The music of the Hot Five and the Hot Seven is considered by most critics to be among the finest recordings in Jazz history.
On November 12th, 1925 Louis Armstrong made his first records that bore his name as bandleader. The songs on the Okeh 78 rpm record were “My Heart“, and “Cornet Chop Suey”. The band was made up mostly of musicians from King Oliver‘s Creole Jazz Band. The first version of the band featured Johnny Dodds on clarinet, Kid Ory on trombone, Johnny St. Cyr on banjo and Louis’s wife, Lil Hardin-Armstrong on piano.
These were informal settings that all concerned remember as a good time. Louis picked all the musicians that he wanted to play on the sessions and the record company generally left them alone to do what they wanted. The song “Heebie Jeebies” is generally the first recorded example of scat singing, although there are several examples on records that predate this recording. On the December of 1927 sides Lonnie Johnson joins the band for three tracks, “I’m Not Rough”, “Hotter Than That”, and “Savoy Blues”. Earl Hines plays piano on all of the 1928 sessions, and the beautiful celeste parts on “Basin Street Blues”.
| Title | Recording Date | Recording Location | Company |
| A Monday Date (Earl Hines) |
7-27-1928 | Chicago, Illinois | Okeh 8609 |
| Basin Street Blues (Spencer Williams) |
12-4-1928 | Chicago, Illinois | Okeh 8690 |
| Big Butter and Egg Man Vocal Chorus By May Alix (Percy Venable / Louis Armstrong) |
11-16-1926 | Chicago, Illinois | Okeh 8423-A |
| Big Fat Ma And Skinny Pa Vocal Chorus by Louis Armstrong (Richard M. Jones) |
6-23-1926 | Chicago, Illinois | Okeh 8379-A |
| Come Back Sweet Papa (Paul Barbarin / Luis Russell) |
2-22-1926 | Chicago, Illinois | Okeh 8318-B |
| Cornet Chop Suey ((Louis Armstrong) |
2-26-1926 | Chicago, Illinois | Okeh 8320-A |
| Don’t Forget To Mess Around Vocal Chorus by Louis Armstrong (Paul Barbarin) |
2-26-1926 | Chicago, Illinois | Okeh 8343-A |
| Dropin’ Shucks Vocal Chorus by Louis Armstrong (Lil Hardin) |
6-16-1926 | Chicago, Illinois | Okeh 8357 |
| Fireworks (Spencer Williams) |
7-27-1928 | Chicago, Illinois | Okeh 8597 |
| Georgia Grind Vocal Chorus by Louis Armstrong and Lillian Armstrong (Spencer Williams) |
2-26-1926 | Chicago, Illinois | Okeh 8318-A |
| Got No Blues (Lil Hardin) |
12-9-1927 | Chicago, Illinois | Okeh 8551 |
| Gut Bucket Blues (Louis Armstrong) |
11-12-1925 | Chicago, Illinois | Okeh 8261-A |
| He Like It Slow Vocal Duet Butterbeans and Susie (W. Benton Overstreet) |
7-18-1926 | Chicago, Illinois | Okeh 8355-B |
| Heebie Jeebies Vocal Chorus by Louis Armstrong (Boyd Atkins) |
2-26-1926 | Chicago, Illinois | Okeh 8300-A |
| Hotter Than That (Lil Hardin) |
12-13-1927 | Chicago, Illinois | Okeh 8535 |
| I’m Gonna Gitcha Vocal Chorus by Louis Armstrong (Lil Hardin) |
6-16-1926 | Chicago, Illinois | Okeh 8343-B |
| I’m Not Rough (Lil Hardin / Louis Armstrong) |
12-10-1927 | Chicago, Illinois | Okeh 8551 |
| Irish Black Bottom (Percy Venable) |
11-27-1926 | Chicago, Illinois | Okeh 8447-B |
| Jazz Lips (Lil Hardin / Louis Armstrong / S. Robbin) |
11-16-1926 | Chicago, Illinois | Okeh 8436 |
| Knee Drops (Lil Hardin) |
6-29-1928 | Chicago, Illinois | Okeh 8631 |
| Lonesome Blues Vocal Chorus by Louis Armstrong (Lil Hardin) |
7-23-1926 | Chicago, Illinois | Okeh 8396-B Okeh 41581 |
| Muskrat Ramble (Kid Ory) |
2-26-1926 | Chicago, Illinois | Okeh 8300-B |
| My Heart (Lil Hardin) |
11-12-1925 | Chicago, Illinois | Okeh 8320-B |
| No Papa No (Victoria Spivey) |
6-29-1928 | Chicago, Illinois | Okeh 8690 |
| Once In A While (Butler) |
12-10-1927 | Chicago, Illinois | Okeh 8566 |
| Oriental Strut (Johnny St. Cyr) |
2-26-1926 | Chicago, Illinois | Okeh 8299-B |
| Ory’s Creole Trombone (Kid Ory) |
9-2-1927 | Chicago, Illinois | Okeh 8503 |
| Put ‘Em Down Blues (E. Bennett) |
9-2-1927 | Chicago, Illinois | Okeh 8503 |
| Savoy Blues (Kid Ory) |
12-13-1927 | Chicago, Illinois | Okeh 8535 |
| Skid-Dat-De-Dat Scat Chorus by Louis Armstrong (Lil Hardin) |
11-16-1926 | Chicago, Illinois | Okeh 8436 |
| Skip The Gutter (Spencer Williams) |
7-27-1928 | Chicago, Illinois | Okeh 8631 |
| Squeeze Me (Clarence Williams / Thomas Waller) |
6-29-1928 | Chicago, Illinois | Okeh 8641 |
| Struttin’ With Some Barbecue (Lil Hardin) |
12-9-1927 | Chicago, Illinois | Okeh 8566 |
| Sunset Cafe Stomp (From “Sunset Cafe Revue”) Vocal Chorus By May Alix (Percy Venable / Louis Armstrong) |
11-16-1926 | Chicago, Illinois | Okeh 8423-B |
| Sweet Little Papa (Kid Ory) |
6-23-1926 | Chicago, Illinois | Okeh 8379-B |
| The King Of The Zulus (At A Chit’ Lin’ Rag) Talk by Clarence Babcock (Lil Hardin) |
6-23-1926 | Chicago, Illinois | Okeh 8396-A Okeh 41581 |
| Two Deuces (Lil Hardin) |
6-29-1928 | Chicago, Illinois | Okeh 8641 |
| West End Blues (King Oliver) |
7-28-1928 | Chicago, Illinois | Okeh 8597 Okeh 41078 |
| Who’ Sit (Richard M. Jones) |
6-16-1926 | Chicago, Illinois | Okeh 8357 |
| You Made Me Love You (Percy Venable / Louis Armstrong) |
11-27-1926 | Chicago, Illinois | Okeh 8447-A |
| You’re Next (Louis Armstrong) |
2-26-1926 | Chicago, Illinois | Okeh 8299-A |
| Yes! I’m In The Barrel (Louis Armstrong) |
11-12-1925 | Chicago, Illinois | Okeh 8261-B |
| Artist | Instrument |
| May Alix | Vocals |
| Lil Hardin-Armstrong | Piano |
| Louis Armstrong | Cornet, Vocals, Slide Whistle |
| Clarence Babcock | Talking |
| Butterbeans and Suzie (Joe and Susie Edwards) | Vocals |
| Mancy Carr | Banjo, Vocals |
| Hy Clark | Trombone |
| Johnny Dodds | Clarinet |
| Lonnie Johnson | Guitar |
| Earl Hines | Piano, Vocals |
| Kid Ory | Trombone |
| Fred Robinson | Trombone |
| Zutty Singleton | Drums |
| Johnny St. Cyr | Banjo, Guitar |
| Jimmy Strong | Clarinet, Tenor Saxophone |
Redhotjazz.com was a pioneering website during the "Information wants to be Free" era of the 1990s. In that spirit we are recovering the lost data from the now defunct site and sharing it with you.
Most of the music in the archive is in the form of MP3s hosted on Archive.org or the French servers of Jazz-on-line.com where this music is all in the public domain.
Files unavailable from those sources we host ourselves. They were made from original 78 RPM records in the hands of private collectors in the 1990s who contributed to the original redhotjazz.com. They were hosted as .ra files originally and we have converted them into the more modern MP3 format. They are of inferior quality to what is available commercially and are intended for reference purposes only. In some cases a Real Audio (.ra) file from Archive.org will download. Don't be scared! Those files will play in many music programs, but not Windows Media Player.
