FATHER OF THE BLUES ACCORDING TO THE MASTER OF TRUMPET
Taking a giant leap back to the future here tonight, my 21st century probe from the previous post is about to be matched, and possibly even surpassed I think, by the album I am about to showcase for you.
Louis Armstrong is considered by many
to be the king of jazz, even bigger than Duke Ellington, Glenn Miller, Miles Davis and the like.
The one thing that I really do like about Louis Armstrong, even though it didn`t happen to be his strong suit, was the fact that he actually sung some vocals as well as being the 2nd best trumpeter in the history of jazz.
Miles Davis to me is the best of them all, even though he corrupted his musical legacy in the late 1960`s and early 1970`s by adopting acid jazz and psychedelic tripe into his legendary free bopping, be-bopping trumpet solo extravanganzas.
No one all the same blew a trumpet as good as what Davis did in his classic late 50`s and early 60`s recordings. As far as classic be-bop jazz goes, not many compare to the sophisticated output by Miles Davis and the solo output of his`Kind of Blue` saxophonist bandmate, John Coltrane.
But if I had to pick the second best be-bop jazz album of all time, it would have to be `Louise Armstrong Plays W.C. Handy`. To
me, it is a more fun and relaxed album than Davis`s `Kind of Blue`, even if not as refined and primadona in sound.
The album was recorded in 1954, hence that is why I said I was going back to the future big time with this one.
For all of you who dont know, W.C Handy is considered to be the father of the blues in Memphis, a seminal figure in the development of the genre of Memphis Blues.
He`s been dead for a very long time now, he was no spring chicken when `Louis Armstrong Plays W.C Handy` was recorded.
The older I get, the more I am beginning to think this is my favourite jazz album, I`m a
bit over the romantic ballady thing with Miles Davis, but I`d still rate `Kind of Blue` my favourite (at this stage).
It`s just that Louise Armstrong knew how to have fun, he wasn`t this brooding, moody musicians musician like so many other jazz
players.
I have not listened to Louis Armstrong`s more earlier recordings to be honest, which I think were a bit more vocally based, so I cant make the comparison.
But the fact that Louise Armstrong decided to record a bunch of songs written by a blues legend and not a covers album of some Duke Ellington or Glenn Miller songs suggests that `Plays W.C Handy` is probably one of the more instrumental albums that Louis Arm-
strong made in his long and punctuated career. I dont see the point in itemizing each song with this album, because the best way to describe it is that the whole album is an experience to behold and each song plays into the one before and after it, it`s basically just one big jam session based on the obscure songs of W. C. Handy from generations before.
There are 16 songs on the album, most of them end with the name `blues`, and the band backing Louis Armstrong was Trummy Young on Trombone, Barney Bigard on clarinet, Bill Kyle on piano, Arvill Shaw on bass, Barrett Deems on drums and Velma Middleton on vocals.
`What a Wonderful World` is truly one of
the great vocal performances of all time, you cant take that away from Louis, but he was a lot older when he recorded`W.C. Handy` and he probably wasn`t up to singing some of the material of his blues mentor, so Middleton was obviously called in to give Louis a hand, who might have lost a bit of
his vocal stamina but none of the awesome trumpet playing feets of yesteryear.
Mind you, a lot of the songs are mostly
instrumental, some are all instrumental, but at least Louis had the brains to stick a bit of singing on there, be it his or Velma`s.
A true jazz masterpiece, and as the caption reads above the liner notes inside the album cover - "The Father of the Blues" interpreted by the master of jazz trumpet and jazz singing. I love it, blow Miles, this is the best of them all.
This is good stuff Tim, i think you missed your vocation, you could easily have been a music journo, maybe even compare to the likes of Molly.
ReplyDeleteIt's not the same stuff as I have but if you want I'll put up a link? let me know here.
By the way, I was actually going to make a comment here as well,
ReplyDeleteI think there are some very good trumpeters around, James Morrison is brilliant for example, but it's not the flavour any more, it doesn't sell, and swing dancing is a thing of the past except for a small group social thing.
I'm pretty sure that it's common knowledge that the blues/jazz was bourn from the old south and the likes of Skip James and Blind Willy, were the innovators of their time, but I doubt they would be popular now.
Music is fashion, isn't it.