Essential Louis Armstrong CD

Personnel: Louis Armstrong (vocals, trumpet, cornet); Louis Armstrong; Mancy Cara (vocals, banjo); Jack Teagarden (vocals, trombone); Ella Fitzgerald, Eva Taylor (vocals); Johnny St. Cyr (guitar, banjo); Allen Hanlon, Willard Suyker, Will Johnson, Lee Blair, Herb Ellis, Art Ryerson, Lonnie Johnson, Carl Kress (guitar); Ceele Burke (steel guitar); Eddie Condon, "Big" Mike McKendrick, Dave Wilborn, Buddy Christian , Bill Perkins, Charlie Dixon (banjo); Carroll Dickerson (violin); Sam Marowitz (flute, clarinet, alto saxophone); Jerome Richardson (flute, clarinet, tenor saxophone); Daniel Trimboli (flute, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone); George James (clarinet, soprano saxophone, alto saxophone); Don Redman (clarinet, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone); Lester Boone, Rupert Cole, Albert Nicholas, Buster Bailey, Charlie Holmes (clarinet, alto saxophone); Albert Washington, Jr., Charlie Jones , Jimmy Strong (clarinet, tenor saxophone); Edmond Hall, William Thornton Blue, Johnny Dodds, Peanuts Hucko, Barney Bigard (clarinet); Les Hite (alto saxophone, baritone saxophone); Bert Curry, Leon Herriford, Willie Stark, Crawford Wethington, Marvin Johnson, Hymie Schertzer, Milt Yaner (alto saxophone); Thomas Parshley, Art Drelinger, William Franz, Bingie Madison, Teddy Hill (tenor saxophone); Raymond Stanfeld (baritone saxophone); Clark Terry, Carl Poole, Elmer Chambers, George Orendorff, Homer Hobson, Otis Johnson, Henry "Red" Allen, Harold Scott, Leon Elkins, Joe "Fox" Smith , Joe Wilder, Yank Lawson, Zilner Randolph, Billy Butterfield (trumpet); Bobby Hackett (cornet); Lawrence D. Brown, Fred Robinson , John Thomas , J.C. Higginbotham, J.J. Johnson , Luther Graven, Urbie Green, Will Bradley, Trummy Young, Preston Jackson, Charlie Green, Charlie Irvis (trombone); Reggie Jones , Bob Escudero, Pete Briggs (tuba); Gene Anderson (piano, celesta); Clarence Williams, Henry Prince, Charlie Alexander , Dick Cary, Harvey Brooks , Hank Jones , Luis Russell, Oscar Peterson, Bernie Leighton, Billy Kyle (piano); Grady Tate, Joseph "Kaiser" Marshall, Louie Bellson, Paul Barbarin, Big Sid Catlett, Baby Dodds, Tubby Hall, Johnny Blowers (drums); Warren Hard (percussion); Earl Hines (vocals, piano, celesta); Sidney Bechet (soprano saxophone); Coleman Hawkins (tenor saxophone); Kid Ory (trombone); Fletcher Henderson, Lil Armstrong (piano); Lionel Hampton (vibraphone, drums); Barrett Deems, Zutty Singleton (drums).
Liner Note Author: Dan Morgenstern.
Recording information: Chicago, IL (05/29/1925-08/16/1967); Los Angeles, CA (05/29/1925-08/16/1967); New York, NY (05/29/1925-08/16/1967).
Photographers: Corbis Bettman; John Loengard; Corbis; John Minihan.
Arrangers: Don Redman; Alex "Charlie Brown" Hill ; Tommy Goodman.
Even at two discs and 37 tracks, it's difficult to say that this set contains everything that is truly essential from Louis Armstrong's monumental five-decade career. It does, however, do a great job of touching down at key points, and nicely balances Armstrong's various guises as a groundbreaking sideman, soloist, bandleader, singer, and ultimately, American legend, icon, and the very embodiment of the face of jazz. Opening with Armstrong blowing accomplished blues choruses on 1925's "Sugar Foot Stomp" while a member of the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra, moving through his revolutionary Hot Five and Seven sessions and his years fronting and leading the Armstrong All-Stars, and concluding with 1968's poignant summation "What a Wonderful World," this lovingly assembled overview sketches a broad outline of perhaps the most important American musician of the 20th century. Armstrong's genius on the trumpet is aptly documented here, but so too is his equally innovative vocal style, which raised scat singing to the level of art, and brought the fluid, bending flow of the horn line into pop vocal phrasing, resulting in definitive versions of "Ain't Misbehavin'," "Black and Blue" (one of the most subtly important vocal performances in the