Louis Armstrong’s 1950s Horn of Plenty

Tony Bennett once referred to Louis Armstrong in a way that perfectly encapsulated the importance of Satchmo to American culture.

“The bottom line of any country,” said Bennett, “is, ‘What did we contribute to the world?’ We contributed Louis Armstrong.”

That may seem like a powerful bit of hyperbole to anyone who only envisions Armstrong in his sweating, mugging, super-entertaining persona. But even there, even in his most commercially accessible moments, even when he was running down his familiar New Orleans repertoire for the umpteenth time, Armstrong constantly tossed in shining diamonds of sudden creativity. And, for those who delve more deeply into the collected works, into the period in the ‘20s and ‘30s when he was literally transforming jazz and popular music, both instrumentally and vocally, there is a seemingly bottomless treasure trove of incomparable musical gems.

In August, Columbia Legacy will release a four-CD boxed set encompassing Armstrong’s Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings from 1925 and 1929. In the meantime, the company has just issued three Armstrong classics from--with a few notable exceptions--the mid-’50s.

“Satchmo the Great” (****) is the soundtrack from a 63-minute documentary tracking Armstrong and his group in tours of Europe, Africa and New York in 1955-56. Accompanying what critic Nat Hentoff described at the time as “the first feature film to be devoted to the international hegemony of a jazz musician,” the soundtrack alone affords an insightful perspective on Armstrong. Live performance segments are interspersed with commentary from CBS-TV’s Edward R. Murrow, as well as with interviews, some previously unreleased material, and characteristically whimsical commentary from the subject himself.

Recalling a performance for England’s King George VI, Armstrong notes, “I looked up there and I said, ‘This is for you, Rex,’ and I laid ‘You Rascal You’ on him.” Beyond the humor, the playing is at Armstrong’s usual high level, with some of the most compelling passages occurring during the period in which he visits the Gold Coast (now Ghana).

“Ambassador Satch” (****) was recorded during tours of Europe in 1955, supplemented by a few studio efforts from New York and Hollywood. Once again, the ensemble features Armstrong’s primary sidemen from the period--trombonist Trummy Young, clarinetist Edmond Hall, pianist Billy Kyle, bassist Arvell Shaw and drummer Barrett Deems.

The selections are familiar--”Royal Garden Blues,” “Tin Roof Blues,” “Muskrat Ramble,” “Twelfth Street Rag,” etc.--but Armstrong leads the group with a spirited enthusiasm and innate creativity, belying that he had played the pieces over and over again. And his “West End Blues,” a piece that generated one of the classic, jazz-defining improvisations of all time in the original version, is rendered with an approach that respects, paraphrases and moves beyond the earlier version.

“Satch Plays Fats” (****) includes nine tunes from the original 1955 LP version as well as four edited alternate versions that were previously unreleased. In addition, the CD includes five Armstrong interpretations of Fats Waller tunes from 1928-32 and a pair of songs--”Sweet Savannah Sue” and “That Rhythm Man”--recorded in 1929 and previously unreleased on LP. Columbia Legacy reports that the CD represents the complete Columbia collection of Armstrong performing Waller.

As such, the quality varies a bit, with some of the original LP tracks not up to the usual Armstrong standard. But the earlier pieces--”Black and Blue,” “Squeeze Me,” “Ain’t Misbehavin’,” etc.--are prime quality. Armstrong and Waller reportedly only worked together once, in Chicago in 1925 with the Erskine Tate band, accompanying silent films. But they had a remarkable musical affinity, instrumentally and vocally, and one can only regret that this gifted pair never had the opportunity to explore their mutual musical interests. Fortunately, we have Armstrong’s marvelous renderings of songs that clearly were close to his creative heart.

Woody Herman led bands for 50 years, from the mid-’30s to the mid-’80s, with results that encompassed decades of stylistic change. Somehow managing to move with the times, he shifted from “The Band That Plays the Blues” to “Herman’s Herd,” followed by the “Four Brothers Band,” the “Third Herd” and so on.

His recordings for Capitol, now released by Mosaic in a limited edition, six-CD boxed set--”The Complete Capitol Recordings of Woody Herman” (****)--stretched from 1948 to 1956, a period that included some (but not all) of the recorded efforts of the Four Brothers and Third Herd bands.

While the Third Herd--with players such as Bill Perkins, Nat Pierce, Cy Touff, Richie Kamuca and Jack Nimitz--produced some fine music, it is the classic recordings by the Four Brothers band that are the showcase items in this marvelous big-band collection. Among the high points: the too-little-appreciated trombone work of Bill Harris; Stan Getz’s classic, career-making solo on “Early Autumn”; the witty vocals of Chubby Jackson and Terry Gibbs on “Lemon Drop”; Mary Ann McCall’s cool vocals, especially on “Detour Ahead”; the hard-driving tenor saxophone work of Gene Ammons on “More Moon.”

(Mosaic Recordings are available solely through Mosaic Records, 35 Melrose Place, Stamford, CT 06902, [203] 327-7111, or via the Web at https://www.mosaicrecords.com.)