Jazz Articles about Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong All Stars: Live in Zurich, Switzerland 18.10.1949

by John Barron
September 26, 2008

If you're looking for a quick-fix, musical pick-me-up, Louis Armstrong is usually a sure-fire guarantee. A wonderful example can be heard in this gem of a radio broadcast, recorded in Zurich, Switzerland in 1949. Featured with the trumpeter is the incomparable Jack Teagarden (trombone) and Barney Bigard (clarinet) romping through a set of toe-tapping familiar fare.

The feel throughout the concert is loose and relaxed. Armstrong and company are obviously relishing in the enthusiastic response of the audience, who seem ...

Louis Armstrong All Stars: Live in Zurich, Switzerland 18.10.1949

by David Rickert
April 9, 2008

Just how good was Armstrong's band in 1949? For one thing look at the lineup; you have some of the best players associated with him, like Jack Teagarden, Barney Bigard, and the crack rhythm section of Earl Hines, Cozy Cole, and Arvell Shaw. This version of the All-Stars, weaned on Armstrong's music, was very familiar with the intricacies of every tune. Also, the group was playing to enthusiastic Europeans who still embraced Armstrong's music as the real deal, which positively ...

Back to the Roots with Louis Armstrong

by C. Michael Bailey
February 21, 2008

Why must we still listen to this tin-horn, old fashioned, moldy fig jazz when we have cool labels like ECM and Winter & Winter pressing the most cutting edge music imaginable? One reason is because the iconic cornet player Buddy Bolden left no recordings, thus making trumpeter/cornetist/singer Louis Armstrong the ground zero center of jazz. Armstrong changed the entire direction of jazz with his then novel improvisation techniques.

Live In Zurich, Switzerland 18.10.1949 and Live At The 1958 ...

New Orleans Celebrates Louis Armstrong

by Sandy Ingham
August 17, 2007

Satchmo Summerfest 2007 New Orleans, Louisiana August 2-5Jazz fans have myriad reasons to be thankful for Louis Armstrong. One of them is the annual birthday bash in his hometown, New Orleans. The first Satchmo Summerfest was in 2001, on Armstrong's 100th birthday. The seventh stretched over four sun-drenched days, August 2-5, and was very much like its predecessors. Dozens of the city's jazz artists played and sang in their own unique ways the music that ...

Louis Armstrong: Louis Armstrong In Scandinavia

by Andrew Velez
July 12, 2007

Throughout this collection of Louis Armstrong's Scandinavian appearances from 1933-1967, he's greeted with affectionate roars of excitement from his audiences. Six live performances included here from 1933 in Stockholm and Copenhagen may actually be the earliest ever recorded live jazz. Even without that being added to his accomplishments, Louis “Pops Armstrong's place in the jazz pantheon remains as secure as those of Duke Ellington and Charlie Parker. In these days of raving over instantly famous “American Idols, ...

Louis Armstrong: Storyville Masters of Jazz: Louis Armstrong

by Greg Thomas
October 19, 2006

Was Louis Armstrong more an entertainer or artist? The dichotomy suggested by this question won't be resolved by this disc because it's a matter of perspective, like particles and waves in physics. Although liner notes author Mike Hennessey claims that he was “an entertainer first, a brilliantly gifted jazzman second, Armstrong made it clear that “the cause of happiness ultimately defined his power of intention. He kept the blues at bay by his graceful authority, down-home humor ...

The House That Satch Built

by Terrell Kent Holmes
October 15, 2006

Many jazz-loving New Yorkers and visitors to the city do not know that an unassuming but significant part of jazz history is just minutes away from midtown Manhattan. From 1943 until his death in 1971, trumpet legend Louis Armstrong lived with his wife Lucille in a house nestled in quiet, working-class Corona, Queens. The area suited Armstrong's unpretentious nature perfectly. It was a place where he could relax after touring, invite his neighbors and famous friends over for parties or ...