1932 marks a watershed year for those two parallel developments, Ellington and jazz-pop singing, in many other respects. Along with Anderson's studio debut, February of that year also witnessed Ellington's first recorded teaming with a mainstream pop star, in the epic "St. Louis Blues" with Bing Crosby. While other examples exist of Der Bingle's high-powered scat style, the two-sided disc also reveals Crosby to be a formidable blues singer. This spontaneous orchestration has Crosby not only keeping up with but inspiring such past masters of the form as Barney Bigard, Harry Carney and Nanton - and in two tempos, yet!
