Ella and Louis

On paper, this match-up makes no sense at all: Louis Armstrong was the personification of New Orleans exuberance, a singer famous for his oddly honking voice and penchant for improvisatory phrasing and spontaneous scatting; Ella Fitzgerald, on the other hand, was a singer’s singer, equally famous for her discipline and the purity and beauty of her tone. But someone was smart enough to see through the obvious differences to the genius that lay beneath both talents and was willing to take the risk of putting them together in the studio – and the result was pure magic. Listening to them alternate verses on tunes like “Can’t We Be Friends?” and (especially) an absolutely brilliant rendition of “They Can’t Take That Away from Me” is nothing short of revelatory. And the album did so well that they recorded two more, including a collection of songs from Porgy and Bess.