The Louis Armstrong Hot and Hot Seven recordings are classics and should be in everyone with the slightest interest in jazz, they set a template for jazz trumpet playing which is still relevant to this day.
Apart from the indispensable Hot Fives and Sevens there is a multitude of tracks with other groups from the same period which give overview of Louis playing of this period and puts his later activities in context.
Whatever the setting it is always Louis trumpet playing that stands out and catchers the attention of the listener. There is a chance to hear some of Louis earlier vocal efforts which he came to rely on in later years when after years at the top of his game he was not able to achieve the results he would have liked on trumpet.
Although the rest of the musicians on the Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings were competent players Louis was head and shoulders above the others it is his playing which the listener is waiting to hear.
All the old favourites are here including “Muskrat Ramble”, “Cornet Chop Suey” and Big Butter and Egg Man” all the other tracks are equally listenable.
The addition of tuba and drums to the Hot Seven tracks fill out the ensemble and give the group a bigger sound. The addition of Earl Hines on piano as a replacement for Lil Hardin on the Hot Five recordings of the following year was a bonus in he creates much more interest.
The other recordings of Louis from the same period are of historical value some of the players on them are not really up to standard and some of the vocalists are pretty dire even making allowances that they were very early recordings.
Like the Charlie Parker Dial and Savoy recording, the Lester Young and Coleman Hawkins earlier catalogue some representation of these recordings should be in every serious collector of jazz musics library and this is as good a collection you are likely to find.