PLEASE help me find . . . Count Basie and Louis Armstrong

[HIFI]

I need to add some Count Basie and Louis Armstrong to my collection.

 

Will you suggest the best recording for purchase, any format including vinyl?

 

I am looking for Corner Pocket, CB and St. James Infirmary, LA.

 

Thanks in advance.

[Old Listener]

You often have to choose between early recordings with the best performances and later ones with better sound.

 

Corner pocket, CB - Compact Jazz - Count Basie. The Compact Jazz series often has a good compromise between performance and sound.

 

For Other Basie, the (American) Decca One O'Clock Jump CD has fine fairly early Basie recordings.

 

Basie recorded lots of albums well into the modern sound period. Farmer Market Barbeque is one of those albums.

 

St. James Infirmary, LA. - The Complete Hot Fives and Hot Sevens in a fancy long box has a fine up tempo version. The Satchmo Plays King Oliver CD has a slower version in modern sound.

 

Satch Plays Fats CD has really fine performances of Fats Waller material. The remastered 2000 version is the one to get. Highly recommended.

[orgel]

I find this CD box set (recommended to me by another CA participant) to be a really great compendium of Louis in his prime:

 

Amazon.com: Hot Fives & Sevens: Music

 

JSP has done an amazing job of making these vintage recordings sound good (and you can find "St James Infirmary" on Disc 3).

 

(IOW, +1 on Old Listener's recommendation.)

 

--David

[Paul R]

This is an unusual cut, and the recording quality is less than stellar, but the performance is fantastic. Recorded in 1972, when Louis was getting a bit frail, you would never know it from the recording.

 

Smithsonian Folkways - Satchmo at the National Press Club: Red Beans and Rice-ly Yours - Louis Armstrong, Tyree Glenn, Tommy Gwaltney

[orgel]

Recorded in 1972, when Louis was getting a bit frail, you would never know it from the recording.

 

I was going to say Louis really couldn't play very well in his later years (nothing whatsoever against one of the all-time greats), but on reflection, I guess he does sound amazingly good, considering he died in 1971.

 

--David

[Paul R]

I was going to say Louis really couldn't play very well in his later years (nothing whatsoever against one of the all-time greats), but on reflection, I guess he does sound amazingly good, considering he died in 1971.

 

--David

 

Picky picky picky... recorded at a National Press Club dinner in 1971 five months before his death, and released in 1972.

-Paul