I first heard this when I was walking through my college’s campus center. A student jazz group called the Hot Sextet (ha, ha) was playing in the lounge area, and the melody stopped me in my tracks. Ellington tunes often have this quality of intense nostalgia, even when you’re hearing them for the first time.
Everyone knows the Mama Cass version, and hers is fine, but nothing can ever touch the Ella and Louis recording. The lyrics make it an obvious lullaby, but there’s so much more happening here…