Louis Armstrong and His All-Stars - Louis Armstrong Plays W.C. Handy

A wonderful meeting of two institutions of American music, this 1954 album was the finest recording of Louis Armstrong's later career, with the great trumpeter-singer turning to material that was very close to his roots. Both W.C. Handy and Armstrong had a complex relationship with the blues, an essential source for both Handy's popular songs and Armstrong's improvisational art, and these recordings touch on the heart of the matter. On "Yellow Dog Blues," a product of Handy's own early and chance encounter with the rural blues, there's a majesty that recalls Armstrong's early recordings with Bessie Smith. Armstrong is clearly inspired by the classic material and the chance to stretch out on record, and his regular band of the period joins in perfectly. Trombonist Trummy Young, clarinetist Barney Bigard, pianist Billy Kyle, and singer Velma Middleton contribute stellar solos and support, while bassist Arvell Shaw and drummer Barrett Deems do an exceptional job of keeping the slower tempos rock steady. This is a deeply moving and consummately executed performance. --Stuart Broomer Amazon.com essential recording

Completely Amazing

When I bought this CD, I had no clue how well regarded this recording session was. I just wanted another Satchmo CD. I played it, and I was completely blown away. The entire ensemble seems to have peaked over the three days this was recorded. Armstrong and Trummy Young play relaxed, and beautifully together, and it rubs off on the rest of the gang. The first song is St. Louis Blues. It is so well done, this one song makes it worth the cost of the CD. You'll never hear it done so beautifully ever again. The liner notes from the producer claim that Handy cried when he heard the recording after it was done. I believe it.

There are some rehearsal sessions included that make an already fun album even more enjoyable. Pops invited some friends up for the session, and you can hear him cajoling them into singing the courus on "Long Gone" Then you hear Velma teaching them how to sing it. A cute moment.

The sound quality is very good. Once in awhile you can hear a little hiss, but not much, and it's not constant. The liner notes are pretty impressive too. Buy this CD, you're going to love it. September 20, 2008

How good is this record...?

How good is this CD?

I've had to buy this CD on 3 separate occasions...that's how good it is...the first 2 times I stupidly lent them out to friends who never returned it...it's money well-spent though...this is Louis at his most bluesy, and his wonderful sandpaper vocals are the perfect complement to Velma Middleton's velvety voice...some of the best music ever committed to record April 23, 2008

Swingin' and Fun

Swingin' and fun--this is probably Satchmo's finest hour. In the presence of the (elderly and blind) Father of the Blues, the trumpet master exemplifies both the deep feeling and the joy of these magical tunes. Check out "Aunt Hagar's Blues" and especially both versions of "Long Gone"! But make sure you get THIS version, cause the older CD has bastardized renditions replacing some of the original 50's masters, which had been lost. Columbia did a great job in reconstructing the original sound this time, while adding some real nice bonus material from the sessions, which capture the spirit of the day. Very highly recommended for all jazz fans or anyone who loves great music! I seldom give 5 stars-this deserves at least 6! October 27, 2007

Great, simply Great!

Statch never sounded better. This takes one back several years and, of course, Beale Street Blues is a favorite of almost all Blues lovers. Great remake and collection. July 20, 2007

Could anything be better Needs 2000 stars

This album is one of the best recordings of any kind I have ever heard. Now I have thousands of recordings, write seriously about music, and have a lot of Louis, but this is one of those CDs that are simply hard to get out of the player. Forget about the historical significance of the recordings, the extras which include a few rehearsal cuts with the band getting itself ready, a fine excerpt from an interview with Handy, and a nice little joke--not necessarily one that could be told on network television--by Louis, and the well documented notes.

The sound here is great. It has some of the best of Louis's sound in the late 1940s and early 1950s, when despite the All-stars claims to reproduce the orginal pre-Swing sound of Armstrong's earlier groups, Louis shows the way he truly swung in both singing in playing far beyond the youthful athletics of the Chicago recordings. These blues swing so nice warm and easy, although some like his great recording of "The Saint Louis Blues" swing very hard. If you want to learn the basics of swing rhythm at a reasonable pace, I would advise listening to these recordings and trying to play along with them. (Of course, I would also recommend the great piano and rhythm section sides Basie cut to get out of his Decca Contract in the mid 1930s.)

There is something soooooo much more joyous about these recordings than any of Louis's recordings of these or similar tunes in the 1920s and 1930s. His voice and trumpet playing no longer strain but are sure of the mastery of the material. Both he and vocalist Velma Middleton seem to be really enjoying themselves with this material.

It must be stressed that Handy's real contribution was the combination of the Blues with the level of arrangement and composition that professional Black entertainers of his time--a time of a great explosion of both professional skill, knowledge, diversity of style, and polish--had obtained. His Blues including selections on this piece like "The St. Louis Blues" and "The Memphis Blues" and the immortal "Beale Street Blues" often combined Blues with all sorts of music popular at the time especially Ragtime, the reigning popular music of Handy's time in Memphis, with traces of Latin music like the habenero tango strain in the St Louis Blues. Yet, while quite willing to copyright these products of Black folk culture and create his own publishing business based on them (one of the first the realize the money in getting songs recorded as well as selling sheet music, Handy was insistent about the folk sources of his blues, as well as the fact that they were what Black folks demanded to dance to.

Getting Louis, himself a product of the generation that saw Jazz emerge as the child of the marriage of Blues and Ragtime given the tools of the high level of musicianship and formal musical knowledge consumated by Handy and his generation, to record these tunes was a stroke of Genius. You can hear Louis feeling happy and at home, but you can also hear a special reverence for the music, the time and the point of the music, as well how much BETTER the development of Jazz and Swing in the decades since Handy's days had made his ability to play these songs. It is no wonder that Handy himself cried tears of joy when he heard these recordings.

George Avakian who produced both the original recordings and the 1996 reissue on CD, spent about twenty years hunting down the best of the original recordings and takes, before rereleasing this really high quality recording.

A nice, wonderful, historic album that is pure joy and fun. June 29, 2007

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