Born in New Orleans, trumpeter and vocalist Louis Armstrong (1901-1971) was the first big Jazz-star. He became interested in music early on and began playing the popular music of his hometown on cornet. Legendary trumpeter King Oliver gave Armstrong, who had gotten his first musical education at the Colored Waifs Home for Boys, some lessons. Brass bands were playing on the Mississippi steamers at the time and Armstrong soon landed a gig with the orchestra of Fate Marable, where he significantly expanded his technical skills and later was able to master even the most difficult scores. After replacing King Oliver in Kid Ory's band, he soon followed his teacher to Chicago, the Jazz center of the 1920s. Armstrong was one of the first musicians to emerge as a soloist from the collective improvisations of early Jazz with his own style and stretched out soloing.

"What A Wonderful World Of Jazz Singing" one would like to exclaim about the content of this gathering of 21 top jazz singers and their recordings made between 1946 and 1962. A musical spectrum spreads out that comes across as dazzling and multi-layered as these singing personalities, who come from all sources of the infamous American melting pot and have driven their roots deep into all ingredients of American popular music: into the blues of the Mississippi and the metropolises, the swing of the Jazz Age and the black ghettos and the New York ballrooms, the effervescent bebop and the cool jazz of the Californian West Coast…

“SATCHMOCRACY knocked me out from start to finish and listening to it was one of my most satisfying experiences in a very turbulent year. Instead of pretending it’s the 1920s, Jerome Etcheberry and company perform this music in the 2020s, keeping it fresh-sounding and moving forward. In such a contemporary, swinging setting, Louis Armstrong’s original trumpet lines jump out and hit the listener between the ears in exciting new ways, especially when scored for multiple instruments and when placed over consistently shifting rhythms. It’s further proof that every note Armstrong played will simultaneously remain hip and timeless, especially when presented the way it’s done on SATCHMOCRACY!”

This generous four-disc set collects almost 70 original recordings of '50s hits, including songs by Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, and Johnny Cash…

Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington were (and are) two of the main stems of jazz. Any way you look at it, just about everything that's ever happened in this music leads directly – or indirectly – back to them. Both men were born on the cusp of the 19th and 20th centuries, and each became established as a leader during the middle '20s. Although their paths had crossed from time to time over the years, nobody in the entertainment industry had ever managed to get Armstrong and Ellington into a recording studio to make an album together. On April 3, 1961, producer Bob Thiele achieved what should be regarded as one of his greatest accomplishments; he organized and supervised a seven-and-a-half-hour session at RCA Victor's Studio One on East 24th Street in Manhattan, using a sextet combining Duke Ellington with Louis Armstrong & His All-Stars. This group included ex-Ellington clarinetist Barney Bigard, ex-Jimmie Lunceford swing-to-bop trombonist Trummy Young, bassist Mort Herbert, and drummer Danny Barcelona. A second session took place during the afternoon of the following day.

There are some really nice tunes on this soundtrack to the excellent film "Grumpier Old Men". The highlights for me are the songs by Louis Armstrong, Dean Martin, Harry Belafonte, Doris Day, Nat King Cole and the couple of instrumentals by composer Alan Silvestri. These are the recordings that will remind you of the fun that GOM provided to those fortunate to see legends Lemmon, Matthau, Meredith, Ann-Margaret and Sophia Loren (holy moly) in their last great film together. The only pity is that because the first films soundtrack is not available to buy, that the song from that film "We're Having A Heatwave" is not here. Sound quality is excellent and joyous.