Artist: Various
Album: Jazz Duos – 1938-1957 – The Essential Jazz Duos
Label: Masters Of Jazz
Year Of Release: 2020
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Tracklist:
01. Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald – You Won’t Be Satisfied (Until You Break My Heart)
02. Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald – Dream a Little Dream of Me
03. Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald – Can Anyone Explain
04. Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald – Would You Like to Take a Walk
05. Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald – Who Walks in When I Walk out ?
06. Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald – They Can’t Take That Away from Me
07. Louis Armstrong, Mills Brothers – My Walking Stick
08. Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday – My Sweet Hunk O’Trash
09. Louis Armstrong, Louis Jordan – You Rascal You
10. Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby – Gone Fishin’
11. Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald – Stompin’ at the Savoy
12. Louis Armstrong, Lotte Lenya – Mack the Knife
13. Johnny Mercer, Jo Stafford – Candy
14. Peggy Lee, Dean Martin – You Was
15. Pearl Bailey, Hot Lips Page – Baby, It’s Cold Outside
16. Pearl Bailey, The Charioteers – Who?
17. Doris Day, Gene Nelson – I Know That You Know
18. Maria Cole, Nat King Cole – Hey Not Now (I’ll Tell You When)
19. Nat King Cole, Dean Martin – Open Up the Doghouse
20. Doris Day, Danny Thomas – Makin’ Whoopee
21. Nat King Cole, Nelly Lutcher – For You My Love
22. Ella Johnson, Nolan Lewis – This New Situation
23. Ella Fitzgerald, The Inkspots – Cow-Cow Boogie
24. Ella Fitzgerald, The Delta Rhythm Boys – It’s a Pity to Say Goodnight
25. Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong – Summertime
Meetings make music, especially songs. During the Forties and Fifties, artists were invited to perform ? onstage, in numerous radio shows and on television ? in a particular format that quickly attracted an immense audience: the duo. The success of these duets had producers in television, films and musicals scrambling to find personalities they could pair onstage. As for record companies, they sent a succession of their own artists into the studios two by two. Duets became a music genre all of it’s own, and the duo who made probably the greatest impression were, of course, ‘Ella & Louis’. Their performances together take up more than one side here, but they weren’t the only ones to sing duets. The genre had many specialists, not only American favourites like Nat King Cole, Dean Martin or Bing Crosby, but many others less well-known outside the U.S. (Johnny Mercer, Doris Day, Pearl Bailey, Hot Lips Page etc.) whose voices combined to produce the same result: they made miracles. So here are 25 magic moments chosen from literally hundreds of vocal duets handed down to us today. They are all evidence of a most extraordinary period in jazz.
You may also like:
Keith Hall – Made in Kalamazoo (Trios and Duos) (2022)
VA – John Lennon in Jazz (A Jazz Tribute to John Lennon) (2020)
Bill Jennings – Architect of Soul Jazz Bill Jennings. The Complete Early Recordings 1951-1957 (2014)
Abbey Lincoln with The Riverside Jazz Stars – That’s Him! (1957/1999)
Orrin Tucker & His Orchestra – Oh Johnny! The Golden Years 1938-49 (2022)