On what would have been Louis Armstrong’s 122nd birthday, Blue Engine Records has released Wynton Marsalis Plays Louis Armstrong’s Hot Fives and Sevens, a live recording captured at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theater in 2006.
The lineup includes many of Marsalis’s longtime collaborators: Wycliffe Gordon (tuba, trombone, bass, vocals), Vincent Gardner (trombone), Victor Goines (clarinet), Walter Blanding (saxophones), “Papa” Don Vappie (banjo, guitar), Jon Batiste (piano), Carlos Henriquez (bass), and Ali Jackson (drums).
Originally recorded in the 1920s, Louis Armstrong‘s Hot Fives and Hot Sevens sides are still hailed as some of the greatest and most influential jazz sessions ever captured. On this recording, Marsalis — himself an acclaimed trumpeter from New Orleans — reimagines classics from those sessions like “Basin Street Blues,” “St. James Infirmary,” and “Heebie Jeebies.”
The album was released by Blue Engine Records, the label owned by Jazz at Lincoln Center which makes its vast archive of recorded concerts available to audiences. Launched in 2015, releases new studio and live recordings as well as archival recordings from Jazz at Lincoln Center’s performance history that date back to 1987 and are part of the R. Theodore Ammon Archives and Music Library.
Here’s the track listing:
- Potato Head Blues
- Twelfth Street Rag
- Skid-Dat-De-Dat
- Jazz Lips
- St. James Infirmary
- Weary Blues
- Melancholy Blues
- Heebie Jeebies
- Once in a While
- Ory’s Creole Trombone
- Basin Street Blues
- Savoy Blues
- Cornet Chop Suey
- Fireworks
Wynton Marsalis Plays Louis Armstrong’s Hot Fives and Sevens is out Aug. 4, 2023, via Blue Engine Records.
