This three-CD collection provides a remarkable overview of Louis Armstrong's career, beginning with 1924 recordings with Fletcher Henderson's orchestra and carrying all the way through the decades to include the pop hits from the 1960s, like "Hello, Dolly" and "What a Wonderful World." Along the way, there's plenty to document Armstrong's position as the first great soloist of jazz, its first great singer, and a popular entertainer whose charm was as unique as his musical talent. The 1920s are represented by his stellar performances as a "sideman" to regular associates, like his wife, Lil Hardin Armstrong, and clarinetist Johnny Dodds. The 1930s find him leading his own bands, big and small, and recording with Jimmy Dorsey and Bing Crosby ("Pennies from Heaven"), and the Mills Brothers. The '40s and '50s are the years of the All-Stars, with Armstrong's trumpet joyously exploding in the company of such fellow giants as trombonist Jack Teagarden and pianist Earl Hines.
He was also creating richly nostalgic recordings like "Blueberry Hill," and singing duets with the finest jazz singers of the period, women whose own art had been shaped in different ways by Armstrong's--Billie Holiday on "You Can't Lose a Broken Heart" and Ella Fitzgerald on "Stompin' at the Savoy." Armstrong's humor shows up on a mock recreation of a New Orleans jazz funeral and a version of "You Rascal, You" with Louis Jordan, and his brilliant trumpet is everywhere in evidence. Just as important as what's here is what's left out. Many of Armstrong's greatest recordings---those with King Oliver, all the Hot Fives and Hot Sevens of the late 1920s, the 1947 Town Hall concert, the '50s tributes to W.C. Handy and Fats Waller, and the late encounter with Duke Ellington--aren't touched. What's left is a fascinating and satisfying portrait of Armstrong that doesn't necessarily lead to a great deal of duplication in an expanding collection of his work. --Stuart Broomer
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