Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong – Porgy & Bess (2LP)
RARITY - Sealed
Vocals – Ella Fitzgerald [click here to see more vinyl featuring Ella Fitzgerald]
Vocals, Trumpet – Louis Armstrong
Double bass - Joe Mondragon
Drums - Alvin Stoller
Violin - Victor Arno, Robert Barene, Jacques Gasselin, Joseph Livoti, Dan Lube, Amerigo Marino, Erno Neufeld, Marshall Sosson, Robert Sushel, Gerald Vinci, Tibor Zelig
Violas - Myron Bacon, Abraham Hochstein, Raymond Menhennick, Myron Sandler
Cellos - Justin Di Tullio, Kurt Reher, William Van Den Burg
Trumpets - Frank Beach, Buddy Childers, Cappy Lewis
Trombones - Milt Bernhart, Marshall Cram, James Henderson, Lloyd Ulyate
French horn - Vincent DeRosa
Piano - Bill Miller, Paul Smith
Guitar - Tony Rizzi
Conducted by Russell Garcia
Music by George Gershwin
Lyrics by Du Bose Heyward and Ira Gershwin
2 LPs, Gatefold Jacket with Booklet
Limited to 3,000 copies
Original Master Tape : YES
Heavy Press : 180g
Record color : black
Speed : 33RPM
Size : 12”
Stereo
Studio
Record Press : Pallas
Label : Speakers Corner
Original Label : Verve
Recorded August 18–19 and October 14, 1957 in Los Angeles
Produced by Norman Granz
Mastered by Ryan Smith at Sterling Sound
Plated by Gary Salstrom at QRP
Illustration by David Stone Martin
Photography by Herman Leonard, Phil Stern, Tommy Amer
Liner Notes by Lawrence D. Stewart, Norman Granz
Originally released in April 1959
Reissued in 2013
Tracks :
Side A:
1. Overture
2. Summertime
3. I Wants To Stay Here
Side B:
1. My Man's Gone Now
2. I Got Plenty O' Nuttin'
3. Buzzard Song
4. Bess, You Is My Woman Now
Side C:
1. It Ain't Necessarily So
2. What You Want Wid Bess
3. A Woman Is A Sometime Thing
4. Oh, Doctor Jesus
Side D:
1. Medley: Here Come De Honey Man - Crab Man - Oh, Dey's So Fresh & Fine
2. There's A Boat Dat's Leavin' Soon For New York
3. Oh Bess, Oh Where's My Bess?
4. Oh, Lawd, I'm On My Way!
Awards:
In 2001, the album was awarded a Grammy Hall Of Fame Award to mark recordings that are at least 25 years old, and which have “qualitative or historical significance”
Reviews :
"Producer Norman Granz oversaw two Porgy & Bess projects. The first involved Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong, and came together during the autumn of 1957 with brassy big band and lush orchestral arrangements by Russ Garcia. This is the classic Verve Porgy & Bess, and it's been reissued many, many times. The second, recorded during the spring and summer of 1976 and issued by RCA, brought Ray Charles together with versatile British vocalist Cleo Laine, backed by an orchestra under the direction of Frank DeVol. A comparison of these two realizations bears fascinating fruit, particularly when the medleys of street vendors are played back to back. Those peasant songs, used in real life to purvey honey, strawberries, and crabs, were gathered and notated by George Gershwin and novelist Du Bose Heyward in 1934 during a visit to Folly Island, a small barrier island ten miles south of Charleston, SC, known today as Folly Beach. As Charleston Harbor had been one of the major ports during the importation of slaves from Africa, the waterfront was mostly populated by Gullahs, a reconstituted community that retained and preserved its ancestral cultures and languages to unusual degrees. Gershwin, who even learned to chant with the Gullah, absorbed the tonalities of the street cries he heard and wove them -- along with all of the other impressions stored within his sensitive mind -- into the fabric of his opera. What's really great about the Ella and Louis version is Ella, who handles each aria with disarming delicacy, clarion intensity, or usually a blend of both. Her take on "Buzzard Song" (sung 19 years later by Ray Charles) is a thrilling example of this woman's intrinsic theatrical genius. Pops sounds like he really savored each duet, and his trumpet work -- not a whole lot of it, because this is not a trumpeter's opera -- is characteristically good as gold. This marvelous album stands quite well on its own, but will sound best when matched with the Ray Charles/Cleo Laine version, especially the songs of the Crab Man, of Peter the Honey Man, and his wife, Lily the Strawberry Woman.” AllMusic review by Arwulf Arwulf
Rating :
AllMusic : 4.5 / 5 ; Discogs : 4.64 / 5 ; The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide : 3 / 5 ; Encyclopedia of Popular Music : 4 / 5 ; The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings : 3.5 / 4