Louis Armstrong: The Complete Louis Armstrong In New York 1924-1925
Mosaic’s spectacular cornucopia embraces the complete recordings from Armstrong’s first period in New York, where his stature in music was first recognised. The sound quality of the music on this six-CD set – taken from original 78s – has been painstakingly improved, and is the best that these sides have received. It can be sampled on Mosaic’s product page for the release. The result is the most compelling acoustic recordings I’ve heard – from 1925 onwards, it’s a mix of acoustic and electric. Settings include the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra, small bands – Clarence Williams Five, Red Onion Jazz Babies, and other instrumental outshoots – plus dates supporting Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Sippie Wallace, Alberta Hunter and others. Don Redman, Buster Bailey, James P. Johnson and Charlie Green are featured.
Armstrong came to New York in October 1924 on the invitation of Fletcher Henderson, leader of the most significant black dance band of the time. However, I find most of the Henderson sides stiff and hard to take – clarinet choirs are not a happy innovation. As the sleevenotes mildly put it, “In 1924 his style still bore traces of the novelty style.” Armstrong and Charlie Green apart, it’s unjazzy and sweet. On Manda, solos are jaunty and stiff, including that of 19-year-old saxophonist Coleman Hawkins – though he quickly learned from Armstrong.
After a year with Armstrong – who played jazz organically, rather than applying jazz elements to his style – the band had loosened up and produced the delightful Sugar Foot Stomp, a reinterpretation of Dippermouth Blues that’s an album highlight. Armstrong’s wonderful solo comes early. Arranger Don Redman brings the band down, before the explosion with Ralph Escudero playing four-four time on tuba.
As the sleeve notes say, the Clarence Williams sides show the greatest depth of Armstrong’s musicianship, presaging his work in later 1925 with the Hot Five. With Clarence Williams’ Blue Five, Armstrong supports singer Virginia Liston. On Cake Walking Babies with Clarence Williams’ Red Onion Jazz Babies, Armstrong and Bechet support Alberta Hunter, the three horns – Armstrong, Bechet and Charlie Irvis – harmonising on the first three notes of the melody. Bechet is in florid form from the outset. The same band’s Of All The Wrongs You’ve Done To Me has a modern-sounding solo by Armstrong. Lewis Porter writes that “It is entirely composed of two- or three-note fragments which he places in constantly surprising relationships to the incessant stop-time backing.”
There are five classics by Bessie Smith with Louis Armstrong and Fred Longshaw (harmonium or piano), and a later six sides with Charlie Green added. St. Louis Blues is so slow that the recording has only one chorus of the composition’s multi-strains — two 12-bar choruses, a 16-bar minor-keyed habanera and final 12-bar chorus. On these sides, Armstrong mostly duets with Smith, rather than soloing. The excellent session notes are by David Sager and by Ricky Riccardi, Director of Research Collections for the Louis Armstrong House Museum, and author of a superb three-volume biography of Armstrong
Discography
A full tracklist is given on Mosaic’s discography page for this set.
Personnel include: Armstrong (c); Sidney Bechet, Don Redman, Buster Bailey (cl); Charlie Green (tb); James P. Johnson (p); Fred Longshaw (harm, p); Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Sippie Wallace, Alberta Hunter and others (v).
Mosaic #286
Jason Kao Hwang Human Rites Trio: Second Life
Violinist Jason Kao Hwang, bassist Ken Filiano, and drummer and percussionist Andrew Drury have performed together in many settings over the past two decades. Their debut album, Human Rites Trio, appeared in 2020. The follow-up is in similar vein, and features four extended compositions by Hwang.
The violinist, born 1957, is Chinese-American. His parents emigrated to the USA from Hunan after WWII, and he was born in Lake Forest, Illinois. He studied classical violin, then film and TV at New York University. Since the late 70s, he’s worked with Anthony Braxton, Fred Ho and Bill Dixon, but increasingly focused on Asian-American jazz. His chamber opera The Floating Box: A Story In Chinatown was released on New World Records in 2005. His extended composition Burning Bridge, for jazz, classical and Chinese ensembles, explores his identity as an Asian-American.
The album opens with Galaxies Twist Under Before It, which creates a gorgeous swinging groove, and features a long, punchy and impassioned solo by the leader. It’s the liveliest piece on the album. The eventful What To Keep, What To Let Go begins as a rubato dirge, but switches tempos. From its tentative opening, Second Life moves into a plangent theme stated on violin, and finally an uptempo exploration. Drury creates a wonderful variety of sounds on drums and percussion – his kit includes gongs, aluminium pots, stainless steel bowls, a Tibetan prayer bowl, bells and shells and a sink faucet escutcheon. String sonorities make the album dry-sounding, but it’s distinctive and intriguing. Highly recommended.
Discography
Galaxies Twist Under Before It; What To Keep, What To Let Go; Second Life; Ricochet (55.40)
Jason Kao Hwang (vn), Ken Filiano (b); Andrew Drury (d, pc). Paramus, NJ, 18-19 March, 2024.
True Sound Recordings TS07
Judi Silvano’s Garden Winds: First Flight
Judi Silvano has had a stellar career. Trained in music and dance at Temple University, she sang with Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra. She moved to New York in 1976 and built a career that runs on parallel tracks – choreographer and dancer, painter, jazz vocalist, composer. She is married to saxophonist Joe Lovano. Bassoonist Claire de Brunner is a founder of post-punk band 101 Crustaceans, and studied jazz improvisation with Lee Konitz and Connie Crothers. Flutist Haruna Fukazawa, from Tokyo, trained classically before her mentor Frank Wess encouraged her move to New York, launching her improvising career.
First Flight is a three-way conversation. Gathering features Silvano’s percussion that connects the two wind instruments. Flower Talk distils her vocalese approach, improvised syllables that are closer to a fourth instrumental voice than to conventional lyric singing. Note that this is vocalese not scat – the idiom is more contemporary composition than jazz, strictly perhaps it’s free improv or free jazz. I’m not a fan of vocalese in any form, in fact – interpreters of a lyric in the Holiday tradition are more my bag – so maybe I’m not the best person to review this disc. But if you’re a fan of the genre, the musicianship on display here should appeal.
Discography
First Flight; Gathering; Flock Of Three; Stravinsky; Passing Through; This Morning; On The Deck; Beaverbrook; Coming Together (33.34)
Silvano (v, pc), Haruna Fukazawa (f); Claire de Brunner (bsn). New York, 1 July 2024.
JSL Records #011