The Hot Fives & Sevens

As good as classic jazz gets
Prior to purchasing this set, I read a lot about the competing versions of the complete hot fives and hot sevens. Reviews and articles seemed evenly divided, with about half preferring this set, and about half preferring The Complete Hot Five and Hot Seven Recordings. In the end I chose this one because the reviews were slightly more favorable, and the packaging fits well with my collection, whereas the other set was said in some cases to have even faulty packaging. I would have to say that as far as I am concerned, the "quality of recording" issue was a non-starter. Sure there are occasional snaps and glitches and runs of white noise, but I have a lot of recordings that are far, far worse than these, and to my ears, these sound pretty clean overall. As for the music itself, well, it's Satchmo at his best mostly accompanied by the group that helped him make his name. Of course the songs are quaint and dated now, but I found everything quite entertaining nonetheless. (If you're a jazz fanatic, you know: you can't listen to the same kind of stuff all the time; you've got to mix it up!) All four CD's have a good mix of songs, even including some background (or up-front) studio talk, and the liner notes are generous and educating. Lots of classic songs, classic performances, and a wide-open window looking into the history and evolution of the American art form that is jazz. This set has a great return on investment and hours of enjoyable music. It's wonderful!

One out of four have Louie's voice
Three of the four CD's have very little vocals on them. One of the four CD's is worth the price because Louis sings on it often. I like his voice as well as his magnificent horn.

Armstrong's hot 5 and hot 7
What can I say - it is Armstrong's groundbreaking period in Music history. There was no band before, that played this way, making Armstrong a musical innovator. So simply for his awesome music (Gully Low Blues, Skid Dat De Dat, Cornet Chop Suey, Potatoe Head Blues, Melancholy Blues, the list goes on) 5 stars! As for the sound quality - people keep arguing about this box set and the Columbia set, which I unfortunately have not heard. Those judgments ALWAYS depend on the sound equipment (mainly loudspeaker system) one set might sound better on one system as the other. Then again not quite as good on another system, while the other set sounds better, simply depending on the mix of each set and what frequencies each sound-system "favors"- generally I don't think there's too much of a difference in sound, to significantly make a difference, especially not with average Sound equipment. And don't forget "Modern" technology can only do so much with a single track recording - push it toward the mid, high or low (there's more to it, but you get the idea) - so go ahead and pick up this CD-Box set for yourself - you won't regret it - unless you're a sound maniac in which case you simply have to get both CD-sets. J.S.

On the JSP vs Columbia debate
As the review by Comic Online here - well worth consulting - reminds us: the historical importance and sheer delight of this music vastly outweighs issues of presentation. If you cue up, say, "Potato Head Blues" - and can spend more than a moment or two critically assessing the cleanliness of the bass frequencies before strutting around your living room like an umbrella man at the end of a New Orleans jazz funeral - I'm afraid you've lost the plot. But ironically, it's the very preciousness of this art that makes us all the more eager to see it framed as perfectly as possible. So the debate over editions must have its moment. But as we proceed, remember C.S. Lewis's observation in "The Great Divorce": the book lover so enamored of his first editions that he no longer enjoys reading has fallen victim to one of the subtlest traps. Richard Cook and Brian Morton - in their authoritative "The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings" - give both the JSP and Columbia editions a rare fifth star, their highest accolade: "To our ears, while there are numerous differences along the way, both sets do a remarkable job on the material, and it's hard to see anyone being disappointed with either." Given that I don't have the Columbia discs for direct comparison, that's enough to reassure me that I'm not missing out on anything important musically. Columbia's booklet is said to be as superior as their corporate financial advantages could make it - but who ever reads those more than once or twice? My philosophy of audio restoration leans toward the preservation of as much original ambience as possible - even at the cost of increased surface noise, for which I have perhaps a higher-than-average tolerance. Although this would - on the basis of Comic Online's description - seem to favor Columbia, the very high reputation of John R.T. Davies in general and this example of his work in particular satisfies me that the baby has not been parted from the bath water. Finally, in a purely extra-musical consideration that may be of no importance to you at all: Which company would it would make you feel better to support with your purchase dollars? This small, labor-of-love outfit that undertook the project out of a sincere affection for the music? Or the multinational conglomerate who, in a spare moment from manufacturing PlayStations, figured it could wring a little extra income from a copyright that has been lazily exploited for many decades now?

Rockin' the Hooverville
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.