Louis Armstrong Live in France Hand-Numbered Limited Edition LP

TAS Rated 4/5 Music, 3/5 Sonics in the February 2021 Issue of The Absolute Sound!

Part of Dot Time's Legends Series, Louis Armstrong Live In France features the audio from a quintessential European performance by the great Louis Armstrong which was recovered from the archives of the Louis Armstrong House Museum. Louis Armstrong Live In France features the audio from a 1948 performance recorded from Louis Armstrong and His All Stars' run at the Nice Opera House in Paris. This historical concert marked Armstrong's performance at the first ever Nice International Jazz Festival.

This is the first time this music has ever been made commerically available.

Dot Time has performed a valuable service to the music lover community by releasing this LP. Louis Armstrong Live in France could have been a sloppy release put out by a record label that's just looking to cash in. Instead, we get a pressing that is dead silent, so you aren't struggling to hear the magic over all sorts of surface noise. This certainly isn't an expansive sound - in fact, it's kind of the opposite - but the tonality of this band is superb. You can hear that intensity in every note, that feeling that this European tour is important because the Europeans got Louis a long time ago and they never let go. That's the spirit you should have while listening to this remarkable discovery. If you love Louis as much as I do, you'll appreciate this utterly new perspective on his genius and consider it mandatory for any record collection.

Like much of Armstrong's work, this sextet directed their rhythms toward the dancefloor - heading first for the hips and letting the brain catch up after the song splashed to a conclusion. And the audible, rollicking joy these men brought to this concert, even some 70 years later, remains infectious.

This is the fifth recent Dot Time release dedicated to previously unissued Louis Armstrong recordings, and probably the best. Why? Because this early edition of his All-Stars band lived up to its name more than any other, with Jack Teagarden on trombone, Barney Bigard on clarinet, Earl Hines on piano, and Big Sid Catlett on drums. When this outfit gets going, the level of virtuosic fireworks has to be heard to be believed... It's worth noting that, while Armstrong had been cast as a jazz anti-modernist at this time, the wild collective improvisations of these 'moldy figs' made the arrangements of even the most outré boppers seem almost tame, while the more grounded melodic and harmonic approach helps give the music an almost elemental power. It is difficult not to be moved by tracks like 'Black and Blue,' and impossible to sit still for stompers like 'Panama' and "Royal Garden Blues.' Sound quality is variable, sometimes pretty good and sometimes just good enough, but the transcendent music more than makes up for it.