Ella & Basie [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED]

Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 28, 1997)
• Original Release Date: July 16, 1963
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Label: Polygram Records
• ASIN: B0000047G4
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #162,161 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential recording
This 1963 session is a fine meeting of two great performers with a single-minded devotion to swing, a high point for both in the decade. The tunes are all familiar standards, many with roots in jazz, while the arrangements by Quincy Jones seem ideal. They're perfectly matched to Count Basie's idiom while providing a fine complement to Ella Fitzgerald's vocal leads. They may possibly be the best settings ever constructed for her scat singing. Fats Waller's "Honeysuckle Rose" swings infectiously and has Fitzgerald scatting ebulliently, while his "Ain't Misbehavin'" becomes a gentle ballad. The same depth of feeling colors "Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall," while "Satin Doll" insinuates and "Them There Eyes" bounces infectiously from the first beat. --Stuart Broomer

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The album that made me a jazz fan, October 21, 1999

By	Robert James (Culver City, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This vocal album broke forever my obsession with any music recorded after 1965. The year after I graduated high school, I was given this as a gift by a friend, and I looked at the cover and thought: "Where can I exchange this for something good?" Fortunately, I opened it, played it, and lost my mind for the next month. A hot, swinging session, full of intense emotion, gleeful play, and ravishing talent. I have been in love with Ella ever since; I own almost all of her recordings; I named my daughter after her. If that doesn't convince you to buy this classic, I have wasted my time writing this.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars GREAT STUFF!!!!, September 8, 1999

By	Darrren12000 "Darren" (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

THIS IS A WONDERFUL ALBUM. A LOT OF ELLA'S MUSIC HAS HER WITH LUSH ACCOMPANYMENT -- STRINGS, ET AL. THIS ALBUM HAS HER WITH THE SWINGING BASIE ORCHESTRA, AND, TRUE TO FORM, BASIE IS ON FIRE!!! HE BRINGS OUT THE SOULFUL ELLA AND I'M SURE SHE STIMULATED THE BAND AS WELL. A MUST HAVE FOR FANS OF GOOD MUSIC -- JAZZ OR OTHERWISE.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For Lovers of Swing, July 11, 2003

By	Ori Dagan (Toronto) - See all my reviews

Absolultely priceless. Ella was always impressive when she had someone to impress, as her collaborations with Satch, Duke, and Louis Jordan prove. This 1963 studio date is certainly a winner. The scat exchange on "Honeysuckle Rose" shows that Ella is in a playful mood. Her phrasing throughout the album is inventive and she eloquently re-melodicizes classic standards like "Ain't Misbehavin'" and "On the Sunny Side of the Street". "Tea for Two" is a lesson in sweet sincerity. "Dream a Little Dream of Me" makes Mama Cass actually seem mediocre and once you hear Ella and Basie do "Deed I Do" it is likely no other version will ever satisfy. Basically (or Basie-cally) the entire album is like a big advertisement for the glory days of swing. God Bless Norman Granz.