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"What was the greatest band of the 20th century? Forget the Beatles — it was Louis Armstrong's Hot Five and its subsequent incarnation, the Hot Seven ... these bands altered the course of popular music." --Playboy
"You can't play anything on the horn that Louis hasn't played... even modern." —MILES DAVIS
Columbia Legacy Jazz is proud to present the individual volumes of the most important recordings in the history of jazz as culled from the deluxe 4-CD box set — Louis Armstrong: The Complete Hot Five & Hot Seven Recordings — which won a Grammy for Best Historical Recording.
The recordings on these 3 volumes present the first high-water mark in the art of the jazz solo; brilliant liner notes in each by esteemed writer Gary Giddins give the full story.
On this page you can:
The Complete Hot Five & Seven Recordings Volume 1
CK 86999
The twenty performances herein, recorded between November 1925 and November 1926, chronicle just how much ground the band — and especially Armstrong the cornet soloist and vocalist — covered in just one year's time. The breakthrough "Gut Bucket Blues," the audaciously virtuosic "Cornet Cop Suey," the forward-looking "You're Next," and "Heebie Jeebies," on which Satchmo the Great, Once and Future Sun King of Jazz, introduced the world to the on-the-fly mojo of scatting, are among the set's highlights. These tracks, and its companions in Volumes 2 and 3, represent a template for small ensembles that continues, and likely will endure as long as there are jazz groups.
Listen to "King Of The Zulus" for free: click here
Buy this song in digital format (and more songs from Volume 1) from iTunes: click here
Buy the full Volume 1 CD package, complete with booklet, from the SonyMusicStore: click here
The Complete Hot Five & Seven Recordings Volume 2
CK 87010
Volume 2, whose 22 sides were made between November 1926 and December 1927, boasts such Hot Five classics as "Big Butter and Egg Man" (with a rollicking vocal by the leader), "Once In a While" (not the standard pop tune of the same name), and the epiphanic "Struttin' With Some Barbeque." From the Hot Seven book: "Willie the Weeper," and "Potato Head Blues." If Armstrong's entire contribution to music consisted of the stop-time cornet breaks on the latter number, his place in the American Musical Pantheon would be secure. Brilliant liner notes by esteemed writer Gary Giddins give the full story.
Listen to "Wild Man Blues" for free: click here
Buy this song in digital format (and more songs from Volume 2) from iTunes: click here
Buy the full Volume 2 CD package, complete with booklet, from the SonyMusicStore: click here
The Complete Hot Five & Seven Recordings Volume 3
CK 87011
Recorded between December 1927 and December 1928, these invaluable performances find Armstrong (1901-1971), spurred by Hines, taking his music in ever more daring directions. The second Hot Five weighs in with, among other treasures "Tight Like This," "Basin Street Blues" (with Satchmo the Great thrilling us with his upper register sunbursts) and "West End Blues," one of the absolute essentials in the American improvisational canon. (Armstrong's incandescent introduction remains to this day one of the definitive solo statements.) There's also "I'm Not Rough," with the original Hot Five abetted by the inestimable blues and jazz guitarist Lonnie Johnson, and "Weather Bird," a timeless duet between Armstrong and Hines.
Listen to "West End Blues" for free: click here
Buy this song in digital format (and more songs from Volume 3) from iTunes: click here
Buy the full Volume 3 CD package, complete with booklet, from the SonyMusicStore: click here
