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The World of Pops


jazzbo

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I'm not sure we have a thread dedicated solely to the UrFather, the Man, Louis Armstrong.

Summer is coming on. . . and summer is always a time that I pull out Armstrong and play.

I pulled out the Autobiography sessions yesterday and was just totally overwhelmed once more with the expressive power, the sly and clever self-editing, the personality that resonates from this music. There simply is no other musician who quite communicates to me with such a strong and clear link.

The beautiful full and rich sound of the horn. The swing that any three notes represent in a way so few others ever could. The texture in the voice. The choice, oh the uncanny choice of note and shade and placement.

Put on some Pops today and be elevated! :excl:

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I don't listen to much pre-bebop jazz, but Louis Armstrong's Hot Fives and Sevens are some of my favorite recordings in my collection. Such moving, emotional, and fun music. Haven't spun them in a while, will remedy that this weekend.

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I don't listen to much pre-bebop jazz, but Louis Armstrong's Hot Fives and Sevens are some of my favorite recordings in my collection. Such moving, emotional, and fun music. Haven't spun them in a while, will remedy that this weekend.

I don't listen to his pre-bop recordings. I listen to is 60's pop stuff from time to time. I probaly wouldn't if those songs weren't so sentimental.

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I don't listen to his pre-bop recordings. I listen to is 60's pop stuff from time to time. I probaly wouldn't if those songs weren't so sentimental.

Could somebody please explain this kind of logic (if any) to me?

Did Pops record any bop (a.k.a. jiu jitsu music in his lingo) at all? So is there anything by him AFTER his "pre-bop recordings" to listen to? Does this mean jazzkat listens to those Pops recordings that are the most non-jazz recordings of his that he ever made? Strange, very strange ... ;)

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I think he meant recordings made chronologically before the bebop era, not recordings that are stylistically pre-bebop, since that's all Louis ever made.

Jazz Kat, I hope you haven't overlooked the collaborations with Ella Fitzgerald and with Duke Ellington, which are gems and belong in every jazz fan's collection!

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I think he meant recordings made chronologically before the bebop era, not recordings that are stylistically pre-bebop, since that's all Louis ever made.

Jazz Kat, I hope you haven't overlooked the collaborations with Ella Fitzgerald and with Duke Ellington, which are gems and belong in every jazz fan's collection!

Louis Armstrong is pre-bop, post-bop: the past before bop and the future after bop. That doesn't mean that he is bop. :g

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I recently read an anecdote (maybe apochryphal) where Ruby Braff was in some sort of comatose state late in life until someone played a recording of Pops singing 'I'm in the Mood for Love', which pulled Braff back into consciousness.

Lon, you mentioned the autobiographical sessions--I really enjoy those too. Another one from that period that I really enjoy is the ambassador satch album--a positive vibe, for sure.

amsatchlg.jpg

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Ambassador Satch, yes. . . . I've had an lp, the most recent cd, and I recently found a cheap copy of the SACD of this and really enjoy listening to it. This is one of the seminal records that helped make my friend Dave a jazz fanatic and trumpet player when he encountered it in the early seventies (about the same time a copy of Plays W. C. Handy was making me a Pops fan a few hundred miles away!)

Today I'm going to play parts of the Columbia "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" box set. This is a great collection (especially the booklet) and though most of it is now available in better sound, still sounds good and flows really well (great for iPod/i-deck listening)!

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I Love Pops! His music from the 30's is a GAS! "Skeletons in the closet on parade" is a favorite of mine...from "Pennies from Heaven." Love "Cabin in the Sky" - pops looks groovy with horns!

You're right Lon, SUMMERTIME is a GREAT TIME to listen to Louis. With the price of gas as high as it is, I just hang out in the back yard and "party!" I'm installing outdoor speakers to pipe jazz & other music to the back yard! Old-timey jazz & country music in the summer is a groove!

I just ordered the "Now You Has Jazz" at your rec. Lon and can't wait to get it!

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I'm now hosting a temporary radio show ("Flying Home") on a local community station - jazz before 1950 and use a lot of the Chronological Classics Pops & Hot 5's/7's on Columbia. Additonally, I play music by many other early pioneers - McKinney Cotton Pickers, Moten, Trumbauer, Mole, Bechet, etc...and feel that this is a good program for the SUMMER TIME when folks may be out on the porch, cookin' yard bird, and so forth. A lot of jazz really is PARTY MUSIC!!

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Definitely, the music grew from partyin', the music was serious, as serious as your life partyin' music. . . .

Congrats on the show! Must be a lot of fun. I'm a big fan of that early jazz as well. It's uplifting and more and more I need the uplift!

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Louis Armstrong is pre-bop, post-bop: the past before bop and the future after bop. That doesn't mean that he is bop. :g

That's a nice companion piece to the quip Tommy Flanagan liked to make: "Bebop is the music from before the Beatles... and after the Beatles."

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Louis Armstrong is pre-bop, post-bop: the past before bop and the future after bop. That doesn't mean that he is bop. :g

That's a nice companion piece to the quip Tommy Flanagan liked to make: "Bebop is the music from before the Beatles... and after the Beatles."

I seem to recall that you and I together heard Tommy Flanagan make that comment at a concert in Paris. :)

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