Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Gut Bucket Blues
2. My Heart
3. Yes! I'm in the Barrel
4. Come Back Sweet Papa
5. Georgia Grind
6. Heebie Jeebies
7. Cornet Chop Suey
8. Oriental Strut
9. You're Next
10. Muskrat Ramble
11. Don't Forget to Mess Around
12. I'm Gonna Gitcha
13. Droppin' Shucks
14. Who's It
15. King of the Zulus
16. Big Fat Ma and Skinny Pa
17. Lonesome Blues
18. Sweet Little Papa
19. Jazz Lips
20. Skid-Dat-De-Dat
21. Big Butter and Egg Man
22. Sunset Cafe Stomp
23. You Made Me Love You
24. Irish Black Bottom
25. [Pause Track]

Disc 2:

1. Put 'Em Down Blues
2. Ory's Creole Trombone
3. Last Time
4. Struttin' With Some Barbecue
5. Got No Blues
6. Once in a While
7. I'm Not Rough
8. Hotter Than That
9. Savoy Blues
10. He Likes It Slow
11. Gambler's Dream
12. Sunshine Baby
13. Adam and Eve Had the Blues
14. Put It Where I Can Get It
15. Washwoman Blues
16. I've Stopped My Man
17. Georgia Bo Bo
18. Drop That Sack [Common Take]
19. Drop That Sack [Rare Take]
20. Cornet Chop Suey
21. [Pause Track]

Disc 3:

1. Willie the Weeper
2. Wild Man Blues
3. Alligator Crawl
4. Potato Head Blues
5. Melancholy
6. Weary Blues
7. Twelfth Street Rag
8. Keyhole Blues
9. S.O.L. Blues
10. Gully Low Blues
11. That's When I'll Come Back to You
12. Chicago Breakdown
13. Weary Blues
14. New Orleans Stomp
15. Wild Man Blues
16. Wild Man Blues
17. Melancholy
18. Melancholy
19. You're a Real Sweetheart
20. Too Busy!
21. Was It a Dream?
22. Last Night I Dreamed You Kissed Me
23. [Pause Track]

Disc 4:

1. Fireworks
2. Skip the Gutter
3. Monday Date
4. Don't Jive Me
5. West End Blues
6. Sugar Foot Strut
7. Two Deuces
8. Squeeze Me
9. Knee Drops
10. No, Papa, No
11. Basin Street Blues
12. No One Else But You
13. Beau Koo Jack
14. Save It, Pretty Mama
15. Muggles
16. Hear Me Talkin' to Ya?
17. St. James Infirmary
18. Tight Like This
19. Weather Bird
20. I Can't Give You Anything But Love [Common Take]
21. I Can't Give You Anything But Love [Rare Take]
22. Mahogany Hall Stomp
23. Knockin' a Jug
24. [Pause Track]

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #51156 in Music
• Released on: 2006-08-22
• Number of discs: 4
• Formats: Box set, Original recording remastered

Amazon.com
Everybody knows Louis Armstrong--even if it's just for his heart-pleasing renditions of "Hello Dolly" and "What a Wonderful World." Well, this four-CD box set marking the 100th anniversary of his birth--give or take a year--contains some of his most groundbreaking, historic works. Recorded between 1925 and 1929, the Complete Hot Five and Hot Seven Recordings find Armstrong with more than able cohorts, including pianists Earl "Fatha" Hines and Lillian Hardin (Armstrong's second wife), clarinetist-saxophonist Johnny Dodds, and trombonist Kid Ory. Recorded when Armstrong was emerging from the influence of his idol, Joe "King" Oliver, these sides feature the main staples of the Armstrong canon, including "Potato Head Blues," "Big Butter and Egg Man," "Cornet Chop Suey" and the Armstrong-Hines duet "Weather Bird." The jewel of the collection is "West End Blues," with Armstrong's stratospheric, pyramid-structured solo, which ranks as one of the greatest in the history of music. The sessions also mark an important technological breakthrough, with the transition from acoustic to electrical recording.

Armstrong's virtuosity on the cornet and trumpet alone would have been enough to ensure his fame. On the 1927 song "Heebie Jeebies," he forgot the lyrics and scatted them and became the first jazz singer, paving the way for Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, and Betty Carter. All in all, this set shows that Louis Armstrong's heroic talents enabled him to become the alpha and omega of 20th century music. As author Robert O'Meally, who wrote the superb liner notes to this well-packaged collection, puts it, "like Chaucer's poetry, which virtually begins the process of codifying the English language as a medium for sophisticated versification, Armstrong's Hot Fives and Hot Sevens provide a wide launching pad from which the history of the art of jazz takes flight." --Eugene Holley Jr.

Customer Reviews

Sloppy production, horrid sound (but a nice book)
The reprocessing on this (...) compilation is among the worst in years: thin, harsh, and (on the first two CDs) with nearly overwhelming surface noise. Take it from a collector who owns original copies of many of these sides: The originals do NOT sound this bad! Some selections on the first CD were obviously taken from old tapes (a telltale "pre-echo" is clearly audible) rather than being freshly remastered. The noise problem abates somewhat on CDs 3 and 4, but the transfers remain curiously thin and harsh with an inexplicably weak bass compared to the brilliantly recorded originals. Incidentally, all four CDs had glue on the playing surfaces (removable with alcohol; but why should one have to clean a $ set?). The accompanying hardcover book is visually stunning if you can overlook the warped binding boards, and it's not without some sloppy discographical errors. (Among other gaffs, Sony apparently is trying to rewrite record-industry history, making the ludicrous claim that they -- rather than Columbia and Okeh -- produced the original issues!) A far better alternative, at half the price, is JSP's Hot Five/Hot Seven set, masterfully reprocessed by John R.T. Davies. You won't get a book, but you'll get clean, richly detailed transfers that do justice to these historic sides in a way that this set does not.

Superb music, slipshod packaging
First of all, the music is five stars plus. I've had these tracks in many different configurations over the years, and they sound better now than ever before. The packaging looks good, and the booklet is informative and classy, but Columbia did us a great disservice by the shabby packaging of the discs themselves.

The discs are where the music is, folks, the heart and soul of any package, and they should be protected. When those discs are slipped without protection into cardboard half-sleeves held to the "endpapers" of the book by a glue that appears similar to rubber cement, the CDs get scratched, and the glue adheres to the CD edges, even making their way onto the surface. Bad, Columbia, bad. This is like when record companies used to put LPs into a cardboard sleeve without a liner.

When you get this set, take the CDs out, clean off the glue, and put them in protective inner sleeves before reinserting them. Fortunately, my CDs seem to play all right, but my CD player is excellent at error correction.

This would be a five-star review, were it not for the packaging. This is like shipping a priceless crystal vase in a cardboard box without padding.

Bypass this set - go for the JSP box set instead...
Columbia missed a trick with this one. Although they succeeded in removing most of the snap and crackle of the original 78s, the resulting sound quality is flat and lifeless. I suppose Columbia was aiming this product at a general listening audience as opposed to a dedicated afficionado of oldie jazz. Perhaps Columbia reasoned that the average listener would find the surface noise distracting. But this music should sound better than it does in Columbia's presentation of it. Yes it sounds clean, but it also sounds dull. There's no bloom on the trumpet tone!

JSP's (much cheaper) issue of this wonderful music is also available on Amazon. The powerful sound of Louis's trumpet comes through much better on their box set.