It would take thousands of words to even begin describing in
the sketchiest of details what Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong
contributed to jazz during his career. From the classic Hot
Five and Seven recordings of the 1920s to the scintillating
live albums of the 1940s and '50s to the spectacular
collaborations between Ella Fitzgerald and Armstrong, nearly
everything Satchmo touched with his trumpet and singing
voice turned at some level to gold--sometimes artistically
and often commercially.
STARTING POINTS
Where to start with Satchmo, then? There's no greater starting point than the newly remastered and reissued "Satch Plays Fats," the famed 1955 sessions where Armstrong belted out nine of pianist, vocalist, bandleader, and composer Thomas "Fats" Waller's tunes.
"Satch Plays Fats"
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"Satch Plays Fats" came after two similarly awesome pairings; the first dates from 1928 and boasts Armstrong and pianist Earl "Fatha" Hines. Elegant, suave, and madly swinging, "Louis Armstrong and Earl Hines" contains a bevy of unqualified classics, from "St. James Infirmary" to the unforgettably classic "West End Blues."
"Louis Armstrong and Earl Hines"
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The second collaboration preceding "Satch Plays Fats" dates from 1954--just a year shy of the dates when Armstrong recorded the material for his Waller tribute. This '54 session features Armstrong's septet taking on the music of blues composer W.C. Handy. On Handy's tunes--among them, "St. Louis Blues" and "Beale Street Blues"--you hear clarinetist Barney Bigard, ace trombonist Trummy Young, vocalist Velma Middleton, bassist Arvell Shaw, pianist Billy Kyle, and drummer Barrett Deems. They charge headlong through the uptempo blues and kick back on the marble-thick rhythms laid down by Shaw and Deems, a stomping propulsion that almost makes one forget Armstrong's instrumental and vocal grace.
"Plays W.C. Handy"
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SATCH & FATS
Even among these exceedingly tall musical trees, "Satch Plays Fats"--recorded in April and May 1955--stands especially tall in its newest reissue. The occasion for the bolstered reissue is Armstrong's Centennial, which is a fine occasion to celebrate in mid-2000 even though Armstrong's birthdate is, in truth, August 4, 1901--not July 4, 1900, as he likely believed and insisted on. "Satch Plays Fats" in its newest form comes enriched by an abundance of music that didn't appear on the original album.
Leading off are the album's nine original tracks--all of them brighter and better detailed in their sound. Errors in the original CD reissue are corrected with the inclusion of the original master takes of most of the album's tunes, and augmenting them are four unreleased alternate versions, as well as seven more Waller tracks recorded by Armstrong in the late 1920s.
Armstrong and Waller shared a penchant for dazzling virtuosity and peerless showmanship, both evincing a deep understanding of where jazz and popular culture intersected. It's this shared passion that makes "Satch Plays Fats" so exceptional. Armstrong's band (again clarinetist Barney Bigard, trombonist Trummy Young, vocalist Velma Middleton, bassist Arvell Shaw, pianist Billy Kyle, and drummer Barrett Deems) dazzles on the mid-50s material, taking the charging, big brassy sounds of the uptempo tunes to levels that sound diamond-cut on this reissue.
It was a simple, if enlightened, move to round out the new "Satch Plays Fats" with seven tracks from the '20s. The highlight here is Armstrong's poignant, original look at Waller and lyricist Andy Razaf's "(What Did I Do To Be So) Black And Blue," a song that distills the impact of racism into aural, multi-dimensional poetry. The tune appears three times here, the first two from the 1955 session, and the final one from 1929, when it rang like a bluesy clarion bell.
"Satch Plays Fats"
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THREE TALL SPIRES
With Armstrong's stature, dissent is easily imaginable when considering the best place to start on his sizable assortment of recordings. Consider also a trio of other great episodes, the first a budget-priced, multi-CD set of his 1920s-era recordings, and the last two from the late-1950s collaborations between Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald.
Although there are far more expensive ways to gather in Armstrong's historic "Hot Fives and Sevens" recordings than the four-CD set on the British JSP label, virtually none sound as good as this budget edition. It's startling to see a package of this quality at a reduced price, even if it's very streamlined, simple packaging with minimal liner notes. The music Armstrong made with the bands his then-wife Lil Hardin Armstrong helped assemble is wonderfully remastered here by John R.T. Davies.
"Hot Fives and Sevens" (JSP)
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Of course there are always options. And with the classic Hot Five and Seven recordings, the options are many. For example, if grander presentation is more to your liking, then the new Columbia Records four-CD box set of Hot Five and Seven recordings will be worth at least examining. The music is the same (with a couple of exceptions), but the accompanying book is wonderful in its detail and finishing touches.
"The Complete Hot Five and Hot Seven Recordings" (Columbia)
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For the famous mix of Armstrong's gravelly vocals and bold and brassy trumpet with Ella Fitzgerald's silken vocals, there are two places at least to start: the "Best of Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong" and the fabulously packaged three-CD "Complete Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong." The difference is breadth, with the former package a mere precis [**for HTML: précis**] of the three-CD set. The music comes from the pair's classic "Porgy and Bess," 30 tunes with Oscar Peterson's piano and a small band, and a pair of live tracks with Armstrong's Bigard-Young band from 1956.
"Complete Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong"
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The "Best of" single-CD option is a great starting point, with three tracks from "Porgy and Bess" and 12 from the sessions with Ella and Armstrong backed by Oscar Peterson.
"Best of Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong"
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