One of the great American music groups came together to record at Chicago Okeh Records in Chicago several times between 1925 and 1928. Louis Armstrong's "Hot Five" and "Hot Seven" recordings were some of the most popular jazz recordings in their time and continue to inspire music lovers.
Armstrong (at the center of the photo below) is credited with being the first great jazz improviser; his stunning trumpet solos seems to be timeless. He got his start in New Orleans of course, growing up in a section of "The Crescent City" so bad it was known as "The Battlefield." Eventually he played the riverboats that came up and down the Mississippi River with friend and mentor King Oliver .King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band also played river boats along the Ohio.
It was in the heartland of America--Richmond, Indiana--that "Satchmo" di his first recordings with the King Oliver Band in 1922-3. Ironically, and dangerously, those first recordings were made in a part of Indiana that was the epicenter of the racist Klu Klux Klan. As it was the only recording studio available to the group they had to sneak into the town and get out by nightfall, with Armstrong and the other group members relying on local friends for their accommodations in that rural section of the state.
Not all whites, of course, were bigots. It was also in nearby Iowa that Armstrong met and befriended a German-American horn man named Bismarck "Bix" Biederbecke. He was also a great improviser, his instrument being the coronet, and their relationship and respect for one another continued until Bix's early death from alcohol poisoning and pneumonia in 1931.
The recordings done by the "Hot Five" group--which also included "West End Blues", "Gut Bucket Blues", "I'm Gonna Get Ya", "Heebie Jeebies", "Basin Street Blues", et al, included the pianist Lil Hardin Armstrong, (Louis' second wife) , on piano, with the legendary Johnny Dodds on clarinet and Kid Ory on trombone. This recording was made by the "Hot Seven" group, which added two extra horn men, on May 10, 1927.
Two points of interest about the "blues" song:
The flamboyant stage and screen actress Tallulah Bankhead said that "she played it in her dressing room every day during intermission while she appeared on Broadway for the invigorating effect it gave her."
"In Woody Allen's 1979 film, Manhattan, the Allen character lists Armstrong's recording of "Potato Head Blues" as one of the reasons that life is worth living."
It certainly is to me also.
For more info and music by this group, see the link below:
http://www.redhotjazz.com/hot5.html
I would not go as far as my only reason for living. It is a nice little ditty
ReplyDeleteNo, I don't think Allen (or myself, for that matter) meant that it was "my only reason" for living. It's one of the many reasons, Fred, of which music in general is a small part. I just happen to like this one tune, and, like many great musical interludes--like The Boss singing "Darlington County", e.g., it provides a psychic link to the happier times of life.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments.
I enjoyed this Doug, thank you for the music and the info.
ReplyDeleteMy pleasure.
ReplyDelete