Louis Armstrong–West end Blues, denton write up

We have previously shared with you one of our favorite clips, Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five playing King Oliver’s composition, “West End Blues.” The response has not been all that great, but we recognize that it takes time to get to know and then like some of the jazz tunes we post.

Recently, we came across a short analysis of “West End Blues,” written by Brian Denton in 2016, and we wanted to share it with you. What was amazing to us came in the third paragraph, which describes Armstrong’s work in opera. We had known of Benny Goodman’s interest in playing classical music for the clarinet, but Armstrong’s work came as a complete surprise; but what a pleasant surprise. We need to keep music in perspective: good music is good music, no matter what genre it may occupy.

Now, onto the Denton quote. He starts the discussion with an observation about the opening solo trumpet passage of “West End Blues,” something we call a cadenza for lack of a better word:

“That opening just kills it.

“Jazz critic Murray Horwitz has described it as “the most important 15 seconds in all of American music.” Deservedly so. There is a lot going on there, a lot that makes it such an important piece of music. Perhaps the most important thing about it, even more so than its virtuosic craftsmanship, is its distinctly American synthesis of musical styles.

“By the time Louis Armstrong took his band into a Chicago studio on June 28, 1928 to record “West End Blues” he had already become a master of many diverse types of music. While working with Erskin Tate’s symphony orchestra at the Vendome Theater he honed his classical music chops. Here he regularly performed such classical pieces as the Intermezzo from Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana and selections from Puccini’s Madame Butterfly. Meanwhile, he continued recording the hot New Orleans jazz he had been brought up in during his youth. You can hear these worlds collide beautifully in the opening of “West End Blues.” The first part of this outstanding trumpet solo is pure hot jazz in the New Orleans style: quick, pugilistic, high energy notes. But after this explosion of joy reaches its climax the rest of the band joins in and suddenly we settle down into a more slow, contemplative, and forlorn music in the classical vein though still squarely in the blues tradition.

“What follows this wonderful opening is a trombone solo by John Thomas. It’s a great little piece of music, accompanied as it is by Zutty Singleton, the drummer, playing a set of “horse’s hooves” that evokes the image of a downtrodden man making his sad way home on horseback after a hard day’s work. This gives way to a call-and-response section between the clarinetist Jimmy Strong and, in one of the earliest examples of scat singing, Louis Armstrong on vocals. It is a very sweet section, not at all like the ugly scatting stereotypes some would claim Armstrong fell into later in his career.

“Up next is Earl Hines’s masterful piano solo. You’ll be hard pressed to find anything touching it in the entire jazz canon. Hines, like Armstrong in his opening solo, combines the best of classical and jazz music. This is truly a music to behold. In fact, if you didn’t listen any further you’d feel that this piano solo is the highlight of the recording. But you haven’t heard anything yet.

“Armstrong closes the track out just how he started it: with a trumpet solo for the ages. This is music in the key of life. In it Armstrong uses his horn to tell a personal story of growing up in squalid poverty, suffering from paternal abandonment, and experiencing the harsh racial animus of American life all while simultaneously projecting a universal tale of sad endurance and mournful triumph.

“West End Blues” is music of unparalleled beauty, elegance, and sophistication. It deserves a place in everybody’s music library.”

We noticed much of the artistry that Denton discusses, so let’s see if we can add something that might further explain the light touch we hear in this music, along with Armstrong’s “sweet” scat singing. In our view, Armstrong took a rather ordinary composition by his mentor King Oliver, called “West End Blues,” and turned it into a tour de force of magnificent proportions. It starts off with a cadenza as difficult to play with a trumpet as the introductory cadenza to Rhapsody in Blue was to play with a clarinet. However, after the early section of the blues number is completed, Armstrong starts to sing sotto voce leaving the first section in the dust. From this point on, “West End Blues” starts to resemble West End Syncopated Lullaby. The song is still syncopated, but is a cross between Victor Herbert’s “Go to Sleep” from 1903’s Babes in Toyland and 1927’s “Russian Lullaby” by Irving Berlin. The scat vocal and matching instrumental reply end in a piano that cascades down to the final soft goodbye or goodnight.

The use of a syncopated lullaby can be found in George Gershwin’s opening number in Porgy and Bess. “Summertime” uses an alternating “high note-low note” repetition that one commentator called a musical “rocking chair.” This initial rhythm remains in place throughout the song, making the Mother’s lullaby to her child all the more poignant. As a footnote, Gershwin’s magnificent closing song “I’m On My Way” is reminiscent of the Kern-Hammerstein “Ol’ Man River,” but lacks the power of “Ol’ Man River” because Porgy is singing about his personal quest and cannot speak for all mankind.

Talk over; music begins.