Condition: Brand New

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• Even with less than essential bonus material, Ella and Oscar recorded May 19, 1975 is a welcome reissue that warrants repeated listening. Bassist Ray Brown, closely associated to both artists, appears on four tracks, but this is a decidedly duo effort that focuses on two close friends who happened to be among jazz’s most historic figures.

  To call this collection of Great American Songbook standards intimate would be an understatement. Ella and Oscar is a low-key album of small, quiet pleasures. Even during the second half where Brown’s bass provides additional rhythmic variety, the focus is squarely on voice and piano. Most of the album’s tracks are under five minutes in length. Only on the closing number, “April In Paris,” do they really stretch out significantly. Peterson delivers a relaxed but swinging solo. Fitzgerald