Ella & Basie
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