Hot Fives & Hot Sevens

The Music of the Hot Five and the Hot Seven is considered by most critics to be among the finest recordings in Jazz history. On November 12th, 1925 Louis Armstrong made his first records that bore his name as bandleader. The songs on the Okeh 78 rpm record were "My Heart", and Cornet Chop Suey. The band was made up mostly of musicians from King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band. The first version of the band featured Johnny Dodds on clarinet, Kid Ory on trombone, Johnny St. Cyr on banjo and Louis's wife, Lil Hardin-Armstrong on piano. These were informal settings that all concerned remember as a good time. Louis picked all the musicians that he wanted to play on the sessions and the record company generally left them alone to do what they wanted. The song "Heebie Jeebies" is generally the first recorded example of scat singing, although there are several examples on records that predate this recording. On the December of 1927 sides Lonnie Johnson joins the band for three tracks, "I'm Not Rough", "Hotter Than That", and "Savoy Blues". Earl Hines plays piano on all of the 1928 sessions, and the beautiful celeste parts on "Basin Street Blues".