Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. My Heart
2. Yes! I'm in the Barrel
3. Gut Bucket Blues
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' Sit
15. He Likes It Slow
16. King of the Zulus
17. Big Fat Ma and Skinny Pa
18. Lonesome Blues
19. Sweet Little Papa
20. Jazz Lips
21. Skid-Dat-De-Dat
22. Big Butter and Egg Man
23. Sunset Cafe Stomp
24. You Made Me Love You
25. Irish Black Bottom
26. No One Else But You

Disc 2:

1. Willie the Weeper
2. Wild Man Blues
3. Chicago Breakdown
4. Alligator Crawl
5. Potato Head Blues
6. Melancholy Blues
7. Weary Blues
8. Twelfth Street Rag
9. Keyhole Blues
10. S.O.L. Blues
11. Gully Low Blues
12. That's When I'll Come Back to You
13. Put 'Em Down Blues
14. Ory's Creole Trombone
15. Last Time
16. Struttin' With Some Barbecue
17. Got No Blues
18. Once in a While
19. I'm Not Rough
20. Hotter Than That
21. Savoy Blues

Disc 3:

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. Symphonic Raps
11. Savoyagers' Stomp
12. No, Papa, No
13. Basin Street Blues
14. No One Else But You
15. Beau Koo Jack
16. Save It, Pretty Mama
17. Weather Bird
18. Muggles
19. Hear Me Talkin' to Ya?
20. St. James Infirmary
21. Tight Like This
22. Knockin' a Jug

Disc 4:

1. I Can't Give You Anything But Love
2. Mahogany Hall Stomp
3. Ain't Misbehavin'
4. Black and Blue
5. That Rhythm Man
6. Sweet Savannah Sue
7. Some of These Days
8. Some of These Days
9. When You're Smiling (The Whole World Smiles With You)
10. When You're Smiling (The Whole World Smiles With You)
11. After You've Gone
12. Ain't Got Nobody
13. Dallas Blues
14. St. Louis Blues
15. Rockin' Chair
16. Song of the Islands
17. Bessie Couldn't Help It
18. Blue Turning Grey over You
19. Dear Old Southland
20. Rockin' Chair
21. I Can't Give You Anything But Love

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6191 in Music
• Brand: Armstrong
• Released on: 1999-10-26
• Number of discs: 4
• Format: Box set
• Dimensions: .84 pounds

Amazon.com
Between 1925 and 1929, Louis Armstrong created one of the first great bodies of work in jazz. While he worked regularly as a soloist with big bands, he began his career as a leader with the first all-star studio group in jazz, the Hot Five. The other four musicians were Armstrong's wife, Lil Hardin Armstrong, on piano; Johnny Dodds on clarinet; Kid Ory on trombone; and Johnny St. Cyr on banjo. The music's first great soloist, Armstrong was reshaping jazz by sheer improvisational magic, gradually diminishing the role of the traditional New Orleans ensemble with the clarion brilliance of his trumpet. Possessing an uncanny blend of exuberance and creativity, he combined virtuosic declarations with a talent for the subtlest shifts in phrasing and melodic variation, creating rich emotional statements that could hint at loss in the midst of joy or the promise of better things in the most sorrowful blues. The band expands here, to the Hot Seven and larger ensembles, and it gains soloists who applied Armstrong's lessons to their own instruments--musicians such as pianist Earl Hines and trombonist Jack Teagarden--but all come under the imprint of Armstrong's flowering genius, as both trumpeter and singer.

It's almost impossible to overrate this material. It may be the most influential music in jazz history, establishing standards for originality and sustained invention that have rarely been matched. The JSP set is a superb reissue of Armstrong's essential work. The remastering is by John R.T. Davies, widely acknowledged as the dean of engineers in the field of early jazz, and the resultant sound is simply the best this work has ever enjoyed. There are alternate takes of the later material on Columbia Legacy (including Louis in New York and St. Louis Blues), so collectors will want both. But this recording is superior listening, at a price that also makes it an ideal introduction to one of the few titans of jazz. --Stuart Broomer

Customer Reviews

Essential Jazz
This four disc set is indispensable to any serious jazz collection. It includes all Armstrong's classic Hot Five performances with Kid Ory, Johnny Dodds, Johnny St. Cyr and Lil Armstrong, his Hot Seven recordings, and his magnificent partnership with Earl Hines. This is some of the most important and influential jazz every recorded, marking the way ahead away from New Orleans style polyphony to the future dominance of the soloist. The last of these discs is the least essential, as Armstrong returned to commercial big band recordings, where he is often head and shoulders above both his colleagues and his material.

There is so much to savour on these discs: Louis is superlative throughout this set - hear "Cornet Chop Suey" "Potato Head Blues" and "West End Blues", in particular. Johnny Dodds is superb, incredibly impassioned on "Got No Blues" and elsewhere. The Hot Five swings like crazy on tunes like "Once in a While", and listen to "Skip the Gutter", "Muggles" and "Weatherbird" to hear one of the finest partnerships in jazz history, Armstrong and Hines. Hear also Lonnie Johnson's marvellous guitar playing at the end of the second disc. Louis' singing is heard regularly (and his slide - whistle playing once).

These CDs are also highly recommendable because of the quality of the remastering. The sound quality on the first disc in particular is better than in any other issue of these works, putting larger companies to shame.

These are recordings to hear for a lifetime. No-one buying these will ever regret it.

FIVE STARS ARE NOT ENOUGH
I've been listening to this music for sixty years, from wax to LP and CD, and through all known versions, and JSP's is the clearest ever, even better than the French LPs of years past. What's best, aside from the tone of Louis's horn, which is captured as if you stand outside his livingroom window with the window open, is that the surrounding instruments now have a timbre and immediacy that raises them from dullishness. These truly are musicians seeking great tone. Kid Ory's trombone is freshly poured wine. And what delight when Earl Hines's sophisticated fingering replaces Lil Hardin's workaday piano. To be sure, on the first two or three records, the bell of Louis's cornet is too close to the mike and rather blurry. Then he stands back and his tone comes into focus. Also the engineering improves. You may think you know these records, say from the muzzy Columbia set, but you don't. This is dying and going to heaven where the Hot Fives and Sevens are recording just for you. Incidentally, Louis's lyrics are understandable throughout where once one simply had to guess at what the words were. All told, thrilling, and at this price unbelievable---money found on the street. Do not wait for the Ken Burns's version which Columbia is issuing to go with his 19-hour jazz historical on PBS. It can't be better than this.

The Birth of Pop Music
Simply put, these are the most important popular recordings of the 20th century. They paved the way for not only jazz, but popular music in general. A note to those who haven't yet purchased any of Satchmo's Hot Fives or Sevens --THIS package is the one to get! Avoid the recordings on Columbia, which did a disgraceful job of remastering. I doubt Columbia's new box set coming out this month will be much better. These JSPs are so superior to the Columbias that they sound almost like completely different recordings. One customer's review, complaining about poor sound quality, is absurd. Obviously, he doesn't listen to much pre-Beatles music. The sound is excellent for the times. [...] Buy it -- it will be the greatest thing in your collection.