Annotator
Bob Porter begins his liner notes to
Hip-O Records'
Louis Armstrong compilation
Gold by citing a chart statistic: Leadoff track
"What a Wonderful World" became a Top 40 hit in 1988, 20 years after it was recorded, due to its inclusion in the movie
Good Morning, Vietnam. That is a clue to the approach that the collection takes -- this is a hits-oriented album concerned more with
Louis Armstrong the
pop star of the '50s and '60s than
Louis Armstrong the
jazz musician of the '20s and '30s. In part, that focus is nearly forced on
Hip-O, the reissue imprint of major label
Universal.
Universal has in its archives the catalogs of several record companies for which
Armstrong recorded, primarily
Decca, to which he was signed for most of the period from 1935 to 1954 (and for which he continued to record on a freelance basis through 1957). Also in the
Universal vault are the holdings of
ABC-Paramount, which include
"What a Wonderful World," and
Kapp, including
Armstrong's number one 1964 hit
"Hello, Dolly!" Hip-O has licensed some tracks from the other majors: a 1961 recording of
"Solitude" originally released on
Roulette comes from
EMI, and seven tracks come from
Sony BMG, including celebrated '20s tracks by
Louis Armstrong & His Hot Five and
Louis Armstrong & His Hot Seven originally released on
OKeh. But 32 of 40 tracks come from inside the company, and 21 of 40 date from the '50s and '60s.
Armstrong's
pop fans should be delighted. In addition to the hits
"What a Wonderful World," "Hello, Dolly!," "Mack the Knife," and
"A Kiss to Build a Dream On," the two-hour-and-15-minute two-disc set includes duets with
Duke Ellington,
Ella Fitzgerald,
Bing Crosby,
Louis Jordan, and
Billie Holiday. Much of
Armstrong's core repertoire, the songs he played night after night throughout his career, is featured, although in many cases the tracks are re-recordings made in the '50s rather than the initial recordings made for other labels. That will be one objection for
jazz purists, but then they are likely to be put off by the album as a whole. By proceeding in roughly reverse chronological order from the '60s to the '20s, the album, from a
jazz fan's perspective, puts things in exactly the wrong ranking of importance, suggesting that the most important
Armstrong is the veteran
pop vocalist who takes the occasional trumpet solo, rather than the innovative young cornet improviser. But
jazz fans will be warned off by an album called
Gold to begin with, just as
pop fans will be thoroughly satisfied (except that they will want more). ~ William Ruhlmann
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