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Welcome back. That was Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five in 1927, playing “Hotter Than That.” It is a recording not discussed as often or as deeply as other Hot Fives; “West End Blues” or “Cornet Chop Suey,” as examples. The jazz scholar William R. Bauer is doing something about that. Professor Bauer is writing a book that will analyze Armstrong’s early work and pay particular attention to the astonishing cornet and vocal solos in “Hotter Than That.” The book, The Early Recordings of Louis Armstrong: The Codification of Jazz Performance Practice, will be published by Scarecrow Press in 2008.
That makes two important Armstrong books in the works. My artsjournal.com colleague Terry Teachout (see the item titled Coherence) is writing a full-scale Armstrong biography, also targeted for publication next year. If you had no reason to look forward to 2008, you now have two reasons.