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Louis - Ken Burn's Jazz
To download this recording via iTunes, click here: Ken Burns Jazz: Louis Armstrong - Louis Armstrong
To buy this recording via Amazon.com, click here: Louis Armstrong: Ken Burns JAZZ (The Definitive)
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The Definitive Louis Armstrong
Ken Burn's Jazz Series
01. CHIMES BLUES (2:51)
- J. Oliver -
King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band:
King Oliver, Louis Armstrong, cornet;
Honore Dutrey, trombone;
Johnny Dodds, clarinet;
LiI Hardin, piano;
Bill johnson, banjo;
Baby Dodds, drums, chimes
Recorded April 6, 1923
Available on CD: Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man (Columbia/Legacy C4K 57176)
Originally Released Prior to 1972 Sony Music Entertainment Inc.
02. CAKE WALKIN' BABIES (FROM HOME) (2:55)
- C. Williams – C. Smith – H. Troy -
Clarence Williams's Blue Five:
Louis Armstrong, cornet;
Charlie Irvis, trombone;
Sidney Bechet, soprano saxophone;
Clarence Williams, piano;
Buddy Christian, banjo;
Eva Taylor, vocal
Recorded January 8, 1925
Available on CD: Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man (Columbia/Legacy C4K 57176)
Originally Released Prior to 1972 Sony Music Entertainment Inc.
03. HEEBIE JEEBIES (2:52)
-B. Atkins-
Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five:
Louis Armstrong, comet, vocal;
Kid Dry, trombone;
Johnny Dodds, clarinet;
Lil Armstrong, piano;
Johnny St Cyr, banjo
Recorded February 26,1926
Available on CD: The Complete Hot Five And Hot Seven Recordings (Columbia/Legacy C4K 63527)
Originally Released 1926 Sony Music Entertainment Inc.
04. POTATO HEAD BLUES (2:55)
- L. Armstrong -
Louis Armstrong and His Hot Seven:
Louis Armstrong, trumpet;
John Thomas, trombone;
Johnny Dodds, clarinet;
Lil Armstrong, piano;
Johnny St Cyr, banjo;
Pete Briggs, tuba;
Baby Dodds, drums
Recorded May 10, 1927
Available on CD: The Complete Hot Five And Hot Seven Recordings
05. WEST END BLUES (3:18)
- C. Williams - J. Oliver -
Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five:
Louis Armstrong, trumpet, vocal;
Fred Robinson, trombone;
Jimmy Strong, clarinet, tenor saxophone;
Earl Hines, piano;
Mancy Carr, banjo;
Zutty Singleton, drums
Recorded June 28, 1928
Available on CD: The Complete Hot Five And Hot Seven Recordings (Columbia/Legacy C4K 63527)
Originally Released 1928 Sony Music Entertainment Inc
06. TIGHT LIKE THIS (3:16)
- A. Curl -
Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five:
Louis Armstrong, trumpet, speech;
Fred Robinson, trombone;
Don Redman, alto saxophone, speech, arranger;
Jimmy Strong, clarinet, tenor saxophone;
Earl Hines, plano, speech;
Mancy Carr, banjo;
Zutty Singleton, drums
Recorded December 12, 1928
Available on CD: The Complete Hot Five And Hot Seven Recordings (Columbia/Legacy C4K 63527) Originally Released Prior to 1972 Sony Music Entertainment Inc.
07. MAHOGANY HALL STOMP (3:15)
- S. Williams -
Louis Armstrong and His Savoy Ballroom Five:
Louis Armstrong, trumpet;
J.C. Higginbotham, trombone;
Albert Nicholas, clarinet;
Charlie Holmes, alto saxophone;
Teddy Hill, tenor saxophone;
Luis Russell, piano;
Eddie Condon, banjo;
Lonnie Johnson, guitar;
George "Pops" Foster, bass;
Paul Barbarin, drums
Recorded March 5, 1929
Available on CD: The Complete Hot Five And Hot Seven Recordings (Columbia/legacy C4K 63527)
Originally Released Prior to 1972 Sony Music Entertainment Inc.
08. AIN'T MISBEHAVIN' (3:11)
- A. Razaf - T. Waller - H. Brooks -
Louis Armstrong and His Orchestra:
Louis Armstrong, trumpet, vocal;
Homer Hobson, trumpet;
Fred Robinson, trombone;
Jimmy Strong, clarinet, tenor saxophone;
Bert Curry, Crawford Wethington, alto saxophone;
Carroll Dickerson, violin;
Gene Anderson, piano, celeste;
Mancy Carr, banjo;
Pete Briggs, tuba;
Zutty Singleton, drums
Recorded July 19, 1929
Available on CD: Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man (Columbia/Legacy C4K 57176)
Originally Released 1929 Sony Music Entertainment Inc.
09. BLACK AND BLUE (3:08)
- A. Razaf - T. Waller - H. Brooks -
Louis Armstrong and His Orchestra:
Louis Armstrong, trumpet, vocal;
Homer Hobson, trumpet;
Fred Robinson, trombone;
Bert Curry, Crawford Wethington, alto saxophone;
Jimmy Strong, clarinet, tenor saxophone;
Carroll Dickerson, violin;
Gene Anderson, piano, celeste;
Mancy Carr, banjo;
Pete Briggs, tuba;
Zutty Singleton, drums
Recorded July 22, 1929
Available on CD: Louis Armstrong In New York (Columbia/Legacy CK 46148) Originally Released 1930 Sony Music Entertainment Inc.
10. ST. LOUIS BLUES (3:00)
- W.C. Handy -
Louis Armstrong and His Orchestra:
Louis Armstrong, trumpet;
Henry "Red" Allen, Otis Johnson, trumpet;
J.C. Higginbotham, trombone;
Charlie Holmes, Albert Nicholas, clarinet, alto saxophone;
Teddy Hill, tenor saxophone;
Luis Russell, piano;
Will Johnson, guitar;
George "Pops" Foster, bass;
Paul Barbarin, drums
Recorded December 13, 1929
Available on CD: Louis Armstrong, Vol. 6: St. Louis Blues (Columbia/Legacy CK 46996)
Originally Released Prior to 1972 Sony Music Entertainment Inc.
11. WHEN IT'S SLEEPY TIME DOWN SOUTH (3:21)
- C. Muse - L. Rene – D. Rene -
Louis Armstrong and His Orchestra:
Louis Armstrong, trumpet, vocal, speech;
Zilner Randolph, trumpet;
Preston Jackson, trombone;
Lester Boone, clarinet, alto saxophone;
George James, clarinet, soprano saxophone, alto saxophone;
Albert Washington, clarinet, tenor saxophone;
Charlie Alexander, piano, speech;
Mike McKendrick, banjo, guitar;
John Lindsay, bass;
Tubby Hall, drums
Recorded April 20, 1931
Available on CD: Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man (Columbia/Legacy C4K 57176)
Originally Released Prior to 1972 Sony Music Entertainment Inc.
12. BLUE AGAIN (3:10)
- D. Fields - J. McHugh -
Louis Armstrong and His Orchestra:
Louis Armstrong, trumpet, vocal;
Zilner Randolph, trumpet;
Preston Jackson, trombone;
Lester Boone, clarinet, alto saxophone;
George James, clarinet, soprano saxophone, alto saxophone;
Albert Washington, clarinet, tenor saxophone;
Charlie Alexander, piano;
Mike McKendrick, banjo, guitar;
John Lindsay, bass;
Tubby Hall, drums
Recorded April 28, 1931
Available on CD: Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man (Columbia/legacy C4K 57176)
Originally Released Prior to 1972 Sony Music Entertainment Inc.
13. LAZY RIVER (3:03)
- H. Carmichael - S. Arodin -
Louis Armstrong and His Orchestra:
Louis Armstrong, trumpet, vocal;
Zilner Randolph, trumpet;
Preston Jackson, trombone;
Lester Boone, alto saxophone;
George James, clarinet, soprano saxophone, alto saxophone;
Albert Washington, clarinet, tenor saxophone;
Charlie Alexander, piano;
Mike McKendrick, banjo, guitar;
John Lindsay, bass;
Tubby Hall, drums
Recorded November 3, 1931
Available on CD: Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man (Columbia/Legacy C4K 57176)
Originally Released Prior to 1972 Sony Music Entertainment Inc.
14. CHINATOWN, MY CHINATOWN (315)
- J. Schwartz - W. Jerome -
Louis Armstrong and His Orchestra:
Louis Armstrong, trumpet, vocal;
Zilner Randolph, trumpet;
Preston Jackson, trombone;
Lester Boone, clarinet, alto saxophone;
George James, clarinet, soprano saxophone, alto saxophone;
Albert Washington, clarinet, tenor saxophone;
Charlie Alexander, piano;
Mike McKendrick, banjo, guitar;
John Lindsay, bass;
Tubby Hall, drums
Recorded November 3, 1931
Available on CD: Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man (Columbia/Legacy C4K 57176)
Originally Released Prior to 1972 Sony Music Entertainment Inc.
15. STAR DUST (3:33)
- K. Carmichael - M. Parish -
Louis Armstrong and His Orchestra:
Louis Armstrong, trumpet, vocal;
Zilner Randolph, trumpet;
Preston Jackson, trombone;
Lester Boone, George James, alto saxophone;
Albert Washington, tenor saxophone;
Charlie Alexander, piano;
Mike McKendrick, banjo, guitar;
John Lindsay, bass;
Tubby Hall, drums
Recorded November 4, 1931
Available on CD: Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man (Columbia/Legacy C4K 57176)
Originally Released 1931 Sony Music Entertainment Inc.
16. SHADRACK (2:33)
- R. McGimsey -
Louis Armstrong with the Lyn Murray Singers:
Louis Armstrong, trumpet, vocal; accompanied by two pianos, guitar, bass, drums, and
mixed chorus
Recorded June 14, 1938
Available on CD: The Ultimate Collection (Verve 314 543 699-2)
17. I DOUBLE DARE YOU (2:56)
- J. Eaton - T. Shand -
Louis Armstrong and His Orchestra:
Louis Armstrong, trumpet, vocal;
Shelton Hemphill, Louis Bacon, Henry "Red" Allen, trumpet;
Wilbur de Paris, George Washington, J.C. Higginbotham, trombone;
Pete Clark, Charlie Holmes, alto saxophone;
Albert Nicholas, Bingie Madison, clarinet, tenor saxophone;
Luis Russell, piano, arranger;
Lee Blair, guitar;
George "Pops" Foster, bass;
Paul Barbarin, drums
Recorded January 12, 1938
Available on CD: Pocketful Of Dreams, Vol. 3 (GRP GRD-649)
18. WHEN THE SAINTS GO MARCHING IN (2:43)
- Traditional -
Louis Armstrong and His Orchestra:
Louis Armstrong, trumpet, vocal; Shelton Hemphill, trumpet;
J.C. Higginbotham, trombone;
Rupert Cole, clarinet, alto saxophone;
Charlie Holmes, alto saxophone;
Bingie Madison, clarinet, tenor saxophone;
Luis Russell, piano, arranger;
Lee Blair, guitar;
Red Callender, bass;
Paul Barbarin, drums; band vocal
Recorded May 13, 1938
Available on CD: Louis Armstrong Of New Orleans (MCAD-42328}
19. MARIE (2:22)
- I. Berlin -
Louis Armstrong and the Mills Brothers:
Louis Armstrong, trumpet, vocal;
Harry Mills, Donald Mills, Herbert Mills, John Mills, Sr., vocal quartet;
Norman Brown, guitar
Recorded April 11, 1940
20. ROCKIN' CHAIR (5:08)
- H. Carmichael -
Louis Armstrong and His All Stars:
Louis Armstrong, trumpet, vocal;
Bobby Hackett, cornet;
Jack Teagarden, trombone, vocal;
Peanuts Hucko, clarinet;
Dick Cary, piano;
Bob Haggart, bass;
Sid Catlett, drums
Recorded May 17, 1947
Available on CD: Complete Louis Armstrong On RCA Victor (RCA Victor 9986-2-R8)
21. BLUEBERRY HILL (2:51)
- A. Lewis – L. Stock - V. Rose -
Louis Armstrong, vocal
with Gordon Jenkins and his orchestra and choir
Billy Butterfield, Carl Poole, Yank Lawson, trumpet;
Will Bradley, trombone;
Milt Yaner, Hymie Schertzer, alto saxophone;
Tom Parshley, Artie Drelinger, tenor saxophone;
Bernie Leighton, piano;
Carl Kress, guitar;
Jack Lesberg, bass;
Johnny Blowers, drums;
Louis Armstrong, vocal;
Gordon Jenkins, arranger, conductor
Recorded September 6, 1949
Available on CD: The Best Of The Decca Years, Vol. 1 (MCAD 31346)
22. MACK THE KNIFE (321)
- K. Weill - B. Brecht - M. Blitzstein -
Louis Armstrong and the All-Stars:
Louis Armstrong, trumpet, vocal;
Trummy Young, trombone;
Edmond Hall, clarinet;
Billy Kyle, piano;
Arvell Shaw, bass;
Barrett Deems, drums
Recorded September 28, 1955
Available on CD: Louis Armstrong's Greatest Hits (Columbia/Legacy CK 65420)
Originally Released 1957 Sony Music Entertainment Inc.
23. A FINE ROMANCE (3:50)
- J. Kern – D. Fields -
Louis Armstrong, trumpet, vocal;
Ella Fitzgerald, vocal;
Oscar Peterson, piano;
Herb Ellis, guitar;
Ray Brown, bass;
Louie Bellson, drums
Recorded August 13, 1957
Available on CD: Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong - Ella And Louis Again
(Verve 314 825 374-2)
24. HELLO, DOLLY! (2:23)
- J. Herman -
Louis Armstrong, trumpet, vocal;
Trummy Young, trombone;
Joe Darensbourg, clarinet;
Billy Kyle, piano;
Tony Gattuso, banjo;
Arvell Shaw, bass;
Danny Barcelona, drums;
unidentified strings
Recorded December 3, 1963 (All-Stars) and one date after April 1964 (strings overdub)
Available on CD: Hello Dolly! (Verve 314 543 826-2)
25. WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD (218)
- G. Douglas - G.D. Weiss - B. Thiele -
Louis Armstrong, trumpet, vocal;
Joe Wilder, Clark Terry, trumpet;
Urbie Green, J. J. Johnson, trombone;
Sam Marowitz, flute, clarinet, alto saxophone;
Dan Trimboli, flute, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone;
Jerome Richardson, flute, clarinet, tenor saxophone;
Raymond Stanfeld, baritone saxophone;
Hank Jones, piano;
Allen Hanlon, Art Ryerson, Willard Suyker, guitars;
Russell Savakus, bass;
Grady Tate, drums;
Warren Hard, percussion;
unidentified strings;
Tommy Goodman, arranger, conductor
Recorded August 16, 1967
Available on CD: What A Wonderful World (GRP GRD-656)
Some of these recordings were transferred from disc sources. Surface noise is audible.
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At Louis Armstrong's funeral in New York in 1971, the saturated, superheated air might have moved up from the Mississippi Delta to assure the right atmosphere for the departure of New Orleans' most famous son. The little white frame church in Queens was packed with ordinary people from Armstrong's neighborhood and celebrities from everywhere. Sweltering, fanning themselves, they and a huge television audience heard the broadcaster Fred Robbins deliver a eulogy that defined his friend's importance.
“He was truly the only one of his kind," Robbins said, "a titanic figure in his own and our time, a veritable Picasso. A Stravinsky. A Casals. A Louis Armstrong."
In Armstrong's century, his impact was as profound as that of the artists with whom Robbins placed him. His genius remade jazz from a collective folk form into a soloist's art and touched every area of serious music. There is a bit of the influence of Armstrong in every aspect of popular culture, from three-chord rock & roll and no-chord free jazz, to the language and attitudes of fiction and the way certain actors move and speak on stage and screen. Great popular singers Billie Holiday, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald would not have had their styles without Armstrong's example. Jazz players not yet born when Armstrong lived play his ideas without knowing it. Miles Davis, one of Armstrong's most brilliant inheritors, said, "You know you can't play anything on the horn that Louis hasn't played I mean even modern." Dizzy Gillespie put it even more simply: "No him, no me." After Armstrong, symphony trumpeters understood their instrument's capabilities differently, and composers changed the way they wrote for it. A century after his birth, history's perspective illuminates his significance, which grows steadily.
Armstrong's assessment of his work was as disarming as the clarity of his best playing. That muggy day in Queens, Robbins quoted it:
"I never tried to prove nothin', just always wanted to give a good show. My life has been my music. It's always come first, but the music ain't worth nothin' if you can't lay it on the public. The main thing is to live for that audience, 'cause what you're there for is to please the people."
It can be debated whether he was the first to rise out of the ensemble and improvise instant compositions at the level of high art. Buddy Bolden still has his champions, but decades afterward, the few musicians who heard the legendary, nearly mythical, cornetist discussed his playing primarily in terms of power, volume, and rhythm, not of melodic inventiveness.
The soprano saxophonist and clarinetist Sidney Bechet was another matter. A few years older than Armstrong, he played passionate solos permeated with melodic and harmonic creativity, but he was a loner with an acerbic personality. Bechet left New Orleans early and roamed. He spent much of his life in Europe. The Swiss conductor Ernest Ansermet heard him in 1919 and declared him a genius showing the way to the future of music. Bechet was a magnificent player, but circumstances never developed that might have made him a motivating agent in the development of jazz.
There is no reliable evidence, and little claim, that before Bechet and Armstrong individual creative expression was a consideration in traditional New Orleans jazz. The interaction of the ensemble was the founding principle; not one for all and all for one, but all for all. When Armstrong joined his mentor Joe Oliver as second cornetist in Oliver's band at the Lincoln Gardens in Chicago in 1922, he changed the principle.
His genius was unpolished and at first not focused on building solos, but his rhythmic drive lifted the ensembles with a powerful new feeling of 4/4 swing that is apparent in "Chimes Blues" and "Snake Rag." His solo breaks in "Tears" show why he was beginning to attract the attention of musicians and exert his incomparable ability to "lay it on the public." By the time he joined the big band led by the pianist Fletcher Henderson in 1924, he was soloing at such an advanced level that he made the band's established stars, including the formidable saxophonist Coleman Hawkins, sound stiff and almost primitive. He transformed the character of the band, relaxing it, making it swing. His example also changed Hawkins, who abandoned his vaudeville trappings to become the decade's next great soloist. It was an early instance of Armstrong's pervasive influence on the music.
By 1928, Armstrong's Hot Five And Hot Seven recordings had made him the universal standard for jazz musicians. Mozart, Bartok, or Stravinsky would have been grateful for the inspiration to compose the nine-bar cadenza he improvised to open "West End Blues." In every element of conception and execution, the recording was a monumental achievement. It gave notice that jazz was capable of artistry at the highest level of human expression.
Armstrong changed music. Because of him the public accepted jazz as a soloist's art. He charted the direction of jazz through the 1930s and well into the 1940s, and every development in the music since the late 1920s traces back to the innovations of his genius.
After 1929, conditions in the music business worsened as the Great Depression intensified. The recording business nearly collapsed. Businessmen, however, recognized what the clarinetist Joe Muranyi called Armstrong's "economic viability" and found ways to package the spectacular elements of his playing, his singing, his joyfulness and appeal. His big-band albums of the 1930s, his novelty recordings, his all-star groups do not reach the artistic heights he attained with the Hot Fives And Hot Sevens, although they contain moments of sheer inspiration, as in the 1931 "Star Dust".
Purists bemoan Armstrong's turn toward commercialism and what they perceive as his failure to refine his art. He had taken his art to a peak of refinement no one could have imagined possible. It remained for Lester Young and Charlie Parker to take the next steps in the development of the jazz solo. There would have been no next steps to take if Armstrong had not created the path.
Doug Ramsey
MAY 2000
Doug Ramsey is the author of Jazz Matters: Reflections On The Music And Some of Its Makers (University of Arkansas Press). He is a regular contributor to Jazz Times and the winner of an ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award for writing about music.
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Compilation Produced by Michael Brooks and Ken Burns
A&R: Steve Berkowitz, Sarah Botstein, Michael Cuscuna, Peter Miller, Lynn Novick, Richard Seidel and Ben Young
Mastered by Darcy M. Proper at Sony Studios, New York City
78 RPM Transfers: Matt Cavaluzzo
Sound Restoration Engineer: Harry Coster
Original 78s from the Collections of Michael Brooks and Scott Wentzel
Discographical information: Didier C. Deutsch, Carlos Kase and Ben Young
Liner Notes edited by Peter Keepnews
Photo Credits: Cover Photograph by Herman Leonard
Louis Armstrong House and Archive: 8-9; Frank Driggs Collection: 11, Back Of Booklet; Herman Leonard: Inner tray Card; Bob Parent Collection: 12, Back Cover
Courtesy Credits: "Rockin' Chair," courtesy BMG Entertainment; "Blueberry Hill," "Hello, Dolly!." "I Double Dare You," "Marie," "Shadrach," "What A Wonderful World," "When The Saints Go Marching In," "A Fine Romance" courtesy of The Verve Music Group, a division of UMG Recordings Inc.
To buy this recording via Amazon.com, click here: Louis Armstrong: Ken Burns JAZZ (The Definitive)
_____________________________________________________________________________________________The Definitive Louis Armstrong
Ken Burn's Jazz Series
01. CHIMES BLUES (2:51)
- J. Oliver -
King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band:
King Oliver, Louis Armstrong, cornet;
Honore Dutrey, trombone;
Johnny Dodds, clarinet;
LiI Hardin, piano;
Bill johnson, banjo;
Baby Dodds, drums, chimes
Recorded April 6, 1923
Available on CD: Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man (Columbia/Legacy C4K 57176)
Originally Released Prior to 1972 Sony Music Entertainment Inc.
02. CAKE WALKIN' BABIES (FROM HOME) (2:55)
- C. Williams – C. Smith – H. Troy -
Clarence Williams's Blue Five:
Louis Armstrong, cornet;
Charlie Irvis, trombone;
Sidney Bechet, soprano saxophone;
Clarence Williams, piano;
Buddy Christian, banjo;
Eva Taylor, vocal
Recorded January 8, 1925
Available on CD: Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man (Columbia/Legacy C4K 57176)
Originally Released Prior to 1972 Sony Music Entertainment Inc.
03. HEEBIE JEEBIES (2:52)
-B. Atkins-
Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five:
Louis Armstrong, comet, vocal;
Kid Dry, trombone;
Johnny Dodds, clarinet;
Lil Armstrong, piano;
Johnny St Cyr, banjo
Recorded February 26,1926
Available on CD: The Complete Hot Five And Hot Seven Recordings (Columbia/Legacy C4K 63527)
Originally Released 1926 Sony Music Entertainment Inc.
04. POTATO HEAD BLUES (2:55)
- L. Armstrong -
Louis Armstrong and His Hot Seven:
Louis Armstrong, trumpet;
John Thomas, trombone;
Johnny Dodds, clarinet;
Lil Armstrong, piano;
Johnny St Cyr, banjo;
Pete Briggs, tuba;
Baby Dodds, drums
Recorded May 10, 1927
Available on CD: The Complete Hot Five And Hot Seven Recordings
05. WEST END BLUES (3:18)
- C. Williams - J. Oliver -
Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five:
Louis Armstrong, trumpet, vocal;
Fred Robinson, trombone;
Jimmy Strong, clarinet, tenor saxophone;
Earl Hines, piano;
Mancy Carr, banjo;
Zutty Singleton, drums
Recorded June 28, 1928
Available on CD: The Complete Hot Five And Hot Seven Recordings (Columbia/Legacy C4K 63527)
Originally Released 1928 Sony Music Entertainment Inc
06. TIGHT LIKE THIS (3:16)
- A. Curl -
Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five:
Louis Armstrong, trumpet, speech;
Fred Robinson, trombone;
Don Redman, alto saxophone, speech, arranger;
Jimmy Strong, clarinet, tenor saxophone;
Earl Hines, plano, speech;
Mancy Carr, banjo;
Zutty Singleton, drums
Recorded December 12, 1928
Available on CD: The Complete Hot Five And Hot Seven Recordings (Columbia/Legacy C4K 63527) Originally Released Prior to 1972 Sony Music Entertainment Inc.
07. MAHOGANY HALL STOMP (3:15)
- S. Williams -
Louis Armstrong and His Savoy Ballroom Five:
Louis Armstrong, trumpet;
J.C. Higginbotham, trombone;
Albert Nicholas, clarinet;
Charlie Holmes, alto saxophone;
Teddy Hill, tenor saxophone;
Luis Russell, piano;
Eddie Condon, banjo;
Lonnie Johnson, guitar;
George "Pops" Foster, bass;
Paul Barbarin, drums
Recorded March 5, 1929
Available on CD: The Complete Hot Five And Hot Seven Recordings (Columbia/legacy C4K 63527)
Originally Released Prior to 1972 Sony Music Entertainment Inc.
08. AIN'T MISBEHAVIN' (3:11)
- A. Razaf - T. Waller - H. Brooks -
Louis Armstrong and His Orchestra:
Louis Armstrong, trumpet, vocal;
Homer Hobson, trumpet;
Fred Robinson, trombone;
Jimmy Strong, clarinet, tenor saxophone;
Bert Curry, Crawford Wethington, alto saxophone;
Carroll Dickerson, violin;
Gene Anderson, piano, celeste;
Mancy Carr, banjo;
Pete Briggs, tuba;
Zutty Singleton, drums
Recorded July 19, 1929
Available on CD: Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man (Columbia/Legacy C4K 57176)
Originally Released 1929 Sony Music Entertainment Inc.
09. BLACK AND BLUE (3:08)
- A. Razaf - T. Waller - H. Brooks -
Louis Armstrong and His Orchestra:
Louis Armstrong, trumpet, vocal;
Homer Hobson, trumpet;
Fred Robinson, trombone;
Bert Curry, Crawford Wethington, alto saxophone;
Jimmy Strong, clarinet, tenor saxophone;
Carroll Dickerson, violin;
Gene Anderson, piano, celeste;
Mancy Carr, banjo;
Pete Briggs, tuba;
Zutty Singleton, drums
Recorded July 22, 1929
Available on CD: Louis Armstrong In New York (Columbia/Legacy CK 46148) Originally Released 1930 Sony Music Entertainment Inc.
10. ST. LOUIS BLUES (3:00)
- W.C. Handy -
Louis Armstrong and His Orchestra:
Louis Armstrong, trumpet;
Henry "Red" Allen, Otis Johnson, trumpet;
J.C. Higginbotham, trombone;
Charlie Holmes, Albert Nicholas, clarinet, alto saxophone;
Teddy Hill, tenor saxophone;
Luis Russell, piano;
Will Johnson, guitar;
George "Pops" Foster, bass;
Paul Barbarin, drums
Recorded December 13, 1929
Available on CD: Louis Armstrong, Vol. 6: St. Louis Blues (Columbia/Legacy CK 46996)
Originally Released Prior to 1972 Sony Music Entertainment Inc.
11. WHEN IT'S SLEEPY TIME DOWN SOUTH (3:21)
- C. Muse - L. Rene – D. Rene -
Louis Armstrong and His Orchestra:
Louis Armstrong, trumpet, vocal, speech;
Zilner Randolph, trumpet;
Preston Jackson, trombone;
Lester Boone, clarinet, alto saxophone;
George James, clarinet, soprano saxophone, alto saxophone;
Albert Washington, clarinet, tenor saxophone;
Charlie Alexander, piano, speech;
Mike McKendrick, banjo, guitar;
John Lindsay, bass;
Tubby Hall, drums
Recorded April 20, 1931
Available on CD: Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man (Columbia/Legacy C4K 57176)
Originally Released Prior to 1972 Sony Music Entertainment Inc.
12. BLUE AGAIN (3:10)
- D. Fields - J. McHugh -
Louis Armstrong and His Orchestra:
Louis Armstrong, trumpet, vocal;
Zilner Randolph, trumpet;
Preston Jackson, trombone;
Lester Boone, clarinet, alto saxophone;
George James, clarinet, soprano saxophone, alto saxophone;
Albert Washington, clarinet, tenor saxophone;
Charlie Alexander, piano;
Mike McKendrick, banjo, guitar;
John Lindsay, bass;
Tubby Hall, drums
Recorded April 28, 1931
Available on CD: Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man (Columbia/legacy C4K 57176)
Originally Released Prior to 1972 Sony Music Entertainment Inc.
13. LAZY RIVER (3:03)
- H. Carmichael - S. Arodin -
Louis Armstrong and His Orchestra:
Louis Armstrong, trumpet, vocal;
Zilner Randolph, trumpet;
Preston Jackson, trombone;
Lester Boone, alto saxophone;
George James, clarinet, soprano saxophone, alto saxophone;
Albert Washington, clarinet, tenor saxophone;
Charlie Alexander, piano;
Mike McKendrick, banjo, guitar;
John Lindsay, bass;
Tubby Hall, drums
Recorded November 3, 1931
Available on CD: Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man (Columbia/Legacy C4K 57176)
Originally Released Prior to 1972 Sony Music Entertainment Inc.
14. CHINATOWN, MY CHINATOWN (315)
- J. Schwartz - W. Jerome -
Louis Armstrong and His Orchestra:
Louis Armstrong, trumpet, vocal;
Zilner Randolph, trumpet;
Preston Jackson, trombone;
Lester Boone, clarinet, alto saxophone;
George James, clarinet, soprano saxophone, alto saxophone;
Albert Washington, clarinet, tenor saxophone;
Charlie Alexander, piano;
Mike McKendrick, banjo, guitar;
John Lindsay, bass;
Tubby Hall, drums
Recorded November 3, 1931
Available on CD: Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man (Columbia/Legacy C4K 57176)
Originally Released Prior to 1972 Sony Music Entertainment Inc.
15. STAR DUST (3:33)
- K. Carmichael - M. Parish -
Louis Armstrong and His Orchestra:
Louis Armstrong, trumpet, vocal;
Zilner Randolph, trumpet;
Preston Jackson, trombone;
Lester Boone, George James, alto saxophone;
Albert Washington, tenor saxophone;
Charlie Alexander, piano;
Mike McKendrick, banjo, guitar;
John Lindsay, bass;
Tubby Hall, drums
Recorded November 4, 1931
Available on CD: Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man (Columbia/Legacy C4K 57176)
Originally Released 1931 Sony Music Entertainment Inc.
16. SHADRACK (2:33)
- R. McGimsey -
Louis Armstrong with the Lyn Murray Singers:
Louis Armstrong, trumpet, vocal; accompanied by two pianos, guitar, bass, drums, and
mixed chorus
Recorded June 14, 1938
Available on CD: The Ultimate Collection (Verve 314 543 699-2)
17. I DOUBLE DARE YOU (2:56)
- J. Eaton - T. Shand -
Louis Armstrong and His Orchestra:
Louis Armstrong, trumpet, vocal;
Shelton Hemphill, Louis Bacon, Henry "Red" Allen, trumpet;
Wilbur de Paris, George Washington, J.C. Higginbotham, trombone;
Pete Clark, Charlie Holmes, alto saxophone;
Albert Nicholas, Bingie Madison, clarinet, tenor saxophone;
Luis Russell, piano, arranger;
Lee Blair, guitar;
George "Pops" Foster, bass;
Paul Barbarin, drums
Recorded January 12, 1938
Available on CD: Pocketful Of Dreams, Vol. 3 (GRP GRD-649)
18. WHEN THE SAINTS GO MARCHING IN (2:43)
- Traditional -
Louis Armstrong and His Orchestra:
Louis Armstrong, trumpet, vocal; Shelton Hemphill, trumpet;
J.C. Higginbotham, trombone;
Rupert Cole, clarinet, alto saxophone;
Charlie Holmes, alto saxophone;
Bingie Madison, clarinet, tenor saxophone;
Luis Russell, piano, arranger;
Lee Blair, guitar;
Red Callender, bass;
Paul Barbarin, drums; band vocal
Recorded May 13, 1938
Available on CD: Louis Armstrong Of New Orleans (MCAD-42328}
19. MARIE (2:22)
- I. Berlin -
Louis Armstrong and the Mills Brothers:
Louis Armstrong, trumpet, vocal;
Harry Mills, Donald Mills, Herbert Mills, John Mills, Sr., vocal quartet;
Norman Brown, guitar
Recorded April 11, 1940
20. ROCKIN' CHAIR (5:08)
- H. Carmichael -
Louis Armstrong and His All Stars:
Louis Armstrong, trumpet, vocal;
Bobby Hackett, cornet;
Jack Teagarden, trombone, vocal;
Peanuts Hucko, clarinet;
Dick Cary, piano;
Bob Haggart, bass;
Sid Catlett, drums
Recorded May 17, 1947
Available on CD: Complete Louis Armstrong On RCA Victor (RCA Victor 9986-2-R8)
21. BLUEBERRY HILL (2:51)
- A. Lewis – L. Stock - V. Rose -
Louis Armstrong, vocal
with Gordon Jenkins and his orchestra and choir
Billy Butterfield, Carl Poole, Yank Lawson, trumpet;
Will Bradley, trombone;
Milt Yaner, Hymie Schertzer, alto saxophone;
Tom Parshley, Artie Drelinger, tenor saxophone;
Bernie Leighton, piano;
Carl Kress, guitar;
Jack Lesberg, bass;
Johnny Blowers, drums;
Louis Armstrong, vocal;
Gordon Jenkins, arranger, conductor
Recorded September 6, 1949
Available on CD: The Best Of The Decca Years, Vol. 1 (MCAD 31346)
22. MACK THE KNIFE (321)
- K. Weill - B. Brecht - M. Blitzstein -
Louis Armstrong and the All-Stars:
Louis Armstrong, trumpet, vocal;
Trummy Young, trombone;
Edmond Hall, clarinet;
Billy Kyle, piano;
Arvell Shaw, bass;
Barrett Deems, drums
Recorded September 28, 1955
Available on CD: Louis Armstrong's Greatest Hits (Columbia/Legacy CK 65420)
Originally Released 1957 Sony Music Entertainment Inc.
23. A FINE ROMANCE (3:50)
- J. Kern – D. Fields -
Louis Armstrong, trumpet, vocal;
Ella Fitzgerald, vocal;
Oscar Peterson, piano;
Herb Ellis, guitar;
Ray Brown, bass;
Louie Bellson, drums
Recorded August 13, 1957
Available on CD: Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong - Ella And Louis Again
(Verve 314 825 374-2)
24. HELLO, DOLLY! (2:23)
- J. Herman -
Louis Armstrong, trumpet, vocal;
Trummy Young, trombone;
Joe Darensbourg, clarinet;
Billy Kyle, piano;
Tony Gattuso, banjo;
Arvell Shaw, bass;
Danny Barcelona, drums;
unidentified strings
Recorded December 3, 1963 (All-Stars) and one date after April 1964 (strings overdub)
Available on CD: Hello Dolly! (Verve 314 543 826-2)
25. WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD (218)
- G. Douglas - G.D. Weiss - B. Thiele -
Louis Armstrong, trumpet, vocal;
Joe Wilder, Clark Terry, trumpet;
Urbie Green, J. J. Johnson, trombone;
Sam Marowitz, flute, clarinet, alto saxophone;
Dan Trimboli, flute, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone;
Jerome Richardson, flute, clarinet, tenor saxophone;
Raymond Stanfeld, baritone saxophone;
Hank Jones, piano;
Allen Hanlon, Art Ryerson, Willard Suyker, guitars;
Russell Savakus, bass;
Grady Tate, drums;
Warren Hard, percussion;
unidentified strings;
Tommy Goodman, arranger, conductor
Recorded August 16, 1967
Available on CD: What A Wonderful World (GRP GRD-656)
Some of these recordings were transferred from disc sources. Surface noise is audible.
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At Louis Armstrong's funeral in New York in 1971, the saturated, superheated air might have moved up from the Mississippi Delta to assure the right atmosphere for the departure of New Orleans' most famous son. The little white frame church in Queens was packed with ordinary people from Armstrong's neighborhood and celebrities from everywhere. Sweltering, fanning themselves, they and a huge television audience heard the broadcaster Fred Robbins deliver a eulogy that defined his friend's importance.
“He was truly the only one of his kind," Robbins said, "a titanic figure in his own and our time, a veritable Picasso. A Stravinsky. A Casals. A Louis Armstrong."
In Armstrong's century, his impact was as profound as that of the artists with whom Robbins placed him. His genius remade jazz from a collective folk form into a soloist's art and touched every area of serious music. There is a bit of the influence of Armstrong in every aspect of popular culture, from three-chord rock & roll and no-chord free jazz, to the language and attitudes of fiction and the way certain actors move and speak on stage and screen. Great popular singers Billie Holiday, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald would not have had their styles without Armstrong's example. Jazz players not yet born when Armstrong lived play his ideas without knowing it. Miles Davis, one of Armstrong's most brilliant inheritors, said, "You know you can't play anything on the horn that Louis hasn't played I mean even modern." Dizzy Gillespie put it even more simply: "No him, no me." After Armstrong, symphony trumpeters understood their instrument's capabilities differently, and composers changed the way they wrote for it. A century after his birth, history's perspective illuminates his significance, which grows steadily.
Armstrong's assessment of his work was as disarming as the clarity of his best playing. That muggy day in Queens, Robbins quoted it:
"I never tried to prove nothin', just always wanted to give a good show. My life has been my music. It's always come first, but the music ain't worth nothin' if you can't lay it on the public. The main thing is to live for that audience, 'cause what you're there for is to please the people."
It can be debated whether he was the first to rise out of the ensemble and improvise instant compositions at the level of high art. Buddy Bolden still has his champions, but decades afterward, the few musicians who heard the legendary, nearly mythical, cornetist discussed his playing primarily in terms of power, volume, and rhythm, not of melodic inventiveness.
The soprano saxophonist and clarinetist Sidney Bechet was another matter. A few years older than Armstrong, he played passionate solos permeated with melodic and harmonic creativity, but he was a loner with an acerbic personality. Bechet left New Orleans early and roamed. He spent much of his life in Europe. The Swiss conductor Ernest Ansermet heard him in 1919 and declared him a genius showing the way to the future of music. Bechet was a magnificent player, but circumstances never developed that might have made him a motivating agent in the development of jazz.
There is no reliable evidence, and little claim, that before Bechet and Armstrong individual creative expression was a consideration in traditional New Orleans jazz. The interaction of the ensemble was the founding principle; not one for all and all for one, but all for all. When Armstrong joined his mentor Joe Oliver as second cornetist in Oliver's band at the Lincoln Gardens in Chicago in 1922, he changed the principle.
His genius was unpolished and at first not focused on building solos, but his rhythmic drive lifted the ensembles with a powerful new feeling of 4/4 swing that is apparent in "Chimes Blues" and "Snake Rag." His solo breaks in "Tears" show why he was beginning to attract the attention of musicians and exert his incomparable ability to "lay it on the public." By the time he joined the big band led by the pianist Fletcher Henderson in 1924, he was soloing at such an advanced level that he made the band's established stars, including the formidable saxophonist Coleman Hawkins, sound stiff and almost primitive. He transformed the character of the band, relaxing it, making it swing. His example also changed Hawkins, who abandoned his vaudeville trappings to become the decade's next great soloist. It was an early instance of Armstrong's pervasive influence on the music.
By 1928, Armstrong's Hot Five And Hot Seven recordings had made him the universal standard for jazz musicians. Mozart, Bartok, or Stravinsky would have been grateful for the inspiration to compose the nine-bar cadenza he improvised to open "West End Blues." In every element of conception and execution, the recording was a monumental achievement. It gave notice that jazz was capable of artistry at the highest level of human expression.
Armstrong changed music. Because of him the public accepted jazz as a soloist's art. He charted the direction of jazz through the 1930s and well into the 1940s, and every development in the music since the late 1920s traces back to the innovations of his genius.
After 1929, conditions in the music business worsened as the Great Depression intensified. The recording business nearly collapsed. Businessmen, however, recognized what the clarinetist Joe Muranyi called Armstrong's "economic viability" and found ways to package the spectacular elements of his playing, his singing, his joyfulness and appeal. His big-band albums of the 1930s, his novelty recordings, his all-star groups do not reach the artistic heights he attained with the Hot Fives And Hot Sevens, although they contain moments of sheer inspiration, as in the 1931 "Star Dust".
Purists bemoan Armstrong's turn toward commercialism and what they perceive as his failure to refine his art. He had taken his art to a peak of refinement no one could have imagined possible. It remained for Lester Young and Charlie Parker to take the next steps in the development of the jazz solo. There would have been no next steps to take if Armstrong had not created the path.
Doug Ramsey
MAY 2000
Doug Ramsey is the author of Jazz Matters: Reflections On The Music And Some of Its Makers (University of Arkansas Press). He is a regular contributor to Jazz Times and the winner of an ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award for writing about music.
_____________________________________________________________________
Compilation Produced by Michael Brooks and Ken Burns
A&R: Steve Berkowitz, Sarah Botstein, Michael Cuscuna, Peter Miller, Lynn Novick, Richard Seidel and Ben Young
Mastered by Darcy M. Proper at Sony Studios, New York City
78 RPM Transfers: Matt Cavaluzzo
Sound Restoration Engineer: Harry Coster
Original 78s from the Collections of Michael Brooks and Scott Wentzel
Discographical information: Didier C. Deutsch, Carlos Kase and Ben Young
Liner Notes edited by Peter Keepnews
Photo Credits: Cover Photograph by Herman Leonard
Louis Armstrong House and Archive: 8-9; Frank Driggs Collection: 11, Back Of Booklet; Herman Leonard: Inner tray Card; Bob Parent Collection: 12, Back Cover
Courtesy Credits: "Rockin' Chair," courtesy BMG Entertainment; "Blueberry Hill," "Hello, Dolly!." "I Double Dare You," "Marie," "Shadrach," "What A Wonderful World," "When The Saints Go Marching In," "A Fine Romance" courtesy of The Verve Music Group, a division of UMG Recordings Inc.
