West End Blues-Louis Armstrong 1928

We are going to go in a circle for awhile; or, more to the point, we need to go back in order to go forward and complete a circle. We commonly group two separate forms of syncopated music into one category called jazz; however, each form has its own charms. Right now, we are going to concentrate on the blues. We are not going to try to define it; instead we are going to rely on Louis Armstrong’s observation: If I have to explain it to you, you don’t get it (paraphrase). Instead of using lots of words, we are going to keep the writing short and the music hot. Our musical illustration comes via a Joe “King” Oliver composition called “West End Blues.” Wikipedia calls it “a multi-strain twelve-bar blues composition.”

Whatever you want to call it, it is just plain wonderful. This form of music starts with a set melody, uses skilled musicians to play melody, harmony and rhythm, rotates solo opportunities and does it all without written parts. It is the height of musical improvisation within a very tight window (time). The recording we have chosen is the Louis Armstrong 1928 recording, with an opening cadenza by Satchmo (when his lip was still unharmed) that has never been equalled. His band was called Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five; here is a little over three minutes of pure blues heaven.