On July 12, 2024 Verve Records released the great album Louis in London, presented as the last great performance by the most influential American musician of all time, containing the following 13 songs performed live at the BBC: “When It’s Sleepy Time Down South”, “Indiana”, “A Kiss to Build a Dream On”, “Hello, Dolly!”, “Mame”, “You’ll Never Walk Alone”, “Ole Miss”, “Blueberry Hill”, “Mack the Knife”, “Rockin’ Chair”, “The Bare Necessities”, “What a Wonderful World”, “When the Saints Go Marching In”.
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The songs of the present album were recorded on July 2, 1968 when Louis Armstrong and his All Stars were filmed during two concerts for BBC television for the program “Show of the Week — Louis Armstrong”. Subsequently, on July 3 at the New Victoria and on July 4 at the Odeon Hammersmith, the unique artist and his All Stars were performing another two, sold out London shows a day, with Louis Armstrong celebrating his 68th birthday at the latter venue. Aged only 69, the greatest jazz trumpeter and jazz singer of all time died of a heart attack in his sleep in New York City three years later on July 6, 1971.
Louis Armstrong in front of his All Stars at the BBC in 1968. Photograph copyright © BBC Photo Archive.
In his liner notes, Louis Armstrong’s biographer and Director of Research Collections for the Louis Armstrong House Museum in Queens (NYC), Ricky Riccardi, writes that Louis Armstrong naturally opens the BBC session with “When It’s Sleepy Time Down South”, his theme song since the early 1930s and the musician’s all time favorite.
Ricky Riccardi stresses that the BBC concert version of “Hello, Dolly!” is a special one with a forceful trumpet solo — dig the quotes of “Japanese Sandman” and “Stormy Wheather” — and two soul-affirming encores.
Released in 1964, his single “Hello, Dolly!” had reached No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, dethroning The Beatles who had had three of their songs at No. 1 for 14 consecutive weeks. In addition, “Hello, Dolly!” won the Song of the Year and Male Vocal Performance awards at the 7th Annual Grammy Awards in 1965.
Louis Armstrong in 1968. Photograph copyright © BBC Photo Archive.
Many may now the song “You’ll Never Walk Alone” as the official F.C. Liverpool hymn, where it is based on the 1963 cover version by the local band Gerry and the Pacemakers. The original song by composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein was written in 1945 for the musical Carousel. The cousin of the female lead sings it to comfort the widow who lost her husband who accidentally stabbed himself with a knife whilst trying to run away from the police. In the final scene of the musical, the song is reprised to encourage a graduation class, of which the male lead’s daughter is a member. The man who killed himself is allowed to return to Earth for one day to redeem himself. He manages to encourage his wife and daughter to join in with the song.
At the 1968 BBC concert, Louis Armstrong explains regarding “You’ll Never Walk Alone”: “And now, folks, in America, we always dedicated this next number to all the mothers who have sons in Vietnam.”
Jazz trumpeter and singer Louis Armstrong. Photograph copyright © courtesy of the Louis Amstrong House Museum in Queens, New York City.
My three favorite performances on the album Louis in London are “Hello, Dolly!”, “Blueberry Hill” (composed by Vincent Rose, with lyrics by Larry Stock and Al Lewis, originally published in 1940) and the song expressing pure love for our planet, “What a Wonderful World”.
“What a Wonderful World” had topped the UK pop charts several weeks in 1967; it performed purely in the USA, where the song written by Bob Thiele and George David Weiss, orchestrated by Tommy Goodman, was not promoted by ABC-Paramount President Larry Newton, who was not in the know about the recording and unhappy about the budget blown for this “sentimental” song. “What a Wonderful World” was written as a message of hope and optimism in times of war, assassinations, riots and political unrest. It is my all time favorite song associated with Louis Armstrong.
The trumpeter and singer himself told the BBC in 1968 that he sang “What a Wonderful World” with such love and warmth because it reminded him of all the kids he watched grow up on his block in Corona, Queens, home of the Louis Armstrong House Museum today.
Jazz trumpeter and singer Louis Armstrong and his wife Lucille Wilson. Photograph copyright © courtesy of the Louis Amstrong House Museum in Queens, New York City.
Regarding the album’s last song, “When the Saints Go Marching In”, Ricky Riccardi underlines that Louis Armstrong had helped transform this song from a staid spiritual into a jazz classic with his original Decca recording made some 30 years before the joyous renditions during the two BBC televised sets in London.
Louis Armstrong was so proud of his London recordings that he began making copies of the audio tapes, sending them to friends as well as the All Star musicians.
In 1970, his health recovered to the point that, with his doctor’s blessing, Louis Armstrong headed to Las Vegas for his comeback with the All Stars. It was too early. In early 1971, he complained of shortness of breath. His doctor warned him he could die on stage. He recovered again. In March 1971, he performed two shows a night at the Waldorf Astoria in NYC. He needed oxygen between the sets. Subsequently, he suffered a heart attack. As mentioned above, a few weeks later, he died in his sleep in Corona, Queens.
Before his death, nine songs of the London tapes were issued by the Brunswick label in 1970, selected by Louis Armstrong himself. He even issued one more album in 1971, Louis “Country and Western” Armstrong, recorded in August 1970. Furthermore, a few years ago, a concert recording from the National Press Club in January 1971 was released and marketed as Armstrong’s final recording. According to Ricky Riccardi, this is all true. It included the last sanctioned release of live music made during Armstrong’s lifetime. But the BBC recordings were his last great, live takes, the ones he wanted his fans to listen to. The present album contains four more songs and a longer, better version of “Hello, Dolly!” than the 1970 Brunswick release.
Line up for Louis in London: Louis Armstrong (trumpet, vocals), Tyree Greene (trombone and vocals on “Rockin’ Chair”), Joe Muranyi (clarinet), Marty Napoleon (piano), Buddy Catlet (bass), Danny Barcelona (drums).
Order the great album with 13 songs, Louis in London, in the Audio CD format from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.fr, Amazon.de. Order the Vinyl LP from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.fr, Amazon.de.
If you read German, have a look at our detailed Louis Amstrong biography.
For a better reading, quotations and partial quotations from the liner notes of this album / CD / Vinyl review have not been put between quotation marks.
Album / CD / Vinyl review added on July 21, 2024 at 21:06 German time.
