- A vintage copy of this classic Jazz Vocal album with very good Hot Stamper sound from first note to last
- We had been working on this title for at least five years and had been coming up short time and again, with bad sound and bad vinyl on most of what we’d been buying
- Five years ago we cracked the code for the right stampers to look for, and we had hoped to do shootouts for this wonderful album on a more regular basis, but that turned out to be a pipe dream
- They are ridiculously hard to come by, so ridiculously hard that we would be surprised if it doesn’t take another five years to get this shootout going
- I defy anyone to name a Male Vocal record produced in the last forty years that can hold a candle to this one, sonically or musically
- A wonderful collaboration between a horn player and a singer, perhaps the greatest of all time
- 5 stars: “John Coltrane’s matchup with singer Johnny Hartman works extremely well. Hartman was in prime form on the six ballads, and his versions of ‘Lush Life’ and ‘My One and Only Love’ have never been topped. Classic, essential for all jazz collections”
This could very well be the greatest collaboration between a horn player and a singer in the history of music.
I honestly cannot think of another to rank with it. Ella and Louis has the same feel — two giants who work together so sympathetically it’s close to magic, producing definitive performances of enduring standards that have not been equaled in the fifty plus years since they were recorded. And, on the better copies, or should we say the better sides of the better copies, RVG’s sound is stunning. (His mastering, not so much.)
Hats off to Rudy Van Gelder! Here’s an album that justifies his reputation. (more…)
