The Complete Hot Five and Hot Seven Recordings

Armstrong's virtuosity on the cornet and trumpet alone would have been enough to ensure his fame. On the 1927 song "Heebie Jeebies," he forgot the lyrics and scatted them and became the first jazz singer, paving the way for Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, and Betty Carter. All in all, this set shows that Louis Armstrong's heroic talents enabled him to become the alpha and omega of 20th century music. As author Robert O'Meally, who wrote the superb liner notes to this well-packaged collection, puts it, "like Chaucer's poetry, which virtually begins the process of codifying the English language as a medium for sophisticated versification, Armstrong's Hot Fives and Hot Sevens provide a wide launching pad from which the history of the art of jazz takes flight." --Eugene Holley Jr.