Porgy And Bess - Digital Download

Getting the two most personable voices in jazz to sing an hour's worth of George Gershwin's opera Porgy & Bess (Ella doing all the female parts, Satchmo all the male) was a good idea, but not quite as great as it sounded. Armstrong savors the down-and-dirty Charlestonisms that inspired the cadences of the music and lyrics, and they fit his happy rasp like an old shoe; Fitzgerald, conversely, sounds almost prissy every time she has to sing the word "ain't," though her melodic genius gets Gershwin's bold, supple tunes over. The arrangements are full-throttle Broadway, with a few leaps into Dixieland (including some fine Armstrong trumpet solos), but the disc works best when the vocalists break character and let their jazz side out.

Tracklist:

1. Porgy And Bess: Overture
2. Summertime
3. I Wants To Stay Here
4. My Man's Gone Now
5. I Got Plenty O' Nuttin'
6. Buzzard Song
7. Bess You Is My Woman Now
8. It Ain't Necessarily So
9. What You Want Wid Bess?
10. A Woman Is A Sometime Thing
11. Oh, Doctor Jesus
12. Porgy And Bess: Medley: Here Come De Honey Man / Crab Man / Oh, Dey's So Fresh And Fine
13. There's A Boat Dat's Leavin' Soon For New York
14. Bess, Oh Where's My Bess?
15. Oh Lawd, I'm On My Way

Delivered via email upon purchase.

Digital downloads are delivered as MP3 44.1KHZ/24-BIT audio files.

Digital downloads are not available to customers outside the U.S.