Louis Armstrong: The Best Of The Hot Five & Seven

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• published: 02 May 2016
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Spotify: http://open.spotify.com/user/halidon Facebook: http://bit.ly/FBHalidonmusic Playlist: http://bit.ly/YTPLayListJazzEssential In november 1925, one week after returning to Chicago from New York, where he had spent one year in the Fletcher Henderson orchestra, Louis Armstrong started his famous “Hot Five” series of recordings. The band, set up in advance by his wife, piano player Lil Hardin, and Okeh record company consultant Richard M. Jones, included some of the best New Orleans musicians available in town. It was not a working band. The musicians were only re-united for recording purposes. Reportedly they only played in public once, at a promotional big party, along with other Okeh recording artists. With this all-star band, Louis had a chance to fully showcase his advanced musical thought, emancipating the soloist’s role for all the jazz-to-come. “Cornet Chop Suey”, “Big Butter and Egg Man”, “Hotter Than That” among the others, tell the story. On top of it, for the first time, he could show his vocal powers. Unbelievably, before february 1926, the only chances to hear his voice on record were few bars in an obscure Henderson record and some talking in “Gut Bucket Blues”. Nobody dared to commercialize his un-conventional vocal tone. Of course he didn’t waste time and just after “Georgia Grind” he put down one of the most influential vocals of all-time: “Heebie Jeebies”, that caused nearly every jazz singer in the World to take “scat” choruses. As the Okeh company didn’t have recording studios in Chicago, an engineer with portable equipment was sent from New York few times a year. In one one week or so all the company’s recording artists made their records in a hurry (that’s why we don’t know any alternate takes by the Hot Five, and others acts as well?). When the guy came in may 1927, somebody (who?) thought it would be good to add tuba and drums to the band, adjusting the name to “Hot Seven”. The outfit produced at least one masterwork: “Potato Head Blues”, not to mention the rest. After these sessions the format went back to the quintet, with occasional sittin’-in of the great blues guitar player Lonnie Johnson, also from New Orleans. In 1928 a the “Hot Five” were completely re-vamped in line-up and concept… but that’s another story. LOUIS ARMSTRONG The Best of the HOT FIVE & SEVEN LOUIS ARMSTRONG AND HIS HOT FIVE: Louis Armstrong (cornet / trumpet & vocal). Kid Ory (trombone), Johnny Dodds (clarinet / alto sax track 7 only), Lil Hardin (piano & vocal), Johnny St. Cyr (banjo & guitar) 1 Muskrat Ramble (Ory) 1926 2 Cornet Chop Suey (Armstrong) (2:30) 3 Georgia Grind (Williams) (5:25) 4 Heebie Jeebies (Atkins) (7:58) 5 Yes! I’m in the Barrel (Armstrong) 1925 (10:50) 6 Gut Bucket Blues (Armstrong) (13:27) 7 Come Back Sweet Papa (Barbarin - Russell) 1926 (16:09) 8 King of the Zulus (Hardin) 1926 (18:37) 9 Sweet Little Papa (Ory) (21:39) 10 Skid-Dat-De-Dat (Hardin) 1926 (24:23) 11 Big Butter and Egg Man (Armstrong, Venable) (27:25) LOUIS ARMSTRONG AND HIS HOT SEVEN: Louis Armstrong (cornet/trumpet & vocal), unknown* (trombone), Johnny Dodds (clarinet), Lil Hardin (piano), Pete Briggs (tuba), Johnny St.Cyr (banjo & guitar), Baby Dodds (drums) 12 Willie the Weeper (Bloom - Melrose) 1927 (30:23) 13 Wild Man Blues (Morton - Armstrong) (33:29) 14 Alligator Crawl (Waller) May 10, 1927 (36:38) 15 Potato Head Blues (Armstrong) (39:39) 16 Melancholy Blues (Bloom - Melrose) May 11, 1927 (42:34) 17 Weary Blues (Matthews) (45:35) 18 Twelft Street Rag (Bowman) (48:33) 19 Keyhole Blues (Wilson) May 13, 1927 (51:36) 20 S.O.L. Blues (Armstrong) (55:02) LOUIS ARMSTRONG AND HIS HOT FIVE: same as before 21 Ory’s Creole Trombone (Ory) September 2, 1927 (57:54) 22 The Last Time (Ewin - Martin) (1:00:58) 23 Struttin’ with Some Barbecue (Armstrong) December 9, 1927 (1:04:26) Same. Lonnie Johnson (guitar) added 24 I’m Not Rough (Armstrong - Hardin) December 10, 1927 (1:07:30) 25 Hotter Than That (Armstrong) December 13, 1927 (1:10:31) 26 Savoy Blues (Ory) (1:13:33) - * The Hot Seven trombone player has never been fully identified. Certainly he was not Ory, who at that time was in New York with King Oliver. Honore Dutray, Roy Palmer, Gerald Reeves and John Thomas have variously been suggested. They might also alternate from session to session.