Sunday, August 4, 2013

Happy Birthday, Louis Armstrong

The great jazz trumpeter and singer, Louis Armstrong, was born on August 4, 1901, in New Orleans, Louisiana. Armstrong was one of the greatest influences in the history of jazz and shifted the focus of jazz from the collective music of the traditional New Orleans ensemble to a music that valued solo performance and virtuosity.

In his book, The 101 Best Jazz Albums, Len Lyons recommends two records of Louis Armstrong:
  • Louis Armstrong and Earl Hines: The Genius of Louis Armstrong, Vol. 1 1923-1933 (Columbia CG 30416, 2 LPs)
  • Louis Armstrong and Earl Hines: Louis Armstrong and Earl Hines, 1928 (Smithsonian Collection R-002, 2 LPs)
Unfortunately, these are only available in vinyl. Jim Determan, who has updated Lyons's list of albums for CD, recommends instead the following Columbia titles:

A good example of Armstrong's improvisational genius is "Weather Bird," in which he and pianist Earl Hines turn a traditional ragtime piece into a brilliant interchange of call and response and broken rhythms.

 
Robert
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