The Quarantined Jazz Voyager

Ella and Louis is a 1956 studio album by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong, accompanied by the Oscar Peterson Quartet, This was the first of three albums that they were to record together for Verve Records, later followed by 1957’s Ella and Louis Again and 1959’s Porgy and Bess. All three were released as The Complete Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong on Verve.

Norman Granz, the founder of the Verve label, selected eleven ballads for the duo, mainly played in a slow or moderate tempo. Recording began August 16, 1956, at the new, and now iconic, Capitol Studios in Hollywood, California. Though Granz produced the album, Armstrong was given final say over songs and keys. Val Valentin was the session engineer and the photography was taken by Phil Stern.

Tracklist

Side One

1. Can’t We Be Friends? (Paul James, Kay Swift) ~ 3:47
2. Isn’t This A Lovely Day? (Irving Berlin) ~ 6:16
3. Moonlight In Vermont (John Blackburn/Karl Suessdorf) ~ 3:42
4. They Can’t Take That Away From Me (George & Ira Gerrshwin) ! 4:39
5. Under A Blanket Of Blue (Jerry Livingston/Al J. Neiburg/Marty Symes) ~ 4:18
6. Tenderly(Walter Gross/Jack Lawrence) ~ 5:10

1. A Foggy Day (George & Ira Gershwin) ~ 4:32
2. Stars Fell On Alabama (Mitchelll Parish/Frank Perkins) ~ 3:34
3. Cheek To Cheek (Irving Berlin) ~ 5:53
4. The Nearness Of You (Hoagy Carmichael/Ned Washington) ~ 5:42
5. April In Paris (Vernon Duke/Yip Harburg) ~ 6:33

• Ella Fitzgerald – vocals
• Louis Armstrong – vocals, trumpet
• Oscar Peterson – piano
• Herb Ellis – guitar
• Ray Brown – bass
• Buddy Rich – drums

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Simon Brehm was born on December 31, 1921 in Sweden and learned to play the double~bass. He recorded three albums with Quincy Jones. Later in life, he became a record producer and owner of Karusell Records.

Very little is known or written about this musician, but he managed singer Lill-Babs and was the leader of the orchestra that played in the TV show Hylands hörna from 1962.

Double~bassist, composer, and record producer Simon Brehm passed away on February 11, 1967 at the age of 45

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Frank Motley, Jr. was born December 30, 1923 in Cheraw, South Carolina and took trumpet lessons when he was young from Dizzy Gillespie, who was from the same town. He developed a technique of playing two trumpets at the same time, becoming known as “Dual Trumpet” and “Two Horn” Motley. Getting a degree in mechanical engineering at South Carolina State College, before joining the military, he performed in the Navy Band entertaining troops in the Pacific. After the end of the war he played in nightclubs in New York City before settling in Washington, D.C. and forming his own band in 1949.

He recorded extensively for Lillian Claiborne’s DC Records from 1951, and many of his recordings were licensed to other labels including RCA Victor and Specialty. His band, the Motley Crew, included singer and keyboardist Curley Bridges, drummer Thomas E. “TNT” Tribble, and vocalist Elsie “Angel Face” Kenley.

From 1952, he played mainly in Canada, marrying and moving to Toronto in 1955. However, he continued to perform and record in the United States. His biggest commercial success came in 1963, when his version of William Bell’s song Any Other Way, recorded with vocalist Jackie Shane for a small Boston label.

Disbanded the Motley Crew in 1966 he formed a new band in Toronto, the Hitch-Hikers, at first with Shane and then with singer Earle The Mighty Pope Heedram. The band broke up in 1970 but he continued to perform with another new band, the Bridge Crossings, until the mid 1980s. With his health declining he retired to Durham, North Carolina, where he continued to play in local dance bands. Trumpeter Frank Motley, who also sang, passed awayin Durham in 1998, aged 74.

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Three Wishes

Having asked Wynton Kelly of his three wishes he responded to Nica with these answers:  

1. “To make some money.”
2. “More money.”
3. “To get around my instrument a little more.”

*Excerpt from Three Wishes: An Intimate Look at Jazz Greats ~ Compiled and Photographed by Pannonica de Koenigswarter

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Brian Ernest Austin Brown was born on December 29, 1933 in Melbourne, Australia and was a self-taught player and emerged in the 1950s, a leading figure in Australia. He performed as a soloist and with his own ensembles since the mid-1950s throughout Australia and in Scandinavia, United States, Japan, United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Brunei and Germany.

In early 1956 Brown returned to Melbourne from Europe and formed the Brian Brown Quintet with drummer Stewie Speer, trumpeter Keith Hounslow, schoolboy pianist Dave Martin and bassist Barry Buckley. The new hard bop band was a regular from 1955 to 1960 at Horst Liepolt’s Jazz Centre 44 in St Kilda, Victoria, Australia. They introduced bop to Melburnians, a musical style largely unheard in Australia.

He made eight albums over an 18-year period heading various groups. Touring Europe with his Australian Jazz Ensemble in 1978, Brian also led groups doing experimental and original classical pieces from 1980 to 1986.

As an educator, he founded the Improvisation Studies course at the Victorian College of the Arts, where he taught from 1978 until his retirement in 1998. He appeared at the World Saxophone Congress in Tokyo in 1988, with Tony Gould. In June 1993 he was awarded the Order of Australia for service to the performing arts.

Soprano and tenor saxophonist, flutist, synthesizer, panpiper, leather bowhorn, composer, and educator Brian Brown passed away on January 28, 2013.

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