Louis Armstrong Mosaic planned with his 1935-1946 Decca sides

[AllenLowe]

one also might make the argument that he might have lived another ten years without the constant travel - just a thought -

[Adam]

Hi Allan,

In response to the excerpt from your upcoming book:

I strongly dislike straw man arguments without good evidence. I think you need to quote Art Taylor on Elvis, and Wynton on Elvis, and perhaps another. Or just go to your points without the straw man. I think the whole paragraph outlining the "Jazz world's view of Elvis" is dated in some manner. i don't know any current smart jazz critic who discards Elvis in this manner. I could be wrong. I'd love to see examples. And if the examples don't exist, then maybe a different structure is called for, as your thesis in this section is interesting.

One question that is raised by Armstrong and Presley, of course, is the importance of the "career-controlling manager." I think it needs to be addressed; otherwise I have the doubt whether Armstrong & Presley really wanted these things that you ascribe to them, or are these things that their managers desired and they just went along with, particularly in regards to their studio recordings.

best regards

[AllenLowe]

hi -

sorry, Adam, missed this earlier - good points, all - I guess I should make it clear that the critics to whom I am referring, vis a ve Elvis, are the ones I grew up with, pre post-modern, one might say: Gitler, Morgenstern, Gushee, Schuller, the Jazz Review Crowd, and the older Downbeaters - certainly you are right about current critics, and I should make the distinction that I am speaking of the jazz critical world as contemporaries of Elvis. The Art Taylor book has attacks on the Beatles on practically every page, but you are right, I will footnote this. As for manager influence vs the artist - I think the record is clear that both of these guys looked at themselves as pop everyman. In this respect Rick has already given us substantial evidence re-Armstrong. The Elvis issue is more complex, but he admired Dean Martin as well as Arthur Crudup and Sinatra, and seemed to be happy when he finally landed in Vegas after all those bad movies, and where he had the band with ____ Burton on guitar (damn going blank on the first name) and got to sing everything he wanted from the blues to ballads. Clearly the drug thing had already started to take control, but I remember hearing him sing Little Sister in some late documentary and he still had it, stoned as he was. But there was still no faking his version of My Way; shlock, yes, but the shlock of personal choice. As for Armstrong, Glaser may have kept him from some nice musical possibilities, but no one that I've talked to that knew him or worked with him would agree that he ever played a piece of music under duress. If it was crap (and that's MY term, not theirs) it was voluntary crap.

Edited November 29, 2008 by AllenLowe

[Ricko]

As for Armstrong, Glaser may have kept him from some nice musical possibilities, but no one that I've talked to that knew him or worked with him would agree that he ever played a piece of music under duress. If it was crap (and that's MY term, not theirs) it was voluntary crap.

Allen hit the nail on the head. Glaser made his mistakes: shooting down albums with Gil Evans, Dizzy and the Ellington orchestra (I've seen George Avakian in tears about this missed opportunity), as well as not letting the cameras film "The Real Ambassadors" in its only live performance. But the deeper my research got, the more I realized that Glaser was a saint to Pops and could do no wrong. I've done a lot of research in the black press and it's incredible seeing in the mid-to-late-30s, how active Glaser was in promoting Armstrong. He'd write nasty letters if a writer got something wrong about Armstrong, he'd travel with the band on the one-nighters, he'd constantly keep his name in the press. Once Associated Booking got huge, Glaser backed off a tiny bit, content to stay in New York and let slime like Frenchy Tallerie be road manager. But Armstrong was always his prized client and did everything in his power to make those final 36 years of Armstrong's life as smooth as possible. He never worried about money, he made popular records, appeared in huge movies and rarely had a day off...just the way he liked it (Jewel Brown told me of Pops talking on the bus about how he literally wanted to die on stage like Sid Catlett...he thought that was a great way to go). So, as Allen wrote, Armstrong could have easily lived ten more years if he wasn't pushed so hard, but it was the only thing that made him happy, even though younger All Stars like Billy Kyle and Buster Bailey were dying around him.

Back to records for a minute. Glaser set them up and only had one thing in consideration: money, money, money. But Pops could veto something if it was REALLY horrible. Apparently, Victor gave him some stuff to record before the ban of 1948 and Armstrong spoke out and said he didn't like any of it and chose not to record it, rather than doing a quicky date to squeeze something in before the ban. And in the documentary, "Jazz: The Intimate Art," from 1968, Armstrong is shown in the recording studio with composer George Weiss and arrange Dick Jacobs, clearly unhappy with a song, "Rose." Glaser is nowhere around and in the end, Armstrong says there's nothing he could do it. Weiss finds another song and "Rose" died right there. And back to the All Stars for a minute, Armstrong was so proud of those songs that he played night after night that he once gave an interview where he said, he used to tell record producers (I don't have the exact quote but this is a paraphrase), "Gee, the tunes we're playing every night are tearing up the audience. Maybe we can record some of them because we know how much the audiences love them." (Clearly a paraphrase, that doesn't sound like Pops at all!) But instead, the producers kept saying, "Yeah, yeah, yeah" and giving him more pop songs to finally get a hit. Armstrong felt a breakthrough in 1955 and was very, very proud of "Ambassador Satch" and the Crescendo Club album and I'm sure he might have done more official recordings with the All Stars like that but Glaser soon began pricing them too high, leading to the group staying out of the studios for over two years from late 1961 to late 1963. But regardless, if it's out on a record, there's a good chance that Armstrong enjoyed making it...and Glaser enjoyed counting the money made from it. A match made in heaven!

Ricky

dippermouth.blogspot.com

[Christiern]

I interviewed Armstrong's maid in the early 70s. She was convinced that Lucille deliberately had not seen to it that his oxygen tanks were renewed. She was very serious about that. Somehow, it did not surprise me.

[AllenLowe]

I want to mention, as I think I did a while back, the small group sessions with Duke - apparently one was done when Armstrong was extremely tired, and it sounds it - but the other, which includes It Don't Mean a Thing, Duke's Place, I Got it Bad, Azalea, and some others, is to me as good as anything Louis did after 1945. He's very inspired, has chops to spare, and sings great all over it -

[gmonahan]

I want to mention, as I think I did a while back, the small group sessions with Duke - apparently one was done when Armstrong was extremely tired, and it sounds it - but the other, which includes It Don't Mean a Thing, Duke's Place, I Got it Bad, Azalea, and some others, is to me as good as anything Louis did after 1945. He's very inspired, has chops to spare, and sings great all over it -

Apologies if I missed it in this rather long but interesting thread, but has anyone mentioned here the sessions he made with, of all people, the Dukes of Dixieland? I was really surprised when I got hold of those fairly recently just how well he played on those, and the sound was outstanding. I think these recordings were discussed (by me, probably!) in another thread, but I think they merit mention in discussions of the great trumpeter's late work.

Greg Mo

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

I want to mention, as I think I did a while back, the small group sessions with Duke - apparently one was done when Armstrong was extremely tired, and it sounds it - but the other, which includes It Don't Mean a Thing, Duke's Place, I Got it Bad, Azalea, and some others, is to me as good as anything Louis did after 1945. He's very inspired, has chops to spare, and sings great all over it -

I first heard "I'm just a lucky so and so" in a taxi - the cabbie was playing a tape of jazz stuff his wife had compiled for him and that followed George Benson's "The greatest love of all". Blew me right away. I got the CD set the following Monday.

Hm, Duke ain't bad on this, either

MG

[Ron S]

Now listed in "Upcoming Releases":

The Complete Louis Armstrong Decca Sessions (1935-1945)- 7 CDs

(Release Date: March 2009)

This will be Mosaic's second boxed set devoted to arguably the most important musician of the 20thCentury. Back in 1993 we issued the All Stars studio sessions for Decca, but this brand new package will include earlier Armstrong with a collection of recordings that for the most part will be with Louis and his big band. This is Satch in his prime!

But already the multifaceted Armstrong is revealed with the small group session with Bunny Berigan as a sideman; a 1936 date with Jimmy Dorsey and his Orchestra; the rare 12" medley of hits from "Pennies From Heaven" with the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra, Bing Crosby and Frances Langford; his Hawaiian recordings; his sessions with The Mills Brothers; the "Elder Eatmore" sermon session; a reunion with Sidney Bechet and Zutty Singleton; and a slew of great sidemen like Sid Catlett, Dexter Gordon, J.C. Higginbotham, Red Allen and many more.

All this will be on 7 discs and many rare alternate takes will also be included as well as incredible images and an updated discography. The notes will be by the premier authority on Armstrong (and friend), Dan Morgenstern.

http://www.mosaicrecords.com/genres.asp?dept=50

[Guest Bixieland]

This will be a really fun set. I hope Ted Kendall does the remastering, the grp decca reissues from the early 90s sound horrible to me.

Oh hell yes. I'm with you montg

That's two votes for Kendall. The Waller JSPs of late, are enough to canonize that man.

So, does anybody know who's doin' this set, by the way?

[J.A.W.]

The Armstrong set can now be pre-ordered

[Ricko]

The Armstrong set can now be pre-ordered

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

[Clunky]

The Armstrong set can now be pre-ordered

wonder if the format of the box /booklet is different as the preview image is distinctly rectangular rather than square

[Don Brown]

If you check out the discography page, Clunky, the Armstrong box appears to be higher than it is wide. I'd suggest both photos got distorted somehow.

[Chuck Nessa]

Interesting to see the following "producer's note":

For sessions (QQ), (RR) and (SS) we were unable to obtain the original sources because of a devastating fire that claimed the life of metal parts, lacquer discs and various configurations of tapes. This is why we have had to utilize second generation LPs and CDRs as transfer sources for this set.

[paul secor]

Interesting to see the following "producer's note":

For sessions (QQ), (RR) and (SS) we were unable to obtain the original sources because of a devastating fire that claimed the life of metal parts, lacquer discs and various configurations of tapes. This is why we have had to utilize second generation LPs and CDRs as transfer sources for this set.

Saw that when I looked at the discography & gave thanks that all of the original sources weren't destroyed.

[AllenLowe]

that Universal fire, as I have worried, probably had devastating results on original sources, Decca, Brunswicks, etc. I have some originals made from masters (both CD and LP) and they are stunning - this is a friggin' and disgusting disaster because a) they won't tell anybody anything and b) because they sat on this stuff for years - there is not only tons of important blues but things like Teschmacher, Red Nichols, Bennie Goodman, Venuti, Adrian Rollini, etc etc - I have a lot of old 10 inch LPs with BETTER sound than that on CDs, but they are probably about half as good as they would sound if remastered in the CD age -

Edited March 6, 2009 by AllenLowe

[tranemonk]

I'm having a hard time with this one...

I have tried but I have NEVER been able to get into Armstrong.... I can't get past the smiling, grinning persona... (bugs me :angry: ) I know - I should... I might eventually cave on this one... but right now.... :beee:

[AllenLowe]

you sound like Wynton -

[Hot Ptah]

I'm having a hard time with this one...

I have tried but I have NEVER been able to get into Armstrong.... I can't get past the smiling, grinning persona... (bugs me :angry: ) I know - I should... I might eventually cave on this one... but right now.... :beee:

If you heard these recordings, you would probably feel differently about Armstrong.

[J.A.W.]

I'm having a hard time with this one...

I have tried but I have NEVER been able to get into Armstrong.... I can't get past the smiling, grinning persona... (bugs me :angry: ) I know - I should... I might eventually cave on this one... but right now.... :beee:

What's Armstrong's "smiling, grinning persona" got to do with his music?

[Hot Ptah]

When I took jazz history from Richard Davis, he commented on those who criticized Louis Armstrong's smiling persona. He said, "it's real easy to criticize someone when you're sitting on a couch. It's totally different when you're out there for many years actually performing in front of people, connecting with live audiences every night for years and years."

[jazzbo]

I'm having a hard time with this one...

I have tried but I have NEVER been able to get into Armstrong.... I can't get past the smiling, grinning persona... (bugs me :angry: ) I know - I should... I might eventually cave on this one... but right now.... :beee:

Good Lord, you're missing so so much. . . I hope you cave and get this, timeless music.

[Ron S]

I can see having a hard time getting past LON Armstrong's smiling, grinning persona, but not LOUIS'.

[jazzbo]

Yeah, so can I!