The Scat King Vocal Slide Ride

"It's not the voice that counts in singing, it's what you do with it.
- Bob Thiele

Louis Armstrong was a singer, songwriter, musician and bandleader. He mastered his musicianship first and later became one of the greatest American singers of all time. Louis Armstrong had a fundamentally sincere voice. His artistry would leave a sun beaming effect on everyone who heard him play or sing. He made his trumpet sing. He phrased the words he sung like the trumpet ooze. His voice produced a sound that tickled the ear. He conveyed a message of confidence in glowing terms. The jazz pioneer was most famous for his expertise at wordless singing also known as scatting. His approach was totally free and eloquent. His tone was soulful. I appreciate his contributions to the world of music. He was not only a great artist but a pedagogue.

Louis was gifted at submerging his voice into vitalizing music. His voice was gritty and would dance around with the instrumental blend. In 1968, after recording caliber compositions in New York and in Las Vegas, the album, What A Wonderful World was released by Decca Records. 20 years later, the same 11 songs have been re-released and I was glad to have listened to a copy of it for the first time today.

On this album, Louis proved himself to be a dazzling performer. It is one thing to listen to the man trumpet. He approached the trumpet with clearness of enunciation and invented a new vocabulary of harmonic phrases. His chord combinations embodied jubilance. But it is another thing to listen to the man sing.

The title track, What A Wonderful World is an exhibition of triumph. Louis Armstong and George Weiss wrote lyrics that spoke of living each day looking at the bright side and taking joy in them. This song was arranged and conducted by Producer Bob Thiele and proved to be a positive measure to the last stroke.

Cabaret is the song that captures the artist in what he does best; Being unique. He carried the song like the ocean carries the message in the middle of the bottle. Sometimes he would slide with the movement of the horns and other times he would articulate like a walking bass line.

In many songs on What A Wonderful World, Louis emoted rifs of love. Some of these songs were Give Me Your Kisses, The Sunshine of Love and I Guess I'll Get The Paper and Go Home. The songs were furnished with strings, flams, brass and woodwind cells, innovative piano twinkling and Louis' scatting frenzy that made the songs heavy on my mind.

On most jazz artists albums, where there is a little bit of love, there's a little bit of blue. Louis would sing the blues and try to imitate the sound of the Queen of the blues, Bessie Smith. Then there were swinging engines with tempos that made you want to grab a partner and do the lindy hop. Hellzapoppin' was just one of those tunes that had that funky groove. It was a hi-hat frenzy and ended the album with a bang.

Louis Armstrong was a great improvisor. He was a passionate advocate for singing and proved himself on the album, What A Wonderful World. The act of swinging is what he did and he did it with style, comfort and confidence. I was glad to have come across this album and glad to have been able to share with you my joys of the art of one of the most innovative jazz icons in history.

This epinion is a part of Kathy's Epi-Write Off and Tom's Lean-n-mean VI.
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