Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong - The Complete Ella And Louis On Verve [3CD] (1997)

Tracklist

CD1
01. Can't We Be Friends?
02. Isn't This A Lovely Day?
03. Moonlight In Vermont
04. They Can't Take That Away From Me
05. Under A Blanket Of Blue
06. Tenderly
07. A Foggy Day
08. Stars Fell On Alabama
09. Cheek To Cheek
10. The Nearness Of You
11. April In Paris
12. Don't Be That Way
13. Makin' Whoopee
14. They All Laughed
15. Comes Love
16. Autumn In New York

CD2
01. Let's Do It (Let's Fall In Love)
02. Stompin' At The Savoy
03. I Won't Dance
04. Gee, Baby, Ain't I Good To You?
05. Let's Call The Whole Thing Off
06. These Foolish Things (Remind Me Of You)
07. I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm
08. Willow Weep For Me
09. I'm Puttin' All My Eggs In One Basket
10. A Fine Romance
11. Ill Wind
12. Love Is Here To Stay
13. I Get A Kick Out Of You
14. Learnin' The Blues
15. You Won't Be Satisfied (Until You Break My Heart)
16. Undecided (Live From The Hollywood Bowl/1956)

CD3
01. Porgy And Bess: Overture
02. Summertime
03. I Wants To Stay Here
04. My Man's Gone Now
05. I Got Plenty O' Nuttin'
06. Buzzard Song
07. Bess You Is My Woman Now
08. It Ain't Necessarily So
09. What You Want Wid Bess?
10. A Woman Is A Sometime Thing
11. Oh, Doctor Jesus
12. Porgy And Bess: Medley: Here Come De Honey Man / Crab Man / Oh, Dey's So Fresh And Fine
13. There's A Boat Dat's Leavin' Soon For New York
14. Bess, Oh Where's My Bess?
15. Oh Lawd, I'm On My Way

Almost all of these summit meetings have been in print virtually since CDs first appeared in listeners' lives, but never in one package. Here, you get all of Ella and Louis, the double-album sets Ella and Louis Again and Porgy and Bess, and two live tracks recorded at the Hollywood Bowl in 1956 -- all in an unusual three-CD album that partially unfolds into an accordion-file (what will Verve's inventive packaging wizards think of next?). There are two booklets, one of which contains a rare recent interview with producer Norman Granz, and the other the notes from the original albums. Of the two wonderfully relaxed Ella and Louis albums, with their Oscar Peterson-driven rhythm quartets, the sequel seems a more diverse, more involving collection, although Satch doesn't play as much trumpet on Again as he does on the first album. Also, the two go it alone on several tracks, but one is not at all inconvenienced by the inclusion of solo gems like Armstrong's sly catalog of intercouplings on "Let's Do It." The Porgy session is an entirely different creature -- a big, formal presentation with Russ Garcia's lush yet atmospheric and even powerful orchestrations, reverberant sound (normally a Granz no-no), grandly moving vocal performances by the two, and a handful of tremendous trumpet solos from Pops. Alas, no unissued tracks turn up here, and of course, MCA still controls all of the earlier Decca duets (hence the disclaimer "Complete on Verve") - so veteran Ella/Louis collectors may opt to hang on to earlier issues. But for those who don't have everything, this is irresistible.

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