Gregory Porter duetting with Ella Fitzgerald? It's true! Well, it's virtual truth thanks to modern technological sorcery. This being her centennial year, someone had the brilliant idea of taking some of Ella's late Decca/early Verve recordings and adding skilfully charted orchestral scores* played by the London Symphony Orchestra.
It's all done seamlessly and inoffensively and whilst the originals sound jazzier (even though the vocal is the same!) I can live with both.
Porter teams up with Ella on People Will Say We're in Love and it is a match made in heaven (in Ella's case, literally). A duo album in real time would have been something! Originally it was just Ella with Ellis Larkins on piano.
Someone to Watch Over me, originally on the classic Ella Sings Gershwin album, again with Larkins on piano. Ella's interpretation of the verse is a vocal masterclass.
Louis Armstrong brings voice and trumpet to the party for They Can't Take That Away From me and Let's Call the Whole Thing Off. Originally with the Peterson Trio, the strings take over without dominating and if there were going to be any letdowns it would have been here - no letdowns!
I referred to Ella singing the complete lyric of Bewitched in a previous vocal CD review and I'm pleased to see it's still intact here.
I Get a Kick Out of You, one of two tracks from the first of the great songbooks [Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook]. Let's Do it is the other one and the First Lady doesn't sing all the verses on this one!
By now you've got the idea.
Makin' Whoopee; These Foolish Things; What is there to say? Misty and With a Song in my Heart round things off nicely.
So, will I throw out my original albums/CDs in favour of Johnny Come Lately?
Of course not but, nor will this end up gathering cyber-dust.
Lance
Released by Verve on September 29.
*Arrangements by Jorge Calandrelli, James Morgan, Juliette Pochin.
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