Satchmo - A Musical Autobiography
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| Release Date: |
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| Label: |
Universal |
| Rating: |
4.0 |
Description: Originally released in 1957 as a four-LP set,
Satchmo: A Musical Autobiography is a fitting reissue for the Armstrong centenary, an ambitious collaboration between Armstrong and producer Milt Gabler. Gabler was one of the great pioneers of jazz recording, from setting up the first independent label, Commodore, to producing Armstrong and Billie Holiday for Decca. For these marathon mid-'50s recordings, he had Armstrong revisit the early years of his career, from his youth in New Orleans--there's a comic recreation of a funeral parade--through the extraordinary first decade of his recording career that spanned from 1923 to the early '30s. Armstrong touches on his work with King Oliver's band and the great blues singers of the period, his association with Fletcher Henderson, and his own marvelous Hot Five and Hot Seven dates. Gabler may have caught him at the perfect moment. Armstrong had recently made the superb
Plays W.C. Handy and
Plays Fats Waller, he had a fine working band in the All-Stars, and he was still the magnificent trumpeter who had revolutionized music just three decades before. Armstrong's spoken introductions--with sparkling accompaniments by pianist Billy Kyle--are a delight, invoking the personalities and scenes of his youth with a unique charm. While these performances lack the newly minted genius of the originals, they strike a happy balance between fidelity to the originals and a fresh look at the material, with the small group tracks arranged by Bob Haggart and the big band by Sy Oliver. Tunes like "Struttin' with Some Barbecue" and "On the Sunny Side of the Street" are imbued with as much spirit and grace as ever, and Armstrong gets tremendous support. Trumpeter Yank Lawson is an appropriate stand-in for King Oliver, emulating his mute work when the occasion demands, while Velma Middleton is more than competent in the thankless task of singing songs associated with Bessie Smith. The original four-LP set has been further enriched by additional tracks and the restoration of edited portions, resulting in a three-and-one-half hour guided tour of Armstrong's early years.
--Stuart Broomer
Tracklist of Satchmo - A Musical Autobiography
Reviews:
An embarrassment to Louis and those who claim to love him
Has anyone bothered to actually listen to this in the decades since it was issued? Louis dutifully reads the yowsah-yowsah dialogue that was written for him by an Englishman and plays beautifully when given the chance. Velma Middleton's vocals are horrible--she shows off her perfect diction with little regard for the emotional content or key (on "Trouble in Mind" she and the band sound at least a continent and a half step apart.) George Barnes' electric guitar on the Hot Fives is equally grotesque: did Milt Gabler or Bob Haggart owe him something? The modernist Charlie Christian, had he still been alive, would have made the same instrument fit in. Yank Lawson and the various All Stars are fine, and the big band arrangements are as good as or better than the originals. The set came out during the ascendancy of Mitch Miller at a rival label, and I'm thankful that it exists at all. But to accept it as a fair representation of Louis's career is to do him a great disservice.
more than Louis', it's jazz autobiography.Superlative music.
Thinking that this sessions would never be released, I bought one year ago the Mosaic set including these recordings. Now,the miracle appears, at a lower price,and including all the sessions known as the marathon-like "musical autobiography" of Louis Armstrong.Louis (1900,or 1901- 1971) had already written some of jazz's most glorious pages before 1930. In the middle of the fifties, he had the opportunity to record all these tunes once again.The personnel is a little bit different of the classic "allstars" of the same years (see the W.C.Handy and the Fats Waller albums on Columbia) : Trummy Young, the great and little known Edmond Hall,George Barnes,Bob Haggart,Billy Kyle, Velma Middleton,Hilton Jefferson,Seldon Powell,Everett Barksdale,Sy Oliver,Lucky Thompson.The group plays all the hits Louis made in the twenties: "you rascal you","king of the zulus","dear old southland","cornet shop suey","potato head blues"(do you know the 1927 version of this theme,one of the craziest things ever done in music).There are also, of course,great vocals by Satch, and great vocals by Velma Middleton,a singer who has been so much despised by the "critics",these guys who never played a single note,but who know everything about music and art.And there is, for me, an absolute masterpiece: a version of "two deuces",a tune Louis originally did in 1929.A model of great trumpet playing,and of moderation.There is no unnecesserary note in this tune, only mastery and absolute control of the instrument. This way of playing is very close to another stylist and outstanding trumpet player, Doc Cheatham; and, also, maybe Buck Clayton,Bill Coleman and the immense Shorty Baker.Pardon me, I have derived from the subject, but if you like Louis,I urge you to discover Shorty in the Ellington band,Buck in his owns and Doc in any record he did during his 75 years of playing.Coming back to Satchmo's autobiography,this is,after the Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings of the twenties,a record set you have to buy in priority.But, if you don't have now the money for purchasing it, you can start with the two Columbia albums he did in 1954 and 1955:"Satch plays Fats",dedicated to the great Thomas "Fats" Waller,and the immense "plays W.C.Handy",mostly hanging around the blues.
