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Authors: Brian Morton, Richard Cook
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Hawkins and Redman on bass sax and goofus! But there weren’t many vocals, and this let the band drive through their three-minute allocation without interruption. If Henderson never figured out the best use of that time-span (unlike Ellington, his most serious rival among New York’s black bands), his players made sure that something interesting happened on almost every record.
Some tracks made under the name The Dixie Stompers were made for Harmony, which continued to use acoustic recording even after most other companies had switched over to the electric process in 1925, and some may find these a little archaic in timbre.
LOUIS ARMSTRONG &
Born 4 August 1901, New Orleans, Louisiana; died 6 July 1971, New York City
Trumpet, cornet
Complete Hot Five And Hot Seven Recordings: Volumes 1–3
Columbia CK 86999 / 87010 / 87011
Armstrong; Bill Wilson (c); Homer Hobson (t); Kid Ory, Honoré Dutrey, John Thomas, Fred Robinson, Jack Teagarden (tb); Johnny Dodds, Don Redman (cl, as); Bert Curry, Crawford Wetherington (as); Jimmy Strong (cl, ts); Boyd Atkins (cl, ss, as); Happy Caldwell, Albert Washington (ts); Lil Hardin Armstrong, Earl Hines, Joe Sullivan (p); Johnny St Cyr (bj); Mancy Cara (bj, v); Lonnie Johnson, Eddie Lang (g); Rip Bassett, Dave Wilborn (bj, g); Carroll Dickerson (vn); Pete Briggs (bb); Baby Dodds, Tubby Hall, Kaiser Marshall, Zutty Singleton (d); Butterbeans & Susie, May Alix (v). November 1926–December 1928.
Trumpeter Digby Fairweather says: ‘Louis Armstrong has been rightly called “The Shakespeare of Jazz”. And even if – to less tempered ears – his musical surroundings on the Hot Five and Seven recordings may sound archaic, the ecstatic outpourings of his horn are arguably the most spontaneously creative and profound jazz improvisation on record.’
For some, the story goes no further than this, and has no need to. Louis Armstrong – universally revered as ‘Pops’, never ‘Satchmo’ – was the first great soloist in jazz and had by 1930 laid down a body of music, albeit crudely documented by modern standards, which has not been surpassed to this day for precision, urgency and emotional freight. He learned to play cornet as a young teenager in a waifs’ home. Buddy Bolden was still alive – and would be until 1931 – but he was also in an institution, the State Insane Asylum at Jackson, where he had been committed for alcohol-induced psychosis and dementia. By 1919, young Armstrong was a formidable player and he began recording with King Oliver in 1923 before going to New York to join the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra. He began recording under his own name in Chicago, 1925, with the Hot Five and Hot Seven for OKeh Records. By the end of the ’20s, he was a great soloist, influencing everyone in jazz, shifting the emphasis from group playing to solo improvising and creating a new vocal style that is almost as influential as his trumpet-playing.
Armstrong’s music is one of the cornerstones of jazz and these, his most famous records, remain a marvel. While we are envious of any who are discovering the likes of ‘Wild Man Blues’ or ‘Tight Like This’ for the first time, we acknowledge that the sound of the records – particularly the earliest, acoustic Hot Five dates – can seem ‘difficult’ to ears raised on digital sound. Considering he was playing with his peers – Ory and Dodds were two of the most respected performers in the field – the group’s basic sound seems unexpectedly rough and unsophisticated. Yet when one focuses on Armstrong himself, that all falls away in the presence of his youthful mastery. Not yet 25 and playing cornet, he is still trying out for greatness, even if his spell with Henderson a year earlier had alerted the jazz community to his incipient brilliance. Earlier pieces like ‘Jazz Lips’ or ‘Cornet Chop Suey’ have a rough-and-ready quality which Armstrong’s burgeoning power either barges past or transcends. There is a degree of
Some tracks made under the name The Dixie Stompers were made for Harmony, which continued to use acoustic recording even after most other companies had switched over to the electric process in 1925, and some may find these a little archaic in timbre.
LOUIS ARMSTRONG &
Born 4 August 1901, New Orleans, Louisiana; died 6 July 1971, New York City
Trumpet, cornet
Complete Hot Five And Hot Seven Recordings: Volumes 1–3
Columbia CK 86999 / 87010 / 87011
Armstrong; Bill Wilson (c); Homer Hobson (t); Kid Ory, Honoré Dutrey, John Thomas, Fred Robinson, Jack Teagarden (tb); Johnny Dodds, Don Redman (cl, as); Bert Curry, Crawford Wetherington (as); Jimmy Strong (cl, ts); Boyd Atkins (cl, ss, as); Happy Caldwell, Albert Washington (ts); Lil Hardin Armstrong, Earl Hines, Joe Sullivan (p); Johnny St Cyr (bj); Mancy Cara (bj, v); Lonnie Johnson, Eddie Lang (g); Rip Bassett, Dave Wilborn (bj, g); Carroll Dickerson (vn); Pete Briggs (bb); Baby Dodds, Tubby Hall, Kaiser Marshall, Zutty Singleton (d); Butterbeans & Susie, May Alix (v). November 1926–December 1928.
Trumpeter Digby Fairweather says: ‘Louis Armstrong has been rightly called “The Shakespeare of Jazz”. And even if – to less tempered ears – his musical surroundings on the Hot Five and Seven recordings may sound archaic, the ecstatic outpourings of his horn are arguably the most spontaneously creative and profound jazz improvisation on record.’
For some, the story goes no further than this, and has no need to. Louis Armstrong – universally revered as ‘Pops’, never ‘Satchmo’ – was the first great soloist in jazz and had by 1930 laid down a body of music, albeit crudely documented by modern standards, which has not been surpassed to this day for precision, urgency and emotional freight. He learned to play cornet as a young teenager in a waifs’ home. Buddy Bolden was still alive – and would be until 1931 – but he was also in an institution, the State Insane Asylum at Jackson, where he had been committed for alcohol-induced psychosis and dementia. By 1919, young Armstrong was a formidable player and he began recording with King Oliver in 1923 before going to New York to join the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra. He began recording under his own name in Chicago, 1925, with the Hot Five and Hot Seven for OKeh Records. By the end of the ’20s, he was a great soloist, influencing everyone in jazz, shifting the emphasis from group playing to solo improvising and creating a new vocal style that is almost as influential as his trumpet-playing.
Armstrong’s music is one of the cornerstones of jazz and these, his most famous records, remain a marvel. While we are envious of any who are discovering the likes of ‘Wild Man Blues’ or ‘Tight Like This’ for the first time, we acknowledge that the sound of the records – particularly the earliest, acoustic Hot Five dates – can seem ‘difficult’ to ears raised on digital sound. Considering he was playing with his peers – Ory and Dodds were two of the most respected performers in the field – the group’s basic sound seems unexpectedly rough and unsophisticated. Yet when one focuses on Armstrong himself, that all falls away in the presence of his youthful mastery. Not yet 25 and playing cornet, he is still trying out for greatness, even if his spell with Henderson a year earlier had alerted the jazz community to his incipient brilliance. Earlier pieces like ‘Jazz Lips’ or ‘Cornet Chop Suey’ have a rough-and-ready quality which Armstrong’s burgeoning power either barges past or transcends. There is a degree of
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