Music Pick: Hot Fives and Hot Sevens

Between November 12, 1925, and March 5, 1929, Louis Armstrong waxed 90 sides collectively known as the Hot Fives and Hot Sevens which are the Holy Grail in the advent of jazz as the first original Amer...ican art form. In the fall of 1925, Louis was still recording only "race records", jazz and blues marketed strictly to blacks. Chicago based Okeh Records, a leading race records label, noticed any record with Armstrong sold well, inspiring them to sign Louis to an exclusive contract to front a combo just for the recording studio. Using the jazz idiom of the day, Okeh came up with the name 'Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five', which quickly turned the jazz community on its head and began spreading Armstrong's phenomenal creativity throughout the nation and world. Fans eagerly awaited each new side to glean the latest Armstrong developments in the jazz vocabulary. His playing was profound and revolutionary. This wasn't "Hello Dolly"; this was Avant-garde. The feature "Potato Head Blues" from May 10, 1927, is one of the best, and one of 11 sides by Armstrong's Hot Seven, which only recorded for one week in the entire three plus years of the series. The end of the Hot Fives and Sevens saw Louis crossover to front a Big Band for eighteen years till he reformed the Hot Five concept into the six piece All Stars aggregation for another 24 year run. Besides a great name, Potato Head Blues is pure Armstrong joy.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udWB3OKV9_k