The recordings on this CD date from the last days of Louis Armstrong’s membership in the King Oliver Creole Jazz Band until the time when he left the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra to join his wife Lil Hardin’s Dreamland Syncopators, at which time also Armstrong’s famous Hot Five formed to record.
The first five tracks feature Armstrong playing second cornet with the Oliver band. Other than the two takes of the Fletcher Henderson’s Orchestra playing Mandy Make Up Your Mind, the other tracks all have the same five-piece combo drawn from the Henderson Orchestra, led by Armstrong, accompanying the singers, Ma Rainey’s being called her Georgia Jazz Band, Trixie Smith’s her Down Home Syncopators, and Coot Grant and Wesley Wilson’s simply the Fletcher Henderson’s Orchestra, despite its consisting of only five pieces.
Of all the cuts on this CD, perhaps the first five will be most familiar. Mabel’s Dream and Riverside Blues are often given an outing by today’s traditional jazz bands, Southern Stomps a little less so. David Sager’s notes provide a useful analysis of each of the tracks, where he points out some special effects to listen for, often between a track and its alternate. As he says, speaking of Southern Stomps, a favorite of mine, one should listen to Oliver and Armstrong “engage in some of the harmonized breaks that drive the crowd wild at Lincoln gardens.
