While I know this song as sung by Norah Jones, I was intrigued and pleasantly surprised to find it done by Ella and Louis.
The song starts out with a piano playing an interesting little riff at the beginning. But this eventually leads to Ella singing the lyrics, with an addition of a bass walking a smooth rhythm, and brushes on a cymbils. After the first verse, we are given a little teaser of Louis on the Trumpet, which is just enough to wet our appetites. Then at the end of the second verse, Louis again teases us just slightly more. He does this again at the end of the third and fourth verse.
By the time we reach the first chorus, he plays slightly more. Up to this point, we have had AB, and now when we get to the second A we have Ella replaced with Louis singing instead, which is quite a riot considering the amazing contrast between their two very different voices. What is interesting to note, is that when Louis starts singing this part, it seems like the instruments are brought more to light, making us realize that they were muted when Ella was singing.
But after Louis is done singing the second A, we are lead into an amazing trumpet solo, that Louis just eats up, playing a variation on the first verse. And as Louis continues, Ella comes back in with more gusto than before, as if she was missing the vocal spotlight, and hits us with the the Chorus again. At this point, the pattern is now ABACB, with C being the solo by Louis.
It ends with Louis with a solemn note on his trumpet, and Ella holding the final note of 'you.' While this was a lot of fun to listen to, and clearly was a great duet, I must say I was rather unimpressed in terms of the breakdown of the piece. Very simple, not much out of the ordinary. I really would have expected with these two amazing musicians thrown together, that something much more interesting would have come out of it.
Not a bad piece by any means, but not really one that I would consider to be a masterpiece at all. Still, a nice one I enjoyed greatly, simply for the listening pleasure. Which, come to think of it, may have been the entire purpose of it in the first place.
Well, it's an aaba tune, with an extension on the last a, so it's pretty typical in that respect. For me, it is a masterpiece. Ella's voice is out of sight and I like the personality that Louis puts in his vocal. His trumpet solo stays close to the melody, but my guess is he may have thought the melody to be pretty enough to stand on its own. Thanks for sharing it. I thoroughly enjoyed it!
ReplyDelete