Notable Performances and Recordings
The song was famously performed by Billie Holiday in 1957 in a television special, The Sound of Jazz. The lineup included several jazz legends (the first six are listed in the order of their solos):
- Ben Webster – tenor saxophone
- Lester Young – tenor saxophone
- Vic Dickenson – trombone
- Gerry Mulligan – baritone saxophone
- Coleman Hawkins – tenor saxophone
- Roy Eldridge – trumpet
- Doc Cheatham – trumpet
- Danny Barker – guitar
- Milt Hinton – double bass
- Mal Waldron – piano
- Osie Johnson - drums
It has been covered several times, sometimes with a change in lyrics or emphasis. For example Lou Rawls switched the gender to a girlfriend and Eva Cassidy sang it in a defiant tone. Notable cover versions were sung by Nina Simone (on the 1959 At Town Hall), Dee Dee Bridgewater on her Billie Holiday tribute album, and Ella Fitzgerald on her eponymous album.
Read more about this topic: Fine And Mellow (song)
Famous quotes containing the words notable, performances and/or recordings:
“In one notable instance, where the United States Army and a hundred years of persuasion failed, a highway has succeeded. The Seminole Indians surrendered to the Tamiami Trail. From the Everglades the remnants of this race emerged, soon after the trail was built, to set up their palm-thatched villages along the road and to hoist tribal flags as a lure to passing motorists.”
—For the State of Florida, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“At one of the later performances you asked why they called it a “miracle,”
Since nothing ever happened. That, of course, was the miracle
But you wanted to know why so much action took on so much life
And still managed to remain itself, aloof, smiling and courteous.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“All radio is dead. Which means that these tape recordings I’m making are for the sake of future history. If any.”
—Barré Lyndon (1896–1972)