Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong, Ella & Louis: Complete Studio Small Group Recordings, 2015 on Waxtime

Waxtime is sometimes a controversial label. Based on some differences between US and EU copyright law, they’re releasing classic jazz recordings without explicit access o the source material. This means they might be working from a CD, or even a needle-drop on a good vinyl copy- but the source material is more or less unofficial.

That said, I’m a huge fan of the work Ella and Louis did together. There are two primary releases: 1956’s Ella and Louis, which I have a 1956 pressing of, and 1957’s Ella and Louis Again, which I don’t currently have (but am on the hunt for). The latter is a 2xLP release, which includes some tracks that feature one or the other but not both.

This Waxtime release puts together then first Ella and Louis LP plus the tracks from Ella and Louis Again which feature both of them. (As they put it: “This edition includes all of their duets from these sessions while discarding the songs on which either Ella or Louis sit out”).

Note Ella and Louis are backed here by basically the Oscar Peterson Trio: Peterson, Herb Ellis, and Ray Brown, plus Buddy Rich (sides A&B) or Louie Bellson (sides C&D) on drums. These original sessions were all done in Hollywood and produced by Norman Granz.

For my money this is a great edition, despite unclear / unstated source material. (Direct-metal-mastering straight from a CD?). It’s well pressed, with a low noise floor, and the mastering makes the material sound lively and present. Now maybe on high end audiophile equipment one would notice more difference, but these are studio recordings from the 50s and they sound great. I’ll keep looking for an original (or an audiophile reissue) of Ella and Louis Again but in the meanwhile happy to have these on vinyl.

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