The composer Ned Rorem is reputed to have said that both Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday had “perfect pitch: in Ella’s case, it was whatever pitch the composer had written; in Billie’s case, it was whatever pitch she chose to sing.” The story may be apocryphal, but the assessment is right on: Ella Fitzgerald is probably the most celebrated jazz singer in history, and it’s largely because of the disciplined sweetness and clarity of her voice, and her exquisite control over it. She was a pure gift to any songwriter whose work she chose to interpret. Billie Holiday, on the other hand, is almost equally celebrated for nearly the opposite reason: her voice was a gritty conveyor of sadness and resignation, and she swiped at pitches impressionistically more than she landed on them with precision. This live album documents their sets at the 1957 Newport Jazz festival, and offers a nice opportunity to compare and contrast their highly disparate styles.