Cotton Club Cotton Club The Cotton Club was a New York City nightclub located in Harlem on 142nd Street and Lenox Avenue from 1923 to 1935, then briefly in the midtown Theater District from 1936 to 1940. The club operated most notably during the United States' era of Prohibition. The club was a whites-only establishment, but featured many of the most popular black entertainers of the era, including musicians Fletcher Henderson, Duke Ellington, Jimmie Lunceford, Chick Webb, Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Fats Waller, Willie Bryant; vocalists Adelaide Hall, Ethel Waters, Cab Calloway, Bessie Smith, Aida Ward, Avon Long, the Dandridge Sisters, the
Ella and Louis of A&R, Buddy Bregman. Recording began August 16, 1956, at the new, and now iconic, Capitol Studios in Hollywood. Though Granz produced the album, Armstrong was given final say over songs and keys. The success of "Ella and Louis" was replicated by "Ella and Louis Again" and "Porgy and Bess". All three were released as "The Complete Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong on Verve". Verve released the album also as one of the first ones in Super Audio Compact Disc (SACD). Allmusic's Scott Yanow wrote, "Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong make for a charming team on this CD… This is