Home » Jazz Articles » Extended Analysis » Louis Armstrong and the All Stars: Louis Armstrong & The...
Louis Armstrong and the All Stars: Louis Armstrong & The All Stars: Satchmo At Symphony Hall - The Complete Performances
Louis Armstrong & The All StarsSatchmo At Symphony Hall: 65th Anniversary The Complete Performances
Verve
2012
Writing about trumpeter and singer
Louis Armstrong
trumpet and vocals1901 - 1971
Sidney Bechet
saxophone, soprano1897 - 1959
Despite the world's seeing familiarity with "Satchmo," Armstrong has been largely misunderstood and underappreciated. Terry Teachout's 2009 biography, Pops (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), might be the best about a jazz musician to date. And Satchmo: The Wonderful World And Art Of Louis Armstrong (Abrams, 2009), a coffee table book by Steven Brower, collects Armstrong's own art, memoirs, and ephemera into a gorgeous volume. The cumulative effect of the two books is to finally place Armstrong in a more accurate context as a self-made man of the people, whose creativity spilled over from music into collage and memoir. He was certainly not a saint, but-as Teachout said of him on C-SPAN-"the more of him you know, the more there is to love."
(Armstrong's house in Queens in New York has been restored and is now a museum. It's a must see for any music fan visiting New York.)
Conventional and inaccurate wisdom is that Armstrong's best days were over by 1928, with the last Hot Five session for Okeh, after which point he slowly and steadily slipped into Uncle Tom "Hello, Dolly"-dom. This is ignorant at best. Armstrong continued making astounding music into the 1960s. In fairness, he also made the kind of commercial entertainment records that undermined his legacy. In 1935, after spending a few years cutting decent big band records exclusively for Victor, he started recording concurrently for Decca, where he became America's most universally congenial black entertainer, recording pop songs, novelties, ersatz Hawaiian tunes, and almost everything else but small group jazz (although he did cut some memorable small group there stuff after the All Stars had proven successful). The jazz public continued to revere him, but the shadow he cast came of light shined on his early triumphs.
In all fairness, Armstrong never had a fallow period. A 1938 collaboration with the
Mills Brothers
band / ensemble / orchestrab.1928
As Huntsville, Alabama jazz educator
Jim Cavender
guitarb.1962
The Beatles
band / ensemble / orchestraArmstrong never spoke of himself in terms of any art collective. He was very much a creative free agent, part of everything generally while no one group specifically. A compulsive home taper, Armstrong taped music, conversations, social gatherings and so forth, and he often recorded himself speaking. Since music was the central fact of his life, his views are captured in his own voice. On one tape, an unidentified voice asks him about progressive music, and he responds critically.
"Now what would be progressive music? A whole lot of stiff arrangements that the untrained ear can't understand? What's more progressive than my 'Blueberry Hill?'"
(Not "Weatherbird," nor "West End Blues," or any of his early world-changing masterpieces, but "Blueberry Hill.")
Armstrong was a working artist, deeply and thoughtfully intelligent but rarely intentionally cerebral. His objective as a musician seemed to be to go on the road and stay there. He was clearly aware of posterity-he left hundreds of pages of vivid memoirs-but was not the type to recast himself as an innovator or a maverick. Despite the "wilderness years" depiction of his career between 1929 and 1946, he was not only seemingly contented with his recording and touring situation during that time, he recalled much of it was pride and affection. He faced enthusiastic audiences every night, to the consternation of jazz fans who wanted to hear him back in front of a small hot jazz outfit. He seemed impervious to discontent. He turned in a little small combo work in the studio, notably for the film New Orleans, but this wasn't really usual for him by the mid-1940s. In fact, his last time onstage as the leader of his own small group had been 1926. In 1947, promoter Ernie Anderson put together an Armstrong one-off small band concert that was mounted on May 17 at Town Hall, and the success of it was immediately felt.
Seemingly overnight, Armstrong dismissed his anonymous big band and replaced it with a small group of A-list traditional jazz musicians, key among them trombonist/vocalist
Jack Teagarden
trombone1905 - 1964
Big Sid Catlett
drums1910 - 1951
Barney Bigard
clarinet1906 - 1980
Arvell Shaw
bass, acoustic1923 - 2002
Velma Middleton
vocalsb.1917
Dick Cary
b.1916And it is the recordings made this night that became the first commercially issued live recording of an Armstrong small group. Originally released in 1951 on the Decca label as a two LP set , Satchmo At Symphony Hall cherrypicked the best performances of the two sets Louis Armstrong and the All Stars played that night. This reissue restores the night to its original sequence, with each CD containing one full set.
(Apparently the night's music had to be reassembled from a variety of old source materials in varying degrees of condition, but everything sounds great. Engineer Seth Foster deserves a special mention. The audio is spotless, and the listener never gets the sense that he's listening to something pieced together after the fact.)
Hearing a typical night in the early life of the All Stars is to know the Armstrong for whom jazz fans had been waiting hopefully. Finally, Armstrong was surrounded by peers, and his performance on this night is marked by the sound of discovery. These tunes were by 1947 oldies but goodies for the trad jazz set, but these performances show a group whose performances on this night-while supremely comfortable-are full of audible new ideas and new music spirit.
The front line of Armstrong, Bigard, and Teagarden was as great as any jazz has known. On this night, the delivery is easy, but these players are focussed on each other with intense concentration. Teagarden was the closest thing to an equal Armstrong ever had in one of his own bands, and the great love between these two makes itself felt in their every interaction. And while Bigard did not share the same long history with Armstrong as Teagarden had, he comes off every bit as integrated. Probably the most overtly New Orleans-styled of Ellington's first great crop of bands (
Bubber Miley
trumpet1903 - 1932
While this is definitely a return to roots for Armstrong, each set proves he was by this point a full-on entertainment veteran who didn't just form a band, he put together a show . Vocalist Velma Middleton was a comedienne as much as a singer, but history's painting of her as Margaret Dumont to Armstrong's Groucho Marx is unfair. She was a credible, bluesy singer, and her duet with Armstrong on "That's My Desire" is a delight. She never embarasses herself when it's time to hit a song straight on.
(Her onstage comedic antics undermined her musical gifts. A large woman, she was noted for doing rolling splits on stage, and this seems to be the lasting image of her. But she was an extremely effective and surprisingly versatile singer, a perfect foil for Armstrong, especially on record.)
The rhythm section of Catlett and Shaw was one of the best Armstrong ever had. Catlett was part of the same late 1920s Chicago scene as Armstrong, and was kind of the
Roy Haynes
drums1926 - 2024
Gene Krupa
drums1909 - 1973
Chick Webb
drums1905 - 1939
Hearing Catlett directing the horn players through "Royal Garden Blues"-with its menu of stop-times and breakdowns-is to understand what Armstrong loved about him. He outlines the arrangement with authority, cuing in ensembles and soloists with ferocity then laying down a swinging (even Count Basiesque) groove that never steps on the soloists. Shaw takes a surprisingly advanced bass solo. And the interaction between Armstrong and Teagarden brings to mind twin brothers who finish each others sentences. It brings to mind eras of great interactive jazz teams-
John Coltrane
saxophone1926 - 1967
Elvin Jones
drums1927 - 2004
Bill Evans
piano1929 - 1980
Scott LaFaro
bass1936 - 1961
Bill Frisell
guitar, electricb.1951
Joey Baron
drumsb.1955
Paul Desmond
saxophone, alto1924 - 1977
Dave Brubeck
piano1920 - 2012
Armstrong was a gracious bandleader, so the players each get their spotlight feature numbers, which means we get an ear as much to the parts as the sum. Probably the best of theese features is "Steak Face," a blues that gives Catlett an extended and dazzling solo. But Teagarden nearly steals this tune with a blues chorus that is at once sparking and laconic.
The greatness of this band is fully brought to life in the up-tempo retelling of the Hot Five chestnut "Mahogany Hall Stomp." Each of the three horn players is at their best, with Bigard sounding even a little boppish (pianist Cary seems to egg him on). Teagarden again makes a case for himself as Armstrong's equal, while Armstrong himself plays with ease and power scarcely ever matched in jazz or anyplace else.
The (roughly) next 15 years would be an artistically triumphant time for Louis Armstrong and the All Stars, despite relative indifference from jazz critics. There would be personnel shifts, but they weren't destructive. Cary lasted a few months, and was replaced
Earl Hines
piano1903 - 1983
Billy Kyle
pianob.1914
Trummy Young
tromboneb.1912
Cozy Cole
drums1906 - 1981
Barrett Deems
drumsb.1914
Armstrong's 1950s Columbia LPs-produced by George Avakian-befit his legend. While the other Decca records largely cast him as a pop singer, the Columbias show the great statesman of jazz, surrounded by like-minded musicians, playing monumental stuff. This golden period culminates in The Great Summit (Roulette), a 1961 collaboration with
Duke Ellington
piano1899 - 1974
In Satchmo At Symphony Hall, we hear the stage being set for those years of great jazz from Armstrong and his small group. This night sets the bar high. And damn if Armstrong and company didn't rise to it in the ensuing decade.
The legend of Armstrong looms so large that it might eclipse his work. Those who only know him for "What A Wonderful World" only have one tiny piece of the puzzle. It is tempting to say it's an inconsequential piece, but it's not. The smiling, older Louis of the "Hello, Dolly" years is just as real as the young Louis who touched off a joyous revolution. He has earned myth-in-emeritus status. The best way to cast perspective is to hear him earn that status, which he mostly certainly did, and on no one night moreso than the night this music was (fortunately) recorded. Here is the truest, greatest jazz musician at the second height of his powers, supported by a team of musicians worthy of him. This is truly wonderful.
Tracks: CD1: Introduction/Tune Up; When It's Sleepy Time Down South; Louis Introduces Musicians; Muskrat Ramble;(What Did I Do To Be So) Black and Blue; Royal Garden Blues; Lover [From Love Me Tonight]; Stars Fell On Alabama; I Cried For You; Since I Fell For You; Tea For Two [From No, No, Nanette]; Body and Soul; Back O'Town Blues; Steak Face; I Gotta Right To Sing the Blues (Closing Theme). CD2: When It's Sleepy Time Down South; Mahogany Hall Stomp; On the Sunny Side of the Street; High Society; St. James Infirmary; Baby Won't You Please Come Home; Velma's Blues; That's My Desire; "C" Jam Blues; Barney Bigard Introduces Arvell Shaw; How High the Moon [From Two For the Show]; Mop Mop; Jack Armstrong Blues; I Gotta Right To Sing the Blues (Closing Theme).
Personnel: Louis Armstrong: vocal, trumpet; Velma Middleton: vocal; Barney Bigard: clarinet; Jack Teagarden: vocal, trombone; Dick Cary: piano; Arvell Shaw: bass; Big Sid Catlett: drums. ">
Track Listing
Disc 1: Introduction/Tune Up; When It's Sleepy Time Down South; Louis Introduces Musicians; Muskrat Ramble;(What Did I Do To Be So) Black and Blue; Royal Garden Blues; Lover [From Love Me Tonight]; Stars Fell On Alabama; I Cried For You; Since I Fell For You; Tea For Two [From No, No, Nanette]; Body and Soul; Back O'Town Blues; Steak Face; I Gotta Right To Sing the Blues (Closing Theme). Disc 2: When It's Sleepy Time Down South; Mahogany Hall Stomp; On the Sunny Side of the Street; High Society; St. James Infirmary; Baby Won't You Please Come Home; Velma's Blues; That's My Desire; "C" Jam Blues; Barney Bigard Introduces Arvell Shaw; How High the Moon [From Two For the Show]; Mop Mop; Jack Armstrong Blues; I Gotta Right To Sing the Blues(Closing Theme)
Personnel
Louis Armstrong
trumpet and vocalsLouis Armstrong: vocal, trumpet; Velma Middleton: vocal; Barney Bigard: clarinet; Jack Teagarden: vocal, trombone; Dick Cary: piano; Arvell Shaw: bass; Big Sid Catlett: drums.
Album information
Title: Louis Armstrong & The All Stars: Satchmo At Symphony Hall - The Complete Performances | Year Released: 2012 | Record Label: Verve Music Group
Tags
Louis Armstrong and the All Stars
Extended Analysis
Louis Armstrong
Skip Heller
Verve Music Group
United States
Sidney Bechet
Mills Brothers
Jim Cavender
Beatles
Jack Teagarden
Big Sid Catlett
Barney Bigard
Arvell Shaw
Velma Middleton
Dick Cary
Bubber Miley
Roy Haynes
Gene Krupa
Chick Webb
John Coltrane
Elvin Jones
Bill Evans
Scott LaFaro
Bill Frisell
Joey Baron
Paul Desmond
Dave Brubeck
Earl Hines
Billy Kyle
Trummy Young
Cozy Cole
Barrett Deems
duke ellington
Comments
PREVIOUS / NEXT
Support All About Jazz
All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.
Go Ad Free!
To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.Showcase
Buy Now
Featured
Darwin AI: Surivior Choice
By Alex Otey buy
Carnaval - The Songs Were So Beautiful
By Antonio Adolfo buyGiveaway
