Ricko

I hope so, King Ubu! We've also selected over 20 photos, most pretty rare from the Armstrong Archives, so depending on how they lay it out with the photos and my massive notes, it should be able to fit. But I'll leave that to pros and if something good must be cut, well, I'll just put it on my blog! (By the way, for any other Pops nuts out there, check out my most recent blog for footage of a COMPLETE concert of Louis and the All Stars in East Berlin in 1965...not to be missed! http://dippermouth.blogspot.com/2013/12/satchmo-in-east-berlin-march-22-1965.html) Ricky

Haha, I thought you were aiming for 10,000 - 15,000 words. How does Scott feel about that? (No complaints here though!) Haha, can't deny it! That was the aim but in June, before the Ella/Chick set was approved, there was a rush on the Pops set and Scott said to get him the notes ASAP. In five days, I wrote 32,000 words, haha. It just came tumbling out of my head, stuff I had been thinking about for years, stuff I couldn't fit into my book, etc. And that was without hearing some of the previously unissued stuff! Now I've heard almost everything and I got it down to 27,000 and am going through it all again this weekend. I'm happy to report Scott thinks they're "superb" but they still might get cut only because Scott said if the book is too big, the box won't close! (But I know some of Loren's were in the mid-20,000s so I have hope...) And Caravan, I've never seen that pic before! I'm also the Archivist for the Louis Armstrong House Museum and we have about 15,000 pics of Pops but that's a new one. Thanks for sharing it! And thanks all for the enthusiasm about the set! I'll post more details as I get them. Yours in Pops, Ricky

Thanks, Lon, for bumping this up. Indeed, the set got pushed back when the Ella/Chick set got final approval over the summer. We put some solid time into the Armstrong set in the fall but Mosaic gets swamped over the holidays (a GOOD thing!) so we've taken a bit of a break, ready to hit the ground rolling in January. I do have 7 reference CDs and can attest that this will be the All Stars set to end all All Stars sets! My notes are also just about there (weighing in around 27,000 words currently) and photo selection is just about complete. Thus, February is looking good but if it dips into March, don't say I didn't warn you. Oh, and for the vinyl-philes out there, we just got approval from Sony to do the complete 1956 and 1958 Newport Jazz Festival concerts as a separate LP set! Anyway, if anyone has any questions, ask away or just keep checking my blog. Thanks for all the interest and happy holidays, everyone! Yours in Pops, Ricky Riccardi dippermouth.blogspot.com

Hi! Yes, it should definitely be out by Christmas. In fact, Scott has told me that in a perfect world, with everything going smoothly, it could be ready by August or the early fall. But don't quote me on that; I'm still writing liner notes, Andreas Meyer still has some sound work, we have to pick photos, print em up, etc. But I think Christmas is a safe bet. I'll keep everyone posted...thanks for your interest! Ricky

Oops, I see the confusion in my post and apologize. Everyone is getting hung up on the Carnegie Hall stuff; yes, the February concert has been available for decades (you can come to Corona and buy it at the Armstrong House). I meant to specify that the November 15, 1947 Carnegie Hall concert with the All Stars has never been issues in any form. That's a fact. 90 minutes of this one will be on the Mosaid; nothing from the February concert with Hall will be on the set. Hope that clears up the confusion! Ricky Yeah, what Chuck said!

Yep, it's me, not Chuck (though Chuck's great!). And yes, there is compensation, I'm happy to report. Also, the link above is to my Facebook page, which is where I broke the news last night. My blog can be found at www.dippermouth.blogspot.com and will be celebrating its sixth anniversary in July. Hope this helps! Ricky

Jeff, the Carnegie Hall concert from February 1947 with Louis and Edmond Hall's sextet has been issued, usually as "1947 Carnegie Hall Concert" (we sell a copy of it on the Ambassador label) so perhaps that's what you're thinking of. Jos Willems's "All of Me" discography lists no known issues. Again, I had a copy and leaked a few tracks over the years on my blog...perhaps someone scooped the audio up and passed something around, but the concert is more or less unknown. Regardless, it'll be more known in just a few months, haha. Ricky

Sorry, Paul, just live material and material Avakian "faked" to seem live. So no Louis and Lenya, no W. C. Handy, no Satch Plays Fats or anything that was strictly a studio date. Ricky

Hi all, Ricky Riccardi here. Thanks, Chuck, for breaking the news here on Organissimo. I'm happy to reveal some more details here, especially since you can probably search through the Archives and find me ranting about wishing Sony would do such a set about 6 or 7 years ago. It took a little longer than I thought but I'm thrilled Mosaic is doing it and that I'll be a part of it. Here's a quick breakdown of what to expect: 1947 Town Hall concert - It was more difficult than you'd imagine for Sony to locate the original tapes used for the old French RCA set, but they did. I, too, am hoping Andreas Meyer can improve the sound. 1947 Carnegie Hall concert - This is extra special, from November 15, 1947, two weeks before the more famous Symphony Hall concert. Not a second has been issued commercially (but for my faithful blog readers, I've shared the occasional track from my personal copy). RCA, who had Pops under contract, recorded it (probably again thanks to Ernie Anderson) but sat on it. Unfortunately, the complete set of acetates doesn't survive. In the early 50s, someone at RCA dubbed, I'm assuming, what they felt to be the best tracks onto reels. Thus, about 90 minutes of what was probably a two-hour concert survives (in great sound quality). The reels were mislabeled and buried until Ben Young discovered them about a decade ago. He couldn't drum up any interest at BMG to release it so I'm happy it's finally coming out through Mosaic. Spoken word interviews - To break it up, the "Paris Interview" with Edward R. Murrow will be included, along with a 16+ minute interview between Louis and George Avakian done to promote "Ambassador Satch" (unissued). Amsterdam concert - On October 30, 1955, Avakian began recording for "Ambassador Satch" by taping an entire show in Amsterdam. Unfortunately, the complete concert doesn't survive. (Remember the "Chicago Concert" story about how Michael Brooks snatched it as Columbia was about to throw it out? I have a feeling Amsterdam didn't get snatched.) However, George did copy all of the tracks he thought were worth issuing, so they're all here, two that made it onto "Satchmo the Great," four that made it onto "Ambassador Satch" and a couple of unissued ones (including a great "Back O'Town Blues"). Milan session - This, to me, is a high point. On December 20, 1955, Avakian wanted to record more for "Ambassador Satch" but he wanted to try some different stuff. So he rented out a movie theater, invited a couple of dozen enthusiastic Italian fans, and pretty much ran a recording session, adding lots of fake applause. We have 3 of the 4 original reels, so we'll have unedited versions (without the fake applause, but with the Italians screaming) of lots of stuff that didn't make it onto the album: "Clarinet Marmalade," "Someday You'll Be Sorry," "That's a Plenty," "You Can Depend On Me," "Lonesome Road" and a different version of "Dardanella," in addition to "West End Blues," "Faithful Hussar," "Tiger Rag" and "Royal Garden Blues." An embarrassment of riches, the unreleased tracks are just as good as what got released (my notes, though, will explain why they didn't make it onto the finished album). Los Angeles session - Not a live date, but it works. On January 24, 1956, Avakian recorded the All Stars at a Los Angeles studio, finishing "Ambassador Satch" with "Twelfth Street Rag" and "All of Me" and then recording a single of "Six Foot Four" and "When the Red, Red Robin Comes Bob, Bob, Bobbing Along." We found the entire session reels for this date so we'll have multiple, unedited takes of each selection (no fake applause). Random bits - a version of "Mack the Knife" from Carnegie Hall that ended up on "Satchmo the Great," and audio of a few performances that ended up in the film: "Bucket's Got a Hole in It" from Empress Hall in England and "Royal Garden Blues" and "Ole Miss" from Africa. The Great Chicago Concert - The CD set has been out-of-print for years so it will be nice to have this fantastic show in one place again (nothing new, though). Newport 1956 - George recorded Louis's entire set and as Harold pointed out, released a portion on an LP shared with Eddie Condon. But the released portion is a mess: "Indiana" is from the Chicago concert, "Whispering" was a bass feature in which Avakian eliminated the opening bass choruses and "Mack the Knife" had a vocal spliced in from an alternate studio take! We have the whole set and will be issuing it complete for the first time. Lewisohn Stadium 1956 - This was the big concert that Armstrong shared with Dave Brubeck, ending the evening by doing "St. Louis Blues" with Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic. However, earlier in the day, there was a rehearsal. Avakian had the equipment ready and as always, was craving new material. So again, in front of a small audience, probably made up of Philharmonic musicians, he recorded multiple takes of "Mahogany Hall Stomp," "Way Down Yonder in New Orleans" and "Blueberry Hill." We'll have them, unedited and in multiple instances, unissued. But then George, after recording Louis in Chicago and Newport, figured Louis wasn't going to record perform anything new so he didn't record the All Stars' actual set that evening. But he did turn it on in time to record "St. Louis Blues".....THREE TIMES! This, to me, was the highlight find, hearing this whole sequence go down, with Bernstein addressing the audience, a film camera breaking down, Edward R. Murrow coming out, Louis playing encores to keep the fans satisfied. It's incredible. Newport 1958 - And finally, another gem, Louis's entire Newport set from 1958, of which only three tracks have ever been released ("Ko Ko Mo," "Rockin' Chair" and the "Saints"). It was recorded in stereo and Louis is in superhuman form. There's virtually no overlap in repertoire from Newport 1958 and it ends where the set began with a reunion between Louis, Teagarden and Bobby Hackett. So there it is. I hope everyone else is as excited as I am. I know a lot of All Stars naysayers might think, "Ugh, 9-CDs of All Stars concerts....how many versions of 'Indiana' do I need?" But because of the nature of the set, it's very, very varied: Town Hall was a one-off, no one will complain about hearing the Teagarden-Catlett edition at Carnegie Hall, we have all the different repertoire and unissued material from "Ambassador Satch," two extended interviews, the Chicago Concert with its different repertoire, two totally different Newport sets, the Bernstein sequence, etc. It's a little bit of everything that made Louis so special in this period. I am now going to retreat into note-writing mode but I might have some more to say on my blog in the next few days (though I doubt it....this little sneak peak already went on longer than I thought!). I still have to hammer it out with Scott but he did say that it will be released in 2013 and if everything goes smoothly, could be as early as the Fall. Stay tuned! Yours in Pops, Ricky Riccardi

Hello all. As promised, I devoted an entry of my blog to a mini-history of the Hot Fives and Sevens on CD, ending with 39 sound clips you can stream, including excerpts from the new "OKeh" box, the 2000 Sony box, the JSP discs, the 1994 "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" box and the "Integrale" series from Fremeaux and Associates. Listen for yourself and decide on what's the right sound for you. Enjoy! http://dippermouth.blogspot.com/2012/12/so-you-wanna-buy-hot-fives-and-hot.html Yours in Pops, Ricky

Hi all. Many thanks to Fernando for posting some of my thoughts on this set from Facebook as I was getting back on my feet after Hurricane Sandy. I don't have much to add as the secret's out: the new Sony box is comprised of the old CDs in new sleeves. When I went to import them into iTunes, all of the original 1990s titles popped up ("Louis in New York," "Vol. 6 St. Louis Blues," "The Complete RCA Victor Recordings")...even some of the original notes popped up on songs such as "1996 Master"....ugh. This really disappointed me, and as I can see, everyone else here, too. They credit two new names with remastering and restoration, but trust me, nothing was done. I wrote the liner notes without hearing the set so I've promoted it elsewhere without having heard it since I thought it was a can't miss, but they missed. At least on the early discs. I confess: I am not an audiophile. When I got into this music in the mid-90s, these Columbia CDs were my introduction to this music and I didn't complain back then. I also picked up the Chronological Classics discs and other subpar, sketchy efforts to fill in the gaps so sound quality has never been a make-or-break thing for me (well, I'm NOT going to buy something if I read the quality is worse than a previous issue but if the only way to hear something is in shaky sound, I still want to hear it). What I do have a problem with is pitch correction. I don't have perfect pitch but I know this music backwards and hearing every single track on the first two or three discs a half-step flat is maddening. It makes the Hot Fives and Sevens sound sluggish, which they definitely were not. Doug Benson, who has done such great work with David Sager on the King Oliver and Wolverines material for Off the Record, once wrote a review of the early Columbia issues on Amazon in which he stated, "This is a HORRID reissue. I think what CBS did was simply pull tracks from the 1950s LP reissues and filter them. For me, even worse than the bland sound is the fact that all of the recordings run a half-step flat. The original discs were recorded at nearly 82 r.p.m., but for this release they were played back at the 'standard' 78. This is a very common problem: sound engineers who are not musicians should never attempt this kind of stuff; or should at least consult a savvy musician when setting the pitch!" So if you've never heard the Hot Fives and Sevens, do NOT start here. The JSP is definitely the way to go. It's sad but Sony made their other Hot Five attempts out-of-print to accommodate this set (my day job is as Archivist for the Louis Armstrong House Museum. We always ordered the single discs from the early 2000s but were told a few months ago that they--plus the 2000 box AND the 1994 "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" box--were all OOP). However, I will say, in this box's defense, that the sound on the 1929-1933 material never bothered me. I have the JSP "Big Bands" discs and they're great but whenever I was in the mood for those 1929-1932 OKeh recordings, sometimes I'd go JSP, sometimes I'd go Columbia, never noticing much of a difference. So I will say this: if you have the Hot Fives and Hot Sevens but don't have the 1929-1933 material in complete form, then don't write this box off so fast. The 1929-1933 recordings make up 6 discs and 6 discs for $65 (Amazon price) isn't terrible. That period is incredibly rich and if you want it all (how many times does "Indian Cradle Song" or "Little Joe" or "He's a Son of the South" get reissued?), this is a good place for that. But I don't know, those with perfect pitch and better ears might have legitimate problems with Sony's take on those discs, too. As Fernando mentioned, once I get my life back to normal (we moved the weekend of the Hurricane and still have tons of stuff in boxes), I'll do a blog in which I'll A-B the various Hot Five and Seven releases out there so if anyone has any questions, they can head there. Til then... Yours in Pops, Ricky Riccardi dippermouth.blogspot.com

That's the plan! I'll A/B/C the 80s-90s stuff, the 2000 box and the new box and let you know what I think. Maybe I'll do it publicly on my blog and let the world decide. Til then! Ricky

One more thing: I have a PDF of the layout of the booklet. Here's the production/mastering credits: "Box Set Produced by Michael Brooks (Discs 1-8) and Orrin Keepnews (Discs 9-10) Sonic Restoration: Harry Coster Digital Mastering: Darcy Proper, Sony Music Studios, NY Original 78s from the collections of Bob Altshuler, Michael Brooks, Harry Coster and John R. T. Davies." This is actually interesting. I don't know Darcy personally but I know she's done some of the more recent Armstrong Sony releases (Andreas Meyer thinks she's terrific). I just grabbed the original Sony discs from the 90s off my shelves and they're a hodgepodge. For "Stardust, " Digital Engineering and Restoration By Mark Wilder. For Vol. 7 "You're Driving Me Crazy," Archival restoration and remastering by Larry Keyes. I won't go through every one but now it does look like it's possible that Darcy might have given them a fresh remaster. Again, the track lists for each disc are identical to the originals which gives me pause, I 'spose it's possible. The set comes out at the end of October and I get a few copies in advance. Once I listen, I'll post my opinions (I don't work for Sony so I'll be honest) and maybe I'll do some A/B stuff on my blog. Stay tuned.... Yours in Pops, Ricky

Here I am! Sorry for taking two months to notice this thread. I'm happy to answer some questions, though sadly, even I don't have the concrete answers because I wrote the liners without even listening to the set! All they wanted was a general essay about how important this music is (a thousand words, though a million couldn't do it full justice) so I wrote one without listening. But based on my conversations with Sony, it does seem like they simply went back to all the discs they put out in the 80s and 90s and just compiled them for this set--including the original mastering. Thus, some of the earlier discs have 16-tracks (about 45 minutes of music) while some of the later ones push past 70 minutes. Also, there's some weird omissions/additions. For example, when Sony originally put the disc, "Stardust," covering the final 1931-1932 OKeh big band tracks, they didn't include an alternate of "Wrap Your Troubles in Drams" (not sure if it was even discovered yet). Well, good news, it's included now! But strangely, the box does not include the alternates for "I Can't Give You Anything But Love" or "Rockin' Chair." I don't know why they'd change up the original discs to include "Wrap" and not the others, especially when they already released the alt of "I Can't Give You Anything But Love" on the Complete Hot Fives box from 2000. So, will this set impress the discographical completist or the hardcore Armstrong nut that already has this material ten times over? Doubtful. Will the 80s and 90s remastering impress the audiophiles out there? Probably not. But it's nice to have all these tracks in one set--finally--all killer, no filler and at a good price. (Note: this paragraph is not included in my liners. Shhhh...don't tell Sony!) Anyway, between this and Universal's "Complete Satchmo at Symphony Hall" coming out within weeks of each other, Pops will be back in the spotlight again in October and that's always cause for celebration. S'all for now! Yours in Pops, Ricky Riccardi What a Wonderful World: The Magic of Louis Armstrong's Later Years Archivist, Louis Armstrong House Museum dippermouth.blogspot.com P.S. Because I rarely get to check the forums any more, if anyone has an Louis-related questions, comments, answers, shoot me an e-mail at dippermouth@msn.com, find me on Facebook or visit me at the Louis Armstrong House Museum!

Hi all, this is Ricky Riccardi (and is this is my first Organissimo post in years, haha). Anyway, glad to see some excitement over "Satchmo at Symphony Hall." The original 1951 2-LP Decca set had the majority of the music, but there were some edits, including four complete performances, all the themes, Louis's announcements and some solos (Dick Cary's on "Royal Garden Blues" and some extra noodling by Barney Bigard at the end of "Tea for Two"). When Orrin Keepnews finally put it on on CD in the 90s, he made the choice to strike three tunes ("I Cried for You," "That's My Desire" and "How High the Moon") AND he completely shuffled the original order of performances. I'm the Archivist for the Louis Armstrong House Museum and last year, we learned that the Swedish Armstrong collector Gosta Hagglof donated every scrap of his Armstrong collection to the Museum. It arrived last summer. The first thing I looked for was "Symphony Hall" because Gosta told me in 2007 he was working on a complete edition. And sure enough, I found a disc...and another...and another...and another. All in all, I found about 30 individual CDs with Gosta's Symphony Hall work. He somehow had access to the original acetates and made multiple CD copies of those and then he made extra copies with pitch correction, skips edited out, noise reduction, etc. Last October I contacted Harry Weinger at Universal and he came out to our Archives to listen to it. He flipped and we've been off and running since. It'll be a 2-CD set on the Hip-O Select label, with the original liner notes by Ernie Anderson and new liner notes by yours truly. The concert will be sequenced in the original order, starting with the band tuning up. All of the announcements will be heard for the first time, in addition to the themes. And there will be complete versions of "Back O'Town Blues," "St. James Infirmary," "Velma's Blues" and "Jack Armstrong Blues." They're all fantastic. I can only assume "Back O'Town," "St. James" and "Jack Armstrong" were not on the original LP because Victor had just released versions. And even "Velma's Blues" is a knockout, as it's almost 7 minutes long with a long interlude where Velma danced and the All Stars just played the blues (Sid Catlett catches her every move). I'm a biased Armstrong nut who has always loved this concert, of course, but trust me, hearing it complete, in the original order, with the announcements, the new tunes, everything, is a really, really special experience. S'all for now! (And thanks for the plug of my blog, Marcel. Don't know why that's a ".de" version as dippermouth.blogspot.com works just as well.) Yours in Pops, Ricky

Hi ejp. "Now Do You Call That a Buddy" was originally issued as "New Do You Call That a Buddy," which had to be a typo. It was a cover song to begin with and the original was clearly "Now Do You Call That a Buddy." Mosaic being Mosaic, they listed the original title, even with the mistake. If you want to know more about the song, check out a blog I did on it last November: http://dippermouth.blogspot.com/2008/11/no...that-buddy.html I still haven't received my set yet. How's the sound? By the way, I talked to Dan Morgenstern the other night about the famous Universal fire and he's under the impression that all the original metal parts emerged unscathed, it was just material on tape that was destroyed, though even he's not 100% sure what the damage is. Ricky Riccardi dippermouth.blogspot.com

And just like that, Emusic jumped from 179 Classics titles to 477 in the span of one afternoon! You make a good point, about the Amazon vs. Emusic dilemma, Mjzee. I'm going to Emusic to cherry pick discs where I only need a handful of tracks to complete my collection (I need four from the Chu Berry, six from a Benny Goodman, etc.). And if I need a complete disc, it's over to Amazon. Either way, after so many years of seeing ridiculous prices for this series on Amazon, I'm glad to be able to scoop them up in bulk like this. Back to browsing and making lists... Ricky Riccardi dippermouth.blogspot.com

The Classics MP3s are officially starting to explode. Yesterday, I noticed a bunch on Amazon for only $5.99 each. I typed "Chronological Classics" into a search and got 482 albums. 24 hours later, I did it again, and just got 604. Same for Emusic. Yesterday they had 15 Classics discs, today, 179. I live on Emusic but the $5.99 price tag is almost impossible to pass up on Amazon. This can get ugly (for my bank account), Ricky Riccardi dippermouth.blogspot.com

I got into Pops through an Avakian-produced compilation of Armstrong's 1950s Columbia work, "16 Most Requested Songs," which included material from the W.C. Handy and Fats Waller etibute albums. About a month later, I received the "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" box set and well, nothing's been the same ever since! Can't go wrong, Ricky dippermouth.blogspot.com

Yes, especially when you factor in the Fleischmann's Yeast broadcasts from 1937 and a bunch of other radio broadcasts that surfaced from the Cotton Club, the Casa Manana and the Grand Terrace from around 1938 to 1942, collected on a very hard to find Ambassador disc, "Live At The Cotton Club" (produced by the recently deceased Gosta Hagglof). When you listen to the Deccas AND those live recordings, well forget it...he could do anything! He was in absolute complete command of my horn in this period. I'm probably going to post the audio of an entire Casa Manana broadcast on my blog within a week or so because I think it contains one of the greatest 30-minute segments of Louis Armstrong music I've ever heard. Dig it... Ricky Riccardi dippermouth.blogspot.com

I hate jumping in the middle of what is rapidly becoming a two-man argument, but I just want to say that Pops was always Pops, it didn't matter who arranged for him. Like Allen, I have no problem with Armstrong's big band arrangements at all. Sure they're nothing extraordinary but it's not like they hindered Armstrong. Take a record like "Woverine Blues." Willet wrote the arrangement and I think it's a killer; but Pops doesn't enter until the record is halfway over. He plays wonderfully and it's a classic record, but really, I personally don't need a bunch of Armstrong tracks spotlighting the arrangements and not Pops. Give me the simple backings and let me hear Pops play the melody, sing a chorus and go out on top. If I want to hear a great arrangement, I'll go elsewhere. But like I said, Pops always remained Pops. Have you ever sat down and though about the settings he appeared in over the years? I know I've done stuff like this before but what the hell, what's one more time? *He played Don Redman arrangements with Fletcher Henderson *He played with Erskine Tate's "symphony orchestra," as he called it, doing "Cavallleria Rusticana" and Noel Coward's "Poor Little Rich Girl" *He recorded a Jelly Roll Morton tune, "Chicago Breakdown" with his own smallish big band, Louis Armstrong and His Stompers *He fronted the bands of Carroll Dickerson, Luis Russell, Willie Bryant, Les Hite and Leon Elkins, recording pop tunes for OKeh *He loved the steel guitars on "Confessin'," the strings on "Song of the Islands" and the Lombardo-sax section on almost everything else *When confronted with a stock arrangement, his early-30s arrangers knew to eliminate the fancy stuff and give Pops what he wanted: usually simple harmonies emphasizing beats one and three (see "Star Dust") *When he finally started his own big band, the last few points I've made practically doubled. They were out-of-tune sometimes and dreary but they didn't get in his way and he called it his "happiest" band *Flash forward to the Deccas with arrangements by Willet, Horace Gerlach, Russell, Sy Oliver and others. They never stopped Pops from being Pops and he positively soared on them (though yes, Bingie Madison is pretty rough) *In the mid-40s, Armstrong's group went more brass heavy and, yes, Kenton-esque, in order to stay with the times. Needless to say, when listening to those broadcasts and records today, Armstrong's the only aspect that doesn't sound dated. *After the All Stars were formed, Armstrong made records in the 50s featuring arrangements by Sy Oliver, Gordon Jenkins, Jack Pleiss, Russ Garcia, Benny Carter and Tutti Camaratta. He was backed by voices, strings and regular big bands. He always sounded like Pops. *In the 60s, he recorded with Ellington, Brubeck, Bing Crosby (with Billy May) and the Dukes of Dixieland, all within about 16 months. On those recordings, he sounded like Pops, Pops, Pops and Pops. *In the late 60s, he was given crummy songs to record with horrendous arrangements by Dick Jacobs (or "Schmuck" Jacobs as Joe Muranyi referred to him). But on stuff like "I Will Wait For You," he overcame it by being Pops. *He did a terrible session for Brunswick where Sonny Sanders gave him a Motown-style backing as he covered the Lovin' Spoonful's "Daydream" *His last major album, for RCA, found him singing over Oliver Nelson arrangements, doing everything from "Mood Indigo" to "Everybody's Talkin'." There's some dreary shit on that record, but Pops makes it all listenable Don Redman to Oliver Nelson? "Sugar Foot Stomp" to "Give Peace a Chance"? Really, did any of it matter? As already pointed out, Armstrong loved Guy Lombardo, he practiced by playing along with Italian records (see "Luna" on the Fleichsmann's set), he quoted opera in his breaks ("Rigoletto" on "New Orleans Stomp" to name one), he was knocked out by Barbra Streisand, he dug the Beatles and he even praised Monk in Down Beat. In every single song he ever recorded, he was himself. So to lament the quality of his arrangements, his musicians, his songs, whatever, is, to me, a waste of time. We should be thankful he did what he did, played what he played and sang what he sang. Put me down for a Mosaic preorder (and yes, I have this material in complete form on at least two or three other labels). Yours in Pops, Ricky Riccardi dippermouth.blogspot.com

Carnivore, have you checked out the set of Fleischmann's Yeast Broadcasts that were released last year? They capture Armstrong and the Russell band in all their live glory, playing with a swinging sense of abandon that's often not present on the Decca records. A lot of the best Decca arrangements ("Struttin' With Some Barbeuce," "Alexander's Ragtime Band," "Jubilee") were done by Chappie Willet. Willet wrote a lot of unrecordedd arrangements for Pops that can be heard on the Fleischmann's set. And for those in the New York area, my good friend John Wriggle--the world's biggest authority on Willet--will be presenting a live concert of Willet arrangements with Vince Giordano's Nighthawks at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, March 25 at the Elebash Recital Hall at the CUNY Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Avenue @ 34th Street. The event is free and John is presenting three Willet arrangements he transcribed from the Fleischmann's set. This is what John personally wrote to me the first time I sent him the Fleischmann's stuff: "These recordings completely revise the reputation of the Russell-led band as an ensemble. So much of the studio-recorded stuff was obviously being played for the first time – but here the band is loose and driving. They never become exactly 'tight,' but at least they prove beyond a doubt that the hesitancy of the studio work was just that." And when you listen to the Deccas AND the broadcasts, you'll really get a sense of what a prime, peak period Armstrong was going through in the late 30s and early 40s. Never mind the arrangements. Just keep your ear on Pops and all is right in the world. Ricky dippermouth.blogspot.com

Wonderful news! And there's more good news on the way. Scott Wenzel recently contacted me about some ideas for future Armstrong projects to be released next year, no large sets (I don't think), just some singles and such. I can't report on anything official right now, but they're trying like hell to get Verve to clear a release of Armstrong's entire set at the August 15, 1956 "Jazz at the Hollywood Bowl" show Norman Granz produced. I've this unissued set for a few months and can attest that it's one of Pops's finest of the period. The sound quality is brilliant and Armstrong, probably knowing that he was closing the show and all the other performers would be listening (I'm talking about Roy Eldridge, Sweets Edison, Illinois Jacquett, Flip Phillips, the Oscar Peterson trio, Ella, Art Tatum and Buddy Rich) blows some incredibly fierce horn. Stay tuned for further announcements (and more good news), Ricky Riccardi dippermouth.blogspot.com

Thanks guys for the kind words about my Armstrong blog. If you're interested, I re-posted the Carnegie Hall version "What Is This Thing Called Swing" again last night as well as Armstrong's other performance from that evening, "Ol' Man Mose." I also copied a long, but interesting review of the entire evening by Dan Burley. Thanks for reading! Ricky Riccardi dippermouth.blogspot.com

David Ostwald's Wednesday afternoon Birdland gigs have been the scene of Dan and George Avakian's public birthday parties the past few years. I went to Dan's 79th there in October and witnessed Dan onstage SINGING "Baby, Won't You Please Come Home." Next year is indeed Dan's 80th, as well as George's 90th (I already know the latter will definitely be publicly celebrated at Birdland in March) so there will be plenty of celebrating in the jazz community (George is even getting a Trustees Award at the Grammys this coming year). Ricky