LOUIS ARMSTRONG The Pure
Genius Of Louis Armstrong We Have All The Time In The World (EMI)
No, really, I’m not
joking! Despite the pungent stench of corporate cashin that hangs
heavy over this release (check out the title, for example - why
not just slap a picture of a pint of Guinness on the cover and
have done with it? - the minimal tending to zero booklet
information, and the lack of a vinyl pressing) this album
contains great swathes of superb music. Drawn entirely from
Satchmo’s post-World War Two career - which means none of
the Hot Fives and Sevens sides so beloved of Colin Larkin (or so
beloved of whoever wrote the jazz section of his "All Time
Top 1000 Albums" book) - it includes Armstrong’s
interpretations of such popular classics such as "What A
Wonderful World", "Mack The Knife (A Theme From The
Threepenny Opera" (with his cheesy opening, "Hey dig
man, there goes Mack the Knife", which always makes me smile),
"Cabaret", "Hello Dolly", "Moon River",
"When The Saints Go Marching In"...the list is endless.
The undoubted highlight, however, is the title track, from that
advert, originally featured on the soundtrack of "On Her
Majesty’s Secret Service". Recorded when Armstrong was
over seventy, it has more sophisticated, relaxed soul than most
artists half his age could muster.
If any confirmation of its
relevance as the perfect pop music of its time (along with the
best of Frank Sinatra’s Capitol work, for example) were
needed, observe how many artists are still covering these songs
today: there’s Nick Cave and Shane MacGowan’s
inebriated duet of "What A Wonderful World",
Sting’s (cough) oompah "Mack The Knife",
Morrissey’s sweeping, cinematic "Moon River", and
My Bloody Valentine’s luscious, note-perfect "We Have
All The Time In The World", recorded for the "Peace
Together" charity project. And you can use it to impress
your jazz buff friends by putting the, er, authentically
primitive recording of "Tiger Rag" on repeat when they
come round.
LOUIS ARMSTRONG Louis Armstrong Plays W.C. Handy (Pure Pleasure)
What
might seem like an unusual amalgam on paper - jazz musicians playing the blues -
sounds, in these practiced hands, more like pure music, something that exists
outside strict genre confines. Dominated from the first by the bright, bordering
on shrill, but unstoppable sound of Armstrong's trumpet, this 1954 album is
great. Velma Middleton, a sassier singer than Ella,
makes the perfect vocal foil for Satchmo; the latter wields his big, bear
hug of a voice, punctuated by a guttural Sid James cackle. Of course, Columbia
clearly knew what they were doing: the album carried the strapline ""The Father
of the Blues" interpreted by the master of jazz trumpet and jazz singing" and
was released as part of the label's Great Jazz Composers Series, whilst the
opener "St. Louis' Blues" took advantage of the then relatively new Lp format's
extended playing time by stretching out to almost nine minutes. The vintage
sleevenotes emphasised this fact gleefully by pointing out that "for the 45rpm
edition, we had to cut it down to 7 minutes".
(Columbia invented the LP; the 45 was a rival development by RCA.
Ironically, the two companies are now part of the same media empire.)
The
music is largely irresistible, despite a certain inevitable repetitiveness. The
interplay between the two vocalists on "St Louis Blues" is priceless. "Long
Gone" is perhaps, if pushed to pick, the album's most purely entertaining
moment: the chemistry, the arrangement and the raucous backing vocals all
conspire to make it fabulous, if not exactly what I understand by the blues.
There are even some subtle but interesting uses of multi-tracking, as Louis
appears to vocally encourage himself during his own solo.
Pure
Pleasure's 180 gram vinyl reissue is pretty good, although that trumpet tone can
seem excessively piercing at times and there's more end of side distortion than
expected. It's still pretty good, though, if not as greatgoshamighty stunning as
some of the company's other products. Helpfully, though, they've seen fit to
spread the album over two discs and include the bonus material from the CD
reissue. Almost documentary in scope, the extras comprise "George Avakian's
Interview With W.C. Handy", wherein the producer converses with the songwriter,
"Alligator Story", in which Armstrong demonstrates the briefest sliver of his
potential as a stand-up comic, and three rehearsal sequences. Of the latter,
again "Long Gone" scores the bullseye; it's educational to hear George, Louis
and Velma marshalling the massed forces and arranging on the fly, the sound of a
recording session that's practically saturated with music.
Ella
Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong
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