Armand Hug Plays A.J. Piron & Other Delectable Ditties

Armand Hug (1910-77) was one of the top pianists to be active in New Orleans during the 1950s, ‘60s and ‘70s. A professional from the age of 13, he first recorded in 1936 on two songs with Sharkey Bonano but he did not begin to record regularly until 1949. While he made records with Santo Pecora, Johnny Wiggs, Tony Parenti, Bob Havens, and Eddie Miller among others, his most significant sessions were as a soloist and leader of small combos. Although he could hint at the earlier greats and sound a bit like Jelly Roll Morton when he wanted, Hug had his own style within New Orleans jazz. Suffice it to say that if Hug appears on a recording, it is always well worth acquiring.

Armand Hug Plays A.J. Piron & Other Delectable Ditties features the pianist at several different sessions. It begins with solo piano versions of eight songs credited to Piron including “I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate” (which Louis Armstrong always said that he actually wrote). On such numbers as “Bouncin’ Around,” “Kiss Me Sweet,” “Purple Rose Of Cairo,” and “Mama’s Gone, Goodbye” (originally released as a Paramount ten-inch Lp from 1953), Hug varies tempos and moods while always swinging. He is also featured as a solo pianist on eight numbers from his repertoire recorded for the Circle label in 1951 including “Cannonball Rag,” “Milneberg Joys,” “Eye Opener,” and one of the earliest recordings of Scott Joplin’s “Heliotrope Bouquet.”

In addition, this CD has two selections that were possibly previously unreleased on which Hug is joined in 1955 by trombonist Jack Delaney, guitarist Joe Capraro, bassist Chink Martin, and singer Jo Linn (“If I Had My Way” and “Angry”), plus three songs (including a guitar feature for Capraro on “All Of Me”) taken from Hug’s His Piano In New Orleans Southland LP of the early 1960s.

Plays A.J. Piron & Other Delectable Ditties is an excellent place to start in appreciating the infectious and distinctive piano playing of Armand Hug.

Armand Hug Plays A.J. Piron & Other Delectable Ditties
GHB BCD-479
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Scott Yanow

Since 1975 Scott Yanow has been a regular reviewer of albums in many jazz styles. He has written for many jazz and arts magazines, including JazzTimes, Jazziz, Down Beat, Cadence, CODA, and the Los Angeles Jazz Scene, and was the jazz editor for Record Review. He has written an in-depth biography on Dizzy Gillespie for AllMusic.com. He has authored 11 books on jazz, over 900 liner notes for CDs and over 20,000 reviews of jazz recordings. Yanow was a contributor to and co-editor of the third edition of the All Music Guide to Jazz. He continues to write for Downbeat, Jazziz, the Los Angeles Jazz Scene, the Jazz Rag, the New York City Jazz Record and other publications.