The Hot Fives And Sevens Music Cd

Louis Armstrong - The Hot Fives And Sevens

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The Hot Fives & Sevens      Artist : Louis Armstrong      List Price : $28.98 USD        Your Price : $28.98 USD      ProductGroup: Music      Release Date : 1999-10-26      Studio : Jsp Records      Label : Jsp Records      Avg. Customer Rating : (55 reviews)

Reviews Customer Reviews for The Hot Fives And Sevens      Rockin' the Hooverville      Rating:      The stateside legality of this box set may be a bit dubious- this music is public domain in England, where copyright laws are a bit less stingy- but I don't think that you need to worry about federal agents kicking down your door. Like most import compilations of American pre-war music, these four discs live in a legal grey area here in the states, and it's a fairly light grey, at that. And there's hardly anything immoral about it: The people who created this music don't have much use for royalty payments, what with their being dead and all. In any case, purchasing this box set instead of the inferior and overpriced Sony package sends a good message to the big companies while providing monetary support to one of the greatest reissue labels in the history of mankind. Anyway, the fact that it's 2008 and you still pay for your music already makes you something akin to a saint. But then again, maybe you should buy whichever set you're comfortable with. I'm not here to extol the virtues of JSP or denounce Sony. The purpose of this review is to praise Louis Armstrong's recordings with the Hot Five and the Hot Seven, and that's exactly what I intend to do. This is some of the most joyous music in the history of mankind, a freewheeling evocation of a lost world bursting at the seams with thrill and rebellion and sweat and booze and love and melody, with horns swirling and speaking and singing over and around each other while pianos twinkle drunkenly beneath. Without ever sounding dated, these recordings effortlessly evoke a magical world of fun-filled speakeasies, irreverent flapper girls. And boundless investment opportunities in Florida land. You need to get this.     Customer Reviews for The Hot Fives And Sevens Cd      Is this the best available hot five and hot seven box?      Rating:      Frankly, I don't know. I still have two hot five and hot seven audio tapes bought in the late 1980s (edition CBS masterpieces) and they also sound pretty good (and I didn't drink no gin... sorry for the lame "Monday Date" joke). Basically, all I can say is, these cds sound great on my quite average cd player, confirming everything I have known about Armstrong before (and about Jimmy Dodds, Zutty Singleton, Baby Dodds, Kid Ory , Lonnie Johnson and others, while I must admit I'm only starting to get (and enjoy) Earl Hines. Aditional, non hot five and non hot seven tracks certainly augment my understanding of Satchmo and his golden era, with adittional thrill of Jack Teagarden, Eddie Lang or Hoagy Carmichael on some tracks. Admittedly, discs 3 and 4 contain some (commercial) duds, but the amount of brilliant music in this box is amazing... Just listen to the first, best or at least seminal versions of songs such as "Struttin' with some barbicue", "West End Blues", "Potato Head Blues", "S.O.L. Blues", "Fireworks", "Ain't Misbehavin", "Knockin' the Jug"; "St. James Infirmary".... BTW, it is important to know that many songs that have the word "blues" in their title don't really belong to that category... Just as the term jazz in the 20s didn't mean the same thing it means today. p.s. In very informative liner notes we read about banjoist Mancy Carr, while the song listing gives his name as Cara; if I remember my CBS Jazz masterpieces liner notes correctly, "Cara" was an early misprint that snowballed into the future decades. p.p.s. The only real fault of this cd box- names of authors of the songs are sometimes listed in the liner notes, there's no complete list... Ofcourse, some songs are by Ory, some by Lil Hardin/Armstorng, some by King Oliver, some by Fats Waller, but it would be nice to have the data next to the song title. But, the performers (and date) listing is complete. Editorial Reviews for The Hot Fives And Sevens Audio Cd      Amazon.com      Between 1925 and 1929, Louis Armstrong created one of the first great bodies of work in jazz. While he worked regularly as a soloist with big bands, he began his career as a leader with the first all-star studio group in jazz, the Hot Five. The other four musicians were Armstrong's wife, Lil Hardin Armstrong, on piano; Johnny Dodds on clarinet; Kid Ory on trombone; and Johnny St. Cyr on banjo. The music's first great soloist, Armstrong was reshaping jazz by sheer improvisational magic, gradually diminishing the role of the traditional New Orleans ensemble with the clarion brilliance of his trumpet. Possessing an uncanny blend of exuberance and creativity, he combined virtuosic declarations with a talent for the subtlest shifts in phrasing and melodic variation, creating rich emotional statements that could hint at loss in the midst of joy or the promise of better things in the most sorrowful blues. The band expands here, to the Hot Seven and larger ensembles, and it gains soloists who applied Armstrong's lessons to their own instruments--musicians such as pianist Earl Hines and trombonist Jack Teagarden--but all come under the imprint of Armstrong's flowering genius, as both trumpeter and singer. It's almost impossible to overrate this material. It may be the most influential music in jazz history, establishing standards for originality and sustained invention that have rarely been matched. The JSP set is a superb reissue of Armstrong's essential work. The remastering is by John R.T. Davies, widely acknowledged as the dean of engineers in the field of early jazz, and the resultant sound is simply the best this work has ever enjoyed. There are alternate takes of the later material on Columbia Legacy (including Louis in New York and St. Louis Blues), so collectors will want both. But this recording is superior listening, at a price that also makes it an ideal introduction to one of the few titans of jazz. --Stuart Broomer