[ a non-commercial project ]

The history of jazz sessionwise has yet to be written. If this will ever be the case there is no doubt that it will make an important con-tribution and fill a wide gap. The reason is that jazz owes most of its recognition and dissemination to records.

There are good and bad sessions, of course. Let us watch Louis Armstrong who is generally recognized as the greatest individual figure in jazz during the course of a recording day so to speak.

The day was May 18 and the year 1936. The year before Louis had returned from Europe were he had met a triumphal success. Back in the USA people were taking into account that the boy from the waif's home in New Orleans was not just a trumpet player and Singer but a personality which manifested itself on the stage and in films. On records Armstrong was very much in demand with various ensembles such as the Mills Brothers (EPB 10 093), Jimmy Dorsey Bing Crosby the Casa Loma Band and a Spiritual Choir (EPB 10 074).

But during this time of transition Armstrong mostly made use of the band of Luis Russell who still had one of the best rhythm sections with Pops Foster on bass and Paul Barbarin on drums.

Two of the tunes are written by Hoagy Carmichael, viz. "Ev'ntide" and "Lyin' To Myself" who has such lovely melodies to his credit as "Stardust" "Georgia On My Mind" and "The Nearness of You" to name only three. "ThankfuI" is a popular tune of the day and "Swing that Music" was written by Armstrong in collaboration with Horace Gerlach. This was later the title of a book which Armstrong has written also in collaboration with Gerlach. Louis has dedicated it "to the memory of the Original 'Dixieland Five', to King Oliver to Bix Beiderbecke and Eddie Lang, now gone, and those other pioneers of a quarter of a Century past, known and unknown, who created and carried to the world a native American music, who created Swing. And, finally to the young musicians of today who will carry it on."