Louis Armstrong

obal a deska perfektni stav

In 1955, Louis Armstrong, along with vocalist Velma Middleton, got into the studio to pay tribute to the late Fats Waller. All the standards are here: "Honeysuckle Rose," "Squeeze Me," "Ain't Misbehavin," rendered in fine and mellow but gently, genially swinging fashion. Armstrong's trumpet is superb and his voice carries the good-time spirit of Waller's music.

LOUIS ARMSTRONG with Trummy Young, Barney Bigard, Billy Kyle, Arvell Shaw, Barrett Deems, Velma Middleton.
After the success of Louis Armstrong’s W.C. Hardy album, Columbia followed it with this tribute to Armstrong’s old friend Fats Waller. It has the same good natured exuberance, the same strengths, the same limitations: it sounds as though Armstrong and the band loved this music; there is a beautiful understanding and sense of shared joy by the band; a certain roughness in Vera Middleton’s singing and Trummy Young’s trombone which either makes it crude or adds to the sense of friends sharing the music; Young and clarinettist Barney Bigard are wonderful at accompanying Armstrong; Bigards’s playing is light and warm; Billy Kyle’s piano keeps in the background (maybe this is just my prejudices, but that’s a very good thing); there are no surprises; the jollier the song, the less interesting it is (again maybe my prejudice, but All That Meat and No Potatoes begins to wear thin after only a couple of listenings); Armstrong, the singer and trumpet player, is wonderful. Listen to Black and Blue: the way Armstrong plays the theme, his features on trumpet and his singing, Young’s accompanying growl...this is wonderful: no, there are no surprises, it’s old fashioned, but there is a wonderful beauty in the simplicity – it’s like Charlie Chaplin’s film Limelight, a work outside of its time, one of sentimentality and antiquated methods, but also one that is completely true to itself, a pure (and complex) expression of Chaplin’s response to the world: and so it is with Black and Blue. I think it is one of the great jazz recordings of the mid-1950s. Sadly not all the album is of the same standard. Sometimes it creaks and wobbles: but even at its crudest it remains an album of wonderful good nature.

Honeysuckle Rose / Blue Turning Grey Over You / I'm Crazy 'Bout My Baby / Squeeze Me / Keepin' Out of Mischief Now / All That Meat and No Potatoes / I've Got a Feeling I'm Falling / Black and Blue / Ain't Misbehavin'

Since I discovered beautiful,loving Armstrong's tribute to W.C.Handy,I was looking for this album but all the Books & net sources were warning against strange version of this album (on CD),with alternate takes instead of master ones.Now finally "Columbia" presented this wonderful album as it should be,with master takes + few alternative takes AND as a gift that even surpasses this album,a 7 Waller songs recorded by Louis Armstrong in years 1929-1932.Basically same group as the one on W.C.Handy tribute (even the same producer),even vocalist Velma Middleton is here,althought with all the wonderful singers in the world did Armstrong push her,I would never stop wondering.There are many similarities between Waller and Armstrong (both black musicians,virtuosos on their instruments,both capable of clowning,entertaining and deep tragedy in lyrics and music) but as Waller ended up dying from Pneumonia somewhere from one concert date to another,not even reaching 40,Armstrong lived longer and universally acclaimed & loved.(P.S. The old,rugged and muddy recordings of Fats Waller songs,recorded by Armstrong and his gang in years between 1929-1932 are for me so stunningly beautiful that to my ears they surpass everything recoded 1955.)