Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald & Friends 1938-1957: The Essential Jazz Duos

Meetings make music, especially songs. During the Forties and Fifties, artists were invited to perform - onstage, in numerous radio shows and on television - in a particular format that quickly attracted an immense audience: the duo. The success of these duets had producers in television, films and musicals scrambling to find personalities they could pair onstage. As for record companies, they sent a succession of their own artists into the studios... two by two.

Duets became a music genre all of its own, and the duo who made probably the greatest impression were, of course, "Ella & Louis". Their performances together take up more than one side here, but they weren't the only ones to sing duets. The genre had many specialists, not only American favorites like Nat King Cole, Dean Martin or Bing Crosby, but many others less well-known outside the U.S. (Johnny Mercer, Doris Day, Pearl Bailey, Hot Lips Page, etc.) whose voices combined to produce the same result: they made miracles.

So here are 25 magic moments chosen from literally hundreds of vocal duets handed down to us today. They are all evidence of a most extraordinary period in jazz.

1. You Won't Be Satisfied - Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald
2. Dream A Little Dream of Me - Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald
3. Can Anyone Explain - Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald
4. Would You Like To Take A Walk - Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald
5. Who Walks In When I Walk Out? - Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald
6. They Can't Take That Away From Me - Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald
7. My Walking Stick - Louis Armstrong and the Mills Brothers
8. My Sweet Hunk O' Trash - Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday
9. You Rascal You - Louis Armstrong and Louis Jordan
10. Gone Fishin' - Louis Armstrong and Bing Crosby
11. Stompin' at the Savoy - Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald
12. Mack The Knife - Louis Armstrong and Lotte Lenya
13. Candy - Johnny Mercer and Jo Stafford
14. You Was - Peggy Lee and Dean Martin
15. Baby, It's Cold Outside - Pearl Bailey and Hot Lips Page
16. Who? - Pearl Bailey and The Charioteers
17. I Know That You Know - Doris Day and Gene Nelson
18. Hey Not Now (I'll Tell You When) - Maria Cole and Nat King Cole
19. Open Up The Doghouse - Nat King Cole and Dean Martin
20. Making Whoopee - Doris Day and Danny Thomas
21. For You My Love - Nat King Cole and Nelly Lutcher
22. This New Situation (B. Johnson) - Ella Johnson and Nolan Lewis
23. Cow-Cow Boogie - Ella Fitzgerald and The Ink Spots
24. It's A Pity To Say Goodnight - Ella Fitzgerald and The Delta Rhythm Boys
25. Summertime - Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong