The Best of Louis Armstrong: The Best of the Hot Five and Hot Seven Recordings

by Louis Armstrong, Johnny Dodds, Earl Hines

Overview

The recordings that Louis Armstrong cut with his Hot Five and Hot Seven units in Chicago in the mid-to-late 1920s are as important as any made in the history of recorded music. Not only did they establish Armstrong as a star performer; they brought the art of jazz improvisation, as personified by Louis, to wider public attention. For it’s on these monumental sides that the brilliant trumpeter and vocalist honed his skills as a bravura soloist. As stirring as the New Orleans-style ensemble work is throughout these performances, it’s Armstrong’s own horn work and scat singing that cuts right through, drawing full attention to his incomparable technique and high style as an improvising artist. This collection skims the cream off the Louis Armstrong: The Complete Hot Fives and Sevens Recordings box set, gathering some of the very finest works of Armstrong’s staggeringly creative career. How do you sing the glories of such time-honored performances as “West End Blues,” “Heebie Jeebies,” “Muggles,” or “Wild Man Blues”? You can only hope that every citizen of the world who is serious about music has heard them.

Product Details

Release Date:	04/28/2009
Label:	Sbme Special Mkts.
UPC:	0886974847229
catalogNumber:	748472
Rank:	21586

Tracks

1. Heebie Jeebies
2. Muskrat Ramble
3. King of the Zulus
4. Jazz Lips
5. Willie the Weeper
6. Wild Man Blues
7. Alligator Crawl
8. Potato Head Blues
9. Weary Blues
10. Ory's Creole Trombone
11. Struttin' With Some Barbecue
12. West End Blues
13. Squeeze Me
14. Basin Street Blues
15. Beau Koo Jack
16. Muggles
17. St. James Infirmary
18. Tight Like This

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Louis Armstrong   Primary Artist,Trumpet,Cornet,Vocals
Johnny Dodds   Clarinet
Earl Hines   Piano,Vocals
Kid Ory   Trombone
Zutty Singleton   Drums
Johnny St. Cyr   Banjo
Lil Armstrong   Piano,Vocals
Baby Dodds   Drums
Pete Briggs   Tuba
Jimmy Strong   Clarinet
Fred Robinson   Trombone
Mancy Carr   Banjo,Vocals
John Thomas   Trombone
Clarence Babcock   Vocals
Mancy Cara   Banjo,Vocals

Technical Credits

Earl Hines   Composer
Jelly Roll Morton   Composer
King Oliver   Composer
Kid Ory   Composer
Richard M. Jones   Producer
Gene Anderson   Contributor
Louis Armstrong   Composer
Lil Armstrong   Composer
Boyd Atkins   Composer
Langston Curl   Composer
Lil Hardin   Composer
Don Raye   Composer
Clarence Williams   Composer
Michael Brooks   Liner Notes
Tommy Rockwell   Producer
Herbert Stothart   Composer
Seth Rothstein   Executive Producer
Howard Fritzson   Art Direction
Ray Gilbert   Composer
Artie Matthews   Composer
Traditional   Composer
Joe Primrose   Composer
Douglas Grabowski   Package Manager

Editorial Reviews

The most important musician of the century past has had a trumpet-load of retrospectives appear since the 100th anniversary of his birth in 2001, and few are more brisk, enjoyable, shot full of goofy energy, and essential than the remastered reissue of The Best of Louis Armstrong: The Hot Five and Seven Recordings box set. The box is four CDs of remastered, priceless 1925-1927 Chicago work when Armstrong cemented his reputation as a player, singer, and most of all, an innovator without equal. Now it's occurred to Legacy that not everyone can shell out the big buckaroonies for bountiful box sets, even for a bonanza of 79 recordings of this kind of history. So they've kindly edited it down to a single disc, distilled to a succinct and smartly chosen 18 rambles. The "Hot 5" (originally Armstrong on trumpet; his wife, Lil Armstrong on piano; Johnny Dodds on clarinet; Kid Ory on trombone, and Johnny St. Cyr on banjo) and "Hot 7" (these five plus Pete Briggs on tuba and Baby Dodds on drums) that set down this remarkable booty were his Windy City studio band(s), a tremendous ensemble he didn't actually play with live -- despite having played with them going back to the 1922 King Oliver Band days, when he was second cornetist. Feeding off his missus' barrelhouse saloon playing and St. Cyr's rhythmic strumming (when they didn't have Dodds' drums), the three horns interweaving off each other helped make New Orleans Dixieland jazz the "up" music that could never die, as the leader's unforgettable solos on "Strutting with Some Barbecue" and "Potato Head Blues" are, in a word, thrilling. The opening "Heebee Jeebees" greatly exposed the world to Armstrong's skat singing, his staple until his death in 1971. More generally, the group (and his totally different 1928 "Hot Five" band, featuring his old, brilliant partner, Earl Hines, on piano) set the standard for the form that remains to this day.

All Music Guide - Jack Rabid