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:
“Every notable advance in technique or organization has to be paid for, and in most cases the debit is more or less equivalent to the credit. Except of course when it’s more than equivalent, as it has been with universal education, for example, or wireless, or these damned aeroplanes. In which case, of course, your progress is a step backwards and downwards.”
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)
“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)