Product Description:
Personnel: Louis Armstrong (vocals, trumpet); Trummy Young (trombone); Edmond Hall (clarinet); Billy Kyle (piano); Arvell Shaw (bass); Barrett Deems (drums).
Recorded between October 1955 and March 1956. Originally released on Columbia (840). Includes liner notes by George Avakian and Nedra Olds-Neal.
It may be hard to realize this now, when Louis Armstrong's place in the jazz pantheon is so obvious that his hometown named its airport after him, but in the cool-jazzing, hard-bopping mid-'50s, Armstrong was generally considered the moldiest of moldy figs by the hipster crowd. However, Columbia house producer George Avakian had faith in Armstrong's traditional New Orleans jazz, and began to reposition Armstrong not to the hardcore jazz crowd, but to the casual music fan who might find Miles Davis or the Modern Jazz Quartet a bit forbidding. AMBASSADOR SATCH was recorded in 1955 during a European festival tour, showcasing Armstrong's big band, the All-Stars, at the peak of their form. These sets were recorded before Armstrong made his late-'50s transition into being primarily a vocalist who rarely played the cornet; both his singing and playing are typically fine throughout. It may not have been cool at the time, but this is music built to last. The 2000 reissue includes three studio recordings from the same era.
Entertainment Reviews:
CMJ - 6/26/00, p.25
"...An extraordinary chronicle of his 1955 Western European concert tour...beefed up with 2 cuts..."
JazzTimes - 10/00, pp.78-9
"...[One] of Armstrong's best 1950's albums....consisting of performances stitched together from a variety of venues and cities..."
