Louis Armstrong's Hot Five and Hot Seven Recordings (Oxford Studies in Recorded Jazz)

Louis Armstrong's Hot Five and Hot Seven Recordings (Oxford Studies in Recorded Jazz)

Brian Harker

Language: English

Pages: 208

ISBN: 0195388402

Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub


For jazz historians, Louis Armstrong's Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings mark the first revolution in the history of a music riven by upheaval. Yet few traces of this revolution can be found in the historical record of the late 1920s, when the discs were made. Even black newspapers covered Armstrong as just one name among many, and descriptions of his playing, while laudatory, bear little resemblance to those of today. Through a careful analysis of seven seminal recordings in this compact and engaging book, author Brian Harker recaptures the perspective of Armstrong's original audience without abandoning that of today's listeners. The world of vaudeville and show business provide crucial context to his readings, revealing how the demands of making a living in a competitive environment catalyzed Armstrong's unique artistic gifts. Invoking a breadth of influences ranging from New Orleans clarinet style to Guy Lombardo, and from tap dancing to classical music, Louis Armstrong's Hot Five and Hot Seven Recordings offers bold insights, fresh anecdotes, and, ultimately, a new interpretation of Louis Armstrong and his most influential body of work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And “Clarinet Marmalade,” probably to mine them for material that he could use in cutting contests with his friends.21 By volunteering that he had played “clarinet things” in his youth—especially when no critics or historians had yet made that charge—Armstrong was also admitting that this was no accidental or unconscious appropriation; rather, it had been a deliberate gambit on his part, a conscious effort to distinguish himself by playing in a nonidiomatic style. In taking this step Armstrong.

“Potato Head Blues,” 10 May 1927; e) Lorenzo Tio Jr., “Lou’siana Swing,” ca. 18 February 1924, transcribed by Charles E. Kinzer; f) Johnny Dodds, “Buddy’s Habit,” 5/15 October 1923. Armstrong’s solos with King Oliver reveal a preoccupation with clarinet figurations, which he undoubtedly acquired in New Orleans and brought with him when he came North. On “Chimes Blues” (1923), his first recorded solo, Armstrong fashions two blues choruses around a constant reiteration of the “In the Mood” riff.

Jazz-hot 3, no. 19 (1937): 5. James, Harry. “Jammin with James.” Metronome 54, no. 8 (1938): 13. Jemie, Onwuchekwa, ed. Yo’ Mama! New Raps, Toasts, Dozens, Jokes & Children’s Rhymes from Urban Black America. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2003. Jones, Max, and John Chilton. Louis: The Louis Armstrong Story, 1900–1971. London, 1971; reprint, New York: Da Capo, 1988. Kahn, E. J. “Powder Your Face with Sunshine, Part 1.” The New Yorker (5 January 1957): 48. ——. “Powder Your Face with.

Armstrong and Coherence in Early Jazz,” Current Musicology 63 (1999): 51–58. 25 Shapiro and Hentoff, Hear Me Talkin’ to Ya, 116–17. 26 Perhaps this is the moment André Hodeir was referring to when he cited “the barely perceptible wavering at the end of the BIG BUTTER chorus; can’t we suppose that it was due, ironically enough, to Louis’s being obliged, as leader, to let the vocalist know it was time for her to come back on?” Hodeir, Jazz, 58. 27 Schuller, Early Jazz, 104. 28 Two weeks.

Backbeat Books, 2001), 158. 2 Defender, 27 February 1926, 6; 8 December 1928, 6; 22 December 1928, 6. Italics added. For more on versatility, see Magee, Uncrowned King of Swing, 6. 3 Armstrong, Satchmo, 150–79; Jones and Chilton, Louis, 59. 4 Armstrong, Louis Armstrong in His Own Words, 91. 5 Alberta Hunter said, “Lil’s mother thought she [Lil] was too good for Louis.” Burton Peretti, The Creation of Jazz: Race, Music, and Culture in Urban America (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1992),.

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