Norman Granz worked for a year to get Ella and Ellington together in a recording studio. Ellington was supposed to show up with all new arrangements for Ella, but he didn't. (Ellington worked on his own timetable.) So the band played the old arrangements and Ella jumped in singing and scatting when she could. The results are surprisingly good.

This was originally released as four LP's and also features great small group work with tenor sax legend Ben Webster and pianist Oscar Peterson.

Ella won a grammy for Best Jazz Performance with this album.