Ella and Louis

Ella and Louis is a 1956 studio album by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong, accompanied by the Oscar Peterson Quartet. Having previously collaborated in the late 1940s for the Decca label, this was the first of three albums that Fitzgerald and Armstrong were to record together for Verve Records. Norman Granz, the founder of the Verve label, selected eleven ballads for Fitzgerald and Armstrong, mainly played in a slow or moderate tempo. The success of Ella and Louis was replicated by Ella and Louis Again and Porgy and Bess. All three were released as The Complete Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong on Verve. Verve released the album also as one of the first ones in Super Audio Compact Disc (SACD). Writing for Allmusic, music critic Scott Yanow wrote of the album "Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong make for a charming team on this CD... this is primarily a vocal set with the emphasis on tasteful renditions of ballads." Jasen and Jones called the set a "pinnacle of popular singing". The Penguin Guide to Jazz compiled by Richard Cook and Brian Morton, rated the album with four stars.