Big Time
Louis Armstrong and His Orchestra Louis returned to New York in 1929 receiving adulations from the music loving public. Among professional musicians his influence at this time compares to Bob Dylan in the 1960s and Michael Jackson in the 1980s - all pervasive.
“Knockin’ a Jug” (L. Armstrong, E. Condon) After playing regular gigs, many New York players angled to jam with Armstrong and get on that leading edge. Really a late night jam session not the official orchestra, this marks the first recording of an inter-racial group. While not as avant-garde or exquisite as some of the work the previous year with the Hines Hot Five this demonstrates Jazz, as it would come to be understood, really coming into its own. Highly skilled players coming together, with shared musical vocabulary, grammar and sensibility, executing an improvised but coherent, harmonic, lovely song, intellectually interesting and with a swinging beat. The distinctive drum work by Kaiser Marshall, still constrained in volume and impact because of recording limitations, holds a special interest.
“Mahogany Hall Stomp” (S. Williams) Here we do have the orchestra. Louis on trumpet and vocals. Two altos and one tenor sax, trombone, piano, banjo, guitar, upright bass, drums. Louis turns Spencer Williams’ original slower blues tribute to Storyville’s top dollar whore house into a stomp, a dance number. But this is to old fashioned down home stomps what an Earl Hines approach to Blues is like - a modern, fully conceived composition, artfully arranged and executed. The down home stomp becomes sophisticated Swing Jazz. And Louis’ three phenomenal solos give the listener a hero’s journey to follow.
“I Can’t Give You Anything but Love” (J. McHugh, D. Fields)
Adelaide Hall first made this song famous in the 1928 Broadway smash “Blackbird Revue” and it went on to become a Jazz standard and one of the most recorded songs of the 20th century. For Armstrong it’s his first foray into the big time competition of the hit parade. And he changes the game permanently. Comparing the Armstrong version with Hall’s or a top hit maker of the time like Ethel Waters is like comparing static-y black and white TV to crisp color TV. First, the band plays on pointe, cool, suave, swinging, Louis makes a sensuous trumpet intro, then his vocals brings all he learned from Bessie Smith - real emotion, using the voice as an instrument with phrasing, volume, rhythm, artful manipulation of notes, plus a slick, stylish use of his signature scatting technique. Bing Crosby, and every other serious singer of the time, has their ears glued. He condenses the lyrics, as he often does, homing in on the emotional essence.
“I can't give you anything but love, Baby/ That’s the only thing I've plenty of, Baby/ Dream awhile, scheme awhile, We're sure to find/ Happiness, and I guess, All those things you've always pined for/ Gee, I'd like to see you looking swell, Baby/ Diamond bracelets Woolworth doesn't sell, Baby/ Till that lucky day, you know darned well, Baby/ I can't give you anything but love.”
Louis Armstrong and His Orchestra (this version has most of the Chicago crew sans Hines) performing selections for Hot Chocolates
“Ain’t Misbehavin’” (A. Razaf, H. Brooks, T. Waller)
Andy Razaf and famed stride piano player Fats Waller ( we’ll get back to those cats later) write and present Hot Chocolates, and all black revue for the Broadway stage. Louis plays in the orchestra and hops on stage to sing the show stopper “Ain’t Misbehavin’.” The recording of the song give Louis his biggest hit yet. His celebrity expands beyond race records and the speakeasy, nightclub world. Taken considerable liberties with the lyrics, incorporating scat and generally singing like he plays trumpet stomps on the grave of the sheet music ear of popular music. The whole idea of pop music had been to give a faithful rendition of the printed sheet music. Personal interpretation and presentation is the name of the game now. Ma Rainey started this game two decades earlier. Now Manhattan and Hollywood elites want to get in on the game.
“No one to talk with/ All by myself/ No one to walk with/ I'm happy on the shelf babe/ Ain’t misbehavin’/ I'm savin' my love ohbabyloveforyou/ I know for certain/ The one I love/ I’m through flirtin’ / It’s you that I’m thinkin’ of/ Ain’t misbehavin’/ I’m savin’ my love, ahhh baby my love for you!/ Jacky Horner/ In the corner/ Don’t go nowhere/ And I don’t care/ Oh, your kisses worth waitn’/ Forrr, babe, doddle doddle doddy/ I don’t stay out late/ Don’t care to go/ I’m home about eight/ Me and my radio babe/ Ain’t misbehaving’ savin’ allll mmmy looove for you”
Armstrong has developed a sort formula. Open with a trumpet solo. Band section. Vocal section. Rousing trumpet solo. Band section. Brief, technically difficult trumpet solo coda - though in live performance this could turn into a bravura thunderstorm of high notes. Now, with the full orchestra, instead of trading solos with individual players we have the Louis Show backed by an expertly arranged ensemble playing hot and swinging hard but now packaged and presented, polished and professional.
“(What do I do to Be So) Black and Blue” (A. Razaf, H. Brooks, T. Waller)
A rare public display of sadness, melancholy, even despair from Armstrong. They may be Razaf’s words but Louis rings them true in one of the most heartfelt, beautifully rendered songs in his vast catalog.
“Cold empty bed springs hurt my head/Feels like ole ned wished I was dead/ What did I do to be so black and blue/ Even the mouse ran from my house/ They laugh at you and all that you do/ What did I do to be so black and blue/ I’m white inside but, that don't help my case/ That’s life can't hide what is in my face/ How would it end ain't got a friend/ My only sin is in my skin/ What did I do to be so black and blue”
“That Rhythm Man” (A. Razaf, H. Brooks, T. Waller) Calling all cherry popping daddy’s, put on your foot suits, here comes the hep cat sound of the 30s. If anyone listened more closely to Louis in the late 20s than Bing Crosby that would be Cab Calloway. The band plays a Cecil B. DeMille extravaganza of syncopation.
“…the children play to rhythm/ All the birdies flap their wings in rhythm too/ Oh, the breezes float to rhythm/ And the rivers flow to rhythm …Every dance and ev’ry meldoy/ Acts according to this recipe/ Everybody walks to rhythm/ Everybody talks to rhythm…”
Money flowing. Stock market soaring. Cars large. Chicago clubs swank. New York clubs swankest. Ohhh, the Cotton Club, Connie’s Inn, that’s Dutch Schultz’ front. The clientele beautiful, dressed to the nines, hot, steaming. With Earl Hines Louis had finally met a worthy constituent. The music they made with the last Hot Five group, well shucks, the best Louis has ever made. Might even say the best anybody has made in Louis’ experience. But, to really hit the big time an orchestra is needed. And we can’t just play those Southern stomps and rags and blues. We need some of those New York famous songs. That Tin Pan Alley. Yes sir. It’s BIG TIME. Louis Armstrong, straight gangster mack.