That Jazz - Monkey Max Music and File Download

Chapter 5: The Birth of an American Music: Jazz into the 1920s
band and music around a soloist became a standard approach in modern
jazz. Technically, Armstrong had no equals — no one could match his tone,
dexterity, and the ability to hit high notes unreachable by other musicians.
In Chicago, Louis Armstrong became a star by blowing sharp solos on trumpet
and cornet. While his mentor, King Oliver, played a powerful mid-range, bluesy
cornet, and legendary cornetist Freddie Keppard was penetrating and nimble
(see the next section for more about Keppard), Armstrong combined elements
from both with a special something of his own. Listening to Armstrong’s vocal
and instrumental improvisations, you can hear jazz’s connections to blues
and gospel: the shouts, moans, and cries common to blues; the mournful-tojoyful
sound of gospel. When Armstrong solos, you can also hear how his
instrumental phrasings grow from the way he sings, in the same way that later
solos by Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins, and Miles Davis often improvised
lines as lyrical as a singer’s melodies. It’s no coincidence that Young and
vocalist Billie Holiday had such a natural rapport on the recordings they made
together.
By his teens, Armstrong was performing professionally aboard Mississippi
riverboats with bands such as Fate Marable’s. By his 20s, he could out play
any trumpeter at head-to-head improvising battles. In 1918, Armstrong
replaced his early idol King Oliver in Kid Ory’s band, and in 1922, Oliver summoned
Armstrong to Chicago to join the Creole Jazz Band as his sidekick cornetist.
Armstrong recorded 41 cuts with the band in 1923 (a small portion of
the thousands of recordings he made during his career), and eventually surpassed
Oliver in originality and long-term impact on jazz — Oliver’s career
was confined to the 1920s, and he made only a few recordings as a leader.
At the urging of his second wife, Lil Hardin, a pianist and member of Oliver’s
band, Armstrong joined Fletcher Henderson’s big band as featured soloist in
New York in 1924. Armstrong’s impact was immediate — the band began to
swing like never before.
In 1925, Armstrong returned to Chicago, where he formed his own group (the
Hot Five and later Hot Seven) and began recording as a leader. In the landmark
recordings he made with those groups, you hear the transition from
old-school ensemble playing, to a new, modern jazz. By the end of the 1920s,
with his Hot Five and Hot Seven, Armstrong had completed what most
experts believe to be his most important recordings.
Every jazz collection must include the Hot Five and Seven sessions, which
produced more than 50 songs such as “Cornet Chop Suey,” “Heebie Jeebies,”
“Potato Head Blues,” “Struttin’ With Some Barbecue,” and “Wild Man Blues.”
The Hot Fives and Sevens boxed set includes these recordings on three discs
as well as Armstrong’s recordings with other early jazz groups and players on
a fourth disc.
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