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

by Louis Armstrong

Overview

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. ~ Jack Rabid

Product Details

Release Date:	04/28/2009
Label:	Sbme Special Mkts.
UPC:	0886974847229

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

Technical Credits

Domenico Modugno   Composer
Traditional   Composer
John Kander   Composer
Ballard MacDonald   Composer
Jerome Kern   Composer
Steven Berkowitz   A&R
Andy Razaf   Composer
Gene DePaul   Composer
Bob Russell   Composer
Eddie DeLange   Composer
Boyd Atkins   Composer
Irving Mills   Composer
Jerry Herman   Composer
Isham Jones   Composer
Kid Ory   Composer
Fred Ebb   Composer
King Oliver   Composer
Chick Webb   Composer
Leon Rene   Composer
DeCosta   Composer
Lil Armstrong   Composer
Sam Coslow   Composer
Lil Hardin   Composer
Jelly Roll Morton   Composer
John Barry   Composer
Mark Wilder   Mastering
Ray Gilbert   Composer
Richard M. Jones   Producer
Nick A. Kenny   Composer
Otis Rene   Composer
Earl Hines   Composer
Milt Gabler   Composer
Arthur Johnston   Composer
Rosa Menkes   Design
Edward "Kid" Ory   Composer
Grant Rymal   Composer
Randall Martin   Design
Clarence Muse   Composer
Duke Ellington   Composer
Joe Davis   Composer
Fats Waller   Composer
Benny Goodman   Composer
Edwin H. Morris   Composer
Edgar Sampson   Composer
Don George   Composer
Mack David   Composer
Don Raye   Composer
Lil Hardin Armstrong   Composer
Walter Melrose   Composer
Louis Armstrong   Composer
Lee Gaines   Composer
James F. Hanley   Composer
Johnny Hodges   Composer
Bubber Miley   Composer
George Cory   Composer
Alex Hill   Composer
Tommy Rockwell   Producer
Herbert Stothart   Composer
Kurt Weill   Composer
Harry Ruby   Composer
Sigmund Romberg   Composer
Michael Brooks   Liner Notes,Compilation Producer
Bert Kalmar   Composer
Paul Francis Webster   Composer
Hal David   Composer
Clarence Williams   Composer
Barney Bigard   Composer
Carroll Loveday   Composer
Oscar Hammerstein II   Composer
Joe Primrose   Composer
Richard Rodgers   Composer
Maurice Yvain   Composer
A. Curl   Composer
Artie Matthews   Composer
Harry James   Composer
Helmy Kressa   Composer
Seth Rothstein   Project Director,Executive Producer
Patti Matheny   A&R,Artist Coordination
Marty Bloom   Composer
R.J. Jones   Original Session Producer
Howard Fritzson   Art Direction
Kyle Wofford   Artist Coordination
Langston Curl   Composer
Douglas Grabowski   Package Manager
Spencer Williams   Composer
Seth Foster   Mastering