tunes on this anthology seem absolutely essential, go with "Ella and Louis," if only for its more coherent, unified feel--like two supreme musical storytellers having an irresistable conversation in real time and in real space. (If you have a piano, imagine inviting both into your living room for the evening.)
Louis' meetings with Ella were his most successful collaborations with another major star (the Ellington get-together doesn't compare), and unfortunately I know of no extended, full-fidelity vinyl sessions featuring Pops with Bing Crosby. What's most noteworthy about their pairing is Ella's restrained deference to Louis, and Louis' passionate, animated trumpet solos (it was not unusual for him to "coast" at this stage of his career). The duets are at times a bit sloppy, or "under-rehearsed," especially following the trumpet solo, but the absence of polish is in this case all for the better. This is a recording about communication of the most "natural" sort, not about perfection or disciplined performance. To hear Pops singing unison, then in 3rds, with Ella on an up-tempo "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm" defies description. Simply his presence is enough to showcase Ella's grace and set us up for the sound of surprise when it's Louis' turn to sing solo.
Recently I heard a Wynton Marsalis tribute to Louis at the Lincoln Center. As fluent and dazzling as Wynton was, his performance made me appreciate Louis all the more. Perhaps Leonard Bernstein hit it on the head in his musical essay about jazz, "What Is Jazz?" Alternating between Louis' vocals and trumpet playing, he pointed out the similarity between the two, noting the hint of "pain" intermingled with the joy, or the brilliance of the trumpet sound, as evidence of the triumph of the human spirit over adversity, which might be said to be the essence of the blues itself. Fortunately, that sound is captured in virtually every note that Louis sings and plays on this recording.
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