New Mosaic Records Louis Armstrong Set Up For Pre-Order!

 Behold!

Due out April 10!

Read all about it in this terrific Lydia Liebman press release HERE.

Then head over to Mosaic Records's website and pre-order it HERE. 

I don't know what to say next. Part of me is so elated and exhausted, I'm just tempted to stop here and go hibernate until the set shows up at my front door in April. But needless to say, this set was a very personal project and the three-year process of creating it was such a roller coaster that I always want to keep blabbing and blabbing until the world is sick of me talking about it. 

For now, I'll aim for a middle ground. I haven't posted about it on this blog in some time and if you don't follow me on social media, this might be all breaking news so I'll start at the beginning. About a decade ago, I began the process of hounding Scott Wenzel of Mosaic Records to have him do a set devoted to live All Stars recordings originally done for Columbia and RCA Victor (now both owned by Sony). I eventually wore Scott down and in late 2012, we went to work. 

By 2014, a 9-CD set, Columbia and RCA Victor Recordings of Louis Armstrong and The All Stars was released to the world. Reviews were great and the reception was beyond my wildest expectations. Eventually, like all Mosaics, the set went out of print, but that just allowed Sony to dump the audio on all the streaming platforms. Once that happened, I posted THIS BLOG, sharing the links to the streaming version of the set, as well as my entire liner note essay. 

Moments after the release, I began fantasizing about doing it all over again. The core of that first set were live recordings from 1955 and 1956 originally produced by my friend, the late George Avakian, and featured on the seminal albums Ambassador Satch, Satchmo the Great, Louis Armstrong and Eddie Condon At Newport and Chicago Concert. That was well and good--but what about Avakian's studio recordings from that mid-50s period?

As I've related numerous times (including this blog in October), the Armstrong music Avakian produced in that period changed my life 25 years ago and the two studio albums, Louis Armstrong Plays W. C. Handy and Satch Plays Fats, represent the pinnacle of my music collection. When I first grew close with George and David Ostwald in 2008, they gave me quite a gift to help me write my first book: cassette copies of all the tapes they had transferred when making Sony's reissues of those two albums in 1997 and 2000 respectively. I could not believe what I was hearing and if you read that book (about to celebrate its 10-year anniversary!), I put together almost an entire chapter describing the scene that took place in the studio during the making of those records. 

But what good was it sitting in my collection--the world needed to hear this material! So that was my pitch to Scott Wenzel for a follow-up: let's blow up the studio recordings from that same period, centering on Handy, Fats and the "Mack the Knife" session. Scott said, "Why stop there?" and suggested adding the big band and early small group material recorded for RCA Victor in 1946-1947. I countered with a "Why stop there?" of my own and suggested the 1961 Dave Brubeck-led album The Real Ambassadors, plus the 1966 "Cabaret" single session as the final punctuation mark. 

With that, we had a concept. In January 2018--three years ago this week--we had our first meeting of the minds as Scott, myself and David Ostwald met at our mutual friend Rich Noorigian's home for the first planning session. The four of us are credited as co-producers of the set and believe me, it was a team effort. I played my copies of the old cassettes George and David copied for me 10 years earlier and we started making some early decisions about alternate takes. 

I'll admit, I wrote and deleted several paragraphs because at this point, I don't think anyone besides us cares about the nuts and bolts but here's a quick timeline:

• August 2018 - Scott and I announce the set at at a 2018 Satchmo Summerfest tribute to George Avakian.
• Winter 2018 - Sony rejects the set. Uhhhhhhh......
• February 2019 - After some back and forth, Sony approves the set!

With that out of the way, Scott put in his request for the tapes and we waited to get in the studio. The time finally came in September 2019, a magical month of transfers with Matt Cavaluzzo at Battery Sound in Manhattan with various combinations of the four co-producers in attendance at all times. Again, I had my camera rolling and have been sharing videos to my Facebook page but suffice to say, this is when the set really became THE SET. 

As I mentioned, I already had the cassette copies of the Handy and Fats tapes but in the studio, we got to listen to The Real Ambassadors tapes, hours and hours of raw material, and then the biggest surprise, about a half hour of rehearsals and takes from the making of "Mack the Knife." One unmarked tape even included the raw material for Armstrong's sections of the 1959 advertisement "Music to Shave By"--that ended up in the set, too. 

We had more material than we knew what to do with so we spent much of October and November batting around different potential track lists. The rest of the gang was enthusiastic but also grew weary at my endless succession of emails with titles like "DISC BREAKDOWN 10-7" and "DISC BREAKDOWN - IS THIS IT?" We knew we had 7 CDs to work with but how to lay out the set? How to choose the best alternates? We had listening sessions where we would compare takes and discuss which ones deserved to make it on the final set.

By November, we had ourselves a track listing and I'm thrilled to share it now! Scroll down for the explanations if you still need further convincing to pre-order the set....

DISC I

THE RCA VICTOR 78 SINGLES

   1.  Long Long Journey (A) 4:33
 (Leonard Feather)

   2.  Snafu (A) 4:16
 (Leonard Feather)

   3.  Linger In My Arms A Little Longer (B) 2:57
 (Herb Magidson)

   4.  Whatta Ya Gonna Do? (B) 2:53
 (S. Skylar-P. Lewis)

   5.  No Variety Blues (B) 2:54
 (L. Armstrong-H. Fairbanks)

   6.  Joseph ’N His Brudders (B) 3:03
 (Armstrong-Bell-Kroll)

   7.  Back O’ Town Blues (B) 3:15
 (L. Armstrong-L. Russell)

   8.  I Want A Little Girl (C) 3:01
 (M. Mencher-B. Moll)

   9.  Sugar (C) 3:25
 (Maceo Pinkard)

 10.  Blues For Yesterday (C) 2:36
 (Lester Carr)

 11.  Blues In The South (C) 3:03
 (L. Carr-W. Johnstone)

 12.  Endie (D) 2:53
 (L. Alter-E. DeLange)

 13.  The Blues Are Brewin’ (D) 2:55
 (L. Alter-E. DeLange)

 14.  Do You Know What It Means To Miss
New Orleans (D) 3:00
     (L. Alter-E. DeLange)

 15.  Where The Blues Were Born In
New Orleans (D) 3:06
     (B. Carleton-C. Dixon)

 16.  Mahogany Hall Stomp (D) 2:57
 (Spencer Williams)

 17.  I Wonder, I Wonder, I Wonder (E) 2:33
 (Daryl Hutchins)

 18.  I Believe (E) 3:00
 (S. Cahn-J. Styne)

 19.  Why Doubt My Love (E) 3:24
 (L. Armstrong-H. Mercer)

 20.  It Takes Time (E) 2:40
 (Arthur Korb)

 21.  You Don’t Learn That In School (E) 2:41
 (R. Alfred-M. Fisher)

 22.  Jack-Armstrong Blues (F) 3:01
 (L. Armstrong-J. Teagarden)

 23.  Rockin’ Chair (F) 3:06
 (Hoagy Carmichael)

 24.  Some Day (You’ll Be Sorry) (F) 3:13
 (Louis Armstrong)

 25.  Fifty-Fifty Blues (F) 2:59
 (Billy Moore Jr.)

 

DISC II

RCA VICTOR & COLUMBIA SINGLES

   1.  A Song Was Born (G) 3:20
 (D. Raye-G. DePaul)

   2.  Please Stop Playing Those Blues,
Boys (G) 3:20
     (C. Demetrius-F. Moore)

   3.  Before Long (G) 2:55
 (S. Catlett-C. Sigman)

   4.  Lovely Weather We’re Having (G) 3:19
 (Joe Bushkin)

   5.  ’Taint What You Do (J) 2:47
 (S. Oliver-T. Young)

   6.  Back O’ Town Blues (N) 3:51
 (L. Armstrong-L. Russell)

   7.  Mack The Knife (N) 3:25
 (Blitzstein-Weill-Brecht)

   8.  Mack The Knife (with Lotte Lenya) (N) 3:13
 (Blitzstein-Weill-Brecht)

   9.  Rain, Rain (O) 2:40
 (H. Stanley-I. Taylor)

 10.  I Never Saw A Better Day (O) 3:13
 (H. Stanley-I. Taylor)

 11.  Music To Shave By (P) 2:45
Ain’t Misbehavin’
     (Razaf-Waller-Brooks)
You Make Me Feel So Young
     (M. Gordon-J. Myrow)
When You’re Smiling
     (Fisher-Goodwin-Shay)

 12.  Cabaret (W) 3:10
 (J. Kander-F. Ebb)

 13.  Canal Street Blues (W) 3:01
 (Joe Oliver)

 14.  ’Taint What You Do (-5 and discussion from rehearsal take) (J) 3:33

 15.  Back O’ Town Blues (reh) (N) 5:50
 (L. Armstrong-L. Russell)

 16.  Mack The Knife (reh #1) (N) 4:21
 (Blitzstein-Weill-Brecht)

 17.  Mack The Knife (-1) (N) 3:51
 (Blitzstein-Weill-Brecht)

 18.  Mack The Knife
(reh #2 and voice tracks) (N) 2:43
     (Blitzstein-Weill-Brecht)

 19.  Mack The Knife
(-3 and inserts #1) (N) 4:19
     (Blitzstein-Weill-Brecht)

 20.  Mack The Knife (-7) (N) 3:35
 (Blitzstein-Weill-Brecht)

 21.  Mack The Knife (with Lotte Lenya)
(BDs and inserts) (N) 8:35
     (Blitzstein-Weill-Brecht)

 22.  Mack The Knife (Moritat)
(instrumental) (N) 2:11
     (Blitzstein-Weill-Brecht)

 

DISC III

LOUIS ARMSTRONG PLAYS W.C. HANDY (master LP and alternates)

   1.  St. Louis Blues (I) 8:53
 (W. C. Handy)

   2.  Yellow Dog Blues (J) 4:16
 (W. C. Handy)

   3.  Loveless Love (H) 4:28
 (W.C. Handy)

   4.  Aunt Hagar’s Blues (H) 4:59
 (W.C. Handy-T. Brymn)

   5.  Long Gone (H) 5:11
 (W.C. Handy-C. Smith)

   6.  The Memphis Blues (I) 3:00
 (W.C. Handy)

   7.  Beale Street Blues (H) 4:57
 (W.C. Handy)

   8.  Ole Miss Blues (H) 3:27
 (W. C. Handy)

   9.  Chantez-Les Bas (J) 4:48
 (W. C. Handy)

 10.  Hesitating Blues (H) 5:21
 (W.C. Handy)

 11.  Atlanta Blues (I) 4:34
 (D. Elman-W. C. Handy)

 12.  St. Louis Blues (-3) and Armstrong/ Avakian discussion (I) 12:11
     (W. C. Handy)

 13.  St. Louis Blues (-4) (I) 8:57
 (W.C. Handy)

 14.  Yellow Dog Blues (-1) (J) 4:32
 (W. C. Handy)

 

DISC IV

LOUIS ARMSTRONG PLAYS W.C. HANDY (alternates)

   1.  Loveless Love (reh tk) (H) 6:10
 (W. C. Handy)

   2.  Loveless Love (alt tk. -8) (H) 4:38
 (W. C. Handy)

   3.  Loveless Love (insert take) (H) 3:28
 (W. C. Handy)

   4.  Aunt Hagar’s Blues (-1 through -4) (H) 5:13
 (W.C. Handy-T. Brymn)

   5.  Aunt Hagar’s Blues (-9) (H) 5:12
 (W.C. Handy-T. Brymn)

   6.  Alligator Story (H) 0:48

   7.  Long Gone (reh #1) (H) 5:15
 (W.C. Handy-C. Smith)

   8.  Long Gone (-1 and reh #2) (H) 5:17
 (W.C. Handy-C. Smith)

   9.  Long Gone (-5) (H) 7:53
 (W.C. Handy-C. Smith)

 10.  The Memphis Blues (-2) (I) 3:09
 (W.C. Handy)

 11.  Beale Street Blues (-1) (H) 4:35
 (W.C. Handy)

 12.  Ole Miss Blues (-1) (H) 4:47
 (W. C. Handy)

 13.  Ole Miss Blues (-3) (H) 4:43
 (W. C. Handy)

 14.  Chantez-Les Bas (-2) (J) 3:53
 (W. C. Handy)

 15.  Hesitating Blues (reh tk) (H) 5:38
 (W. C. Handy)

 16.  Atlanta Blues (-2) (I) 4:55
 (D. Elman-W. C. Handy)

 17.  Atlanta Blues (-3) (I) 4:39
 (D. Elman-W. C. Handy)

 

DISC V

SATCH PLAYS FATS
 (master LP and alternates)

   1.  Honeysuckle Rose (K) 2:53
 (A. Razaf-F. Waller)

   2.  Blue Turning Grey Over You (L) 4:57
 (A. Razaf-F. Waller)

   3.  I’m Crazy ‘Bout My Baby (L) 4:26
 (F. Waller-A. Hill)

   4.  Squeeze Me (M) 5:04
 (C. Williams-F. Waller)

   5.  Keepin’ Out Of Mischief Now (M) 3:20
 (A. Razaf-F. Waller)

   6.  All That Meat And No Potatoes (L) 5:17
 (F. Waller-E. Kirkeby)

   7.  I’ve Got A Feeling I’m Falling (K) 3:10
 (Rose-Link-Waller)

   8.  Black And Blue (K) 4:42
 (Razaf-Waller-Brooks)

   9.  Ain’t Misbehavin’ (M) 3:58
 (Razaf-Waller-Brooks)

 10.  Honeysuckle Rose (-1) (K) 5:00
 (A. Razaf-F. Waller)

 11.  Honeysuckle Rose (-5) (K) 3:12
 (A. Razaf-F. Waller)

 12.  Blue Turning Grey Over You (-2) (L) 4:50
 (Razaf-Waller)

 13.  Blue Turning Grey Over You
(-3 and inserts) (L) 6:47
     (Razaf-Waller)

 14.  Blue Turning Grey Over You (-5) (L) 5:28
 (Razaf-Waller)

 15.  I’m Crazy ’Bout My Baby (-3) (L) 4:53
 (F. Waller-A. Hill)

 16.  I’m Crazy ’Bout My Baby (-5) (L) 4:55
 (F. Waller-A. Hill)

 17.  Squeeze Me (-1) (M) 6:21
 (C. Williams-F. Waller)

 

DISC VI

SATCH PLAYS FATS (alternates) and
 THE REAL AMBASSADORS (master LP)

   1.  Keepin’ Out Of Mischief Now (-4) (M) 3:37
 (A. Razaf-F. Waller)

   2.  Keepin’ Out Of Mischief Now (-9) (M) 3:28
 (A. Razaf-F. Waller)

   3.  All That Meat And No Potatoes (-1) (L) 5:06
 (F. Waller-E. Kirkeby)

   4.  I’ve Got A Feeling I’m Falling (-2) (K) 3:27
 (Rose-Link-Waller)

   5.  I’ve Got A Feeling I’m Falling (-5) (K) 3:21
 (Rose-Link-Waller)

   6.  Black And Blue (reh) (K) 3:24
 (Razaf-Waller-Brooks)

   7.  Ain’t Misbehavin’ (-1) (K) 4:46
 (Razaf-Waller-Brooks)

   8.  Everybody’s Comin’ (R) 1:50
 (D. Brubeck-I. Brubeck)

   9.  Cultural Exchange (T) 4:42
 (D. Brubeck-I. Brubeck)

 10.  Good Reviews (S), (U), (V) 2:09
 (D. Brubeck-I. Brubeck)

 11.  Remember Who You Are (U) 2:33
 (D. Brubeck-I. Brubeck)

 12.  My One Bad Habit (V) 2:41
 (D. Brubeck-I. Brubeck)

 13.  Summer Song (U) 3:18
 (Dave Brubeck)

 14.  King For A Day (T) 3:41
 (D. Brubeck-I. Brubeck)

 15.  Blow Satchmo (Q) 0:48
 (D. Brubeck-I. Brubeck)

 16.  The Real Ambassador (Q, R) 3:12
 (D. Brubeck-I. Brubeck)

 17.  In The Lurch (V) 2:32
 (D. Brubeck-I. Brubeck)

 18.  One Moment Worth Years (S) 4:22
 (D. Brubeck-I. Brubeck)

 19.  They Say I Look Like God (R) 5:30
 (D. Brubeck-I. Brubeck)

 20.  Since Love Had Its Way (T) 2:35
 (D. Brubeck-I. Brubeck)

 21.  I Didn’t Know Until You Told Me (S) 3:02
 (D. Brubeck-I. Brubeck)

 22.  Swing Bells / Blow Satchmo / Finale
(Q). (R), (T), (U) 6:03
     (D. Brubeck-I. Brubeck)

 

DISC VII

THE REAL AMBASSADORS
 (singles and alternates)

   1.  Nomad (T) 2:56
 (Dave Brubeck)

   2.  You Swing Baby (The Duke) (S) 2:36
 (Dave Brubeck)

   3.  Lonesome (U) 2:30
 (Dave Brubeck)

   4.  Nomad (-10) (T) 3:26
 (Dave Brubeck)

   5.  Lonesome (1st version) (-2) (U) 3:08
 (Dave Brubeck)

   6.  Lonesome (2nd version) (-3 and reading) (U) 4:17
 (Dave Brubeck)

   7.  Everybody’s Comin’ (-2) (R) 1:59
 (D. Brubeck-I. Brubeck)

   8.  Cultural Exchange (-2) (T) 5:29
 (D. Brubeck-I. Brubeck)

   9.  Good Reviews
(-7 / tags #1 & #2) (S) 2:40
     (D. Brubeck-I. Brubeck)

 10.  Good Reviews (insert -2) (U) 1:48
 (D. Brubeck-I. Brubeck)

 11.  Remember Who You Are (-6) (U) 2:54
 (D. Brubeck-I. Brubeck)

 12.  Summer Song (-2 and inserts) (S), (U) 3:37
 (Dave Brubeck)

 13.  King For A Day (-4) (T) 4:09
 (D. Brubeck-I. Brubeck)

 14.  Blow Satchmo (-1) (R) 1:28
 (D. Brubeck-I. Brubeck)

 15.  The Real Ambassador (-4) (BD) (R) 1:08
 (D. Brubeck-I. Brubeck)

 16.  The Real Ambassador (-5) (R) 3:53
 (D. Brubeck-I. Brubeck)

 17.  One Moment Worth Years (-1) (S) 4:29
 (D. Brubeck-I. Brubeck)

 18.  They Say I Look Like God (-1) (R) 4:54
 (D. Brubeck-I. Brubeck)

 19.  They Say I Look Like God (-3) (R) 5:14
 (D. Brubeck-I. Brubeck)

 20.  Since Love Had Its Way (-2) (T) 2:51
 (D. Brubeck-I. Brubeck)

 21.  I Didn’t Know Until You Told Me (-5) (S) 3:04
 (D. Brubeck-I. Brubeck)

 22.  Swing Bells (remake insert #1 -4) (T) 0:45
 (D. Brubeck-I. Brubeck)

 23.  Blow Satchmo (remake -1) (S) 1:11
 (D. Brubeck-I. Brubeck)

 24.  Finale (-1) (T) :33
 (D. Brubeck-I. Brubeck)

First, though, the thinking behind the layout of the set. There was no way around it, the 1946-1947 RCA material was about 90 minutes long and would spill onto Disc 2. Do we keep it chronological and just start Handy as track 5 on Disc 2? After much back and forth, we decided to split the set between "Singles" and "Albums." Thus Disc 1 is all 1946-1947 RCA material, Disc 2 finishes that story, then has master takes from the "Mack the Knife" session, the 1956 Lord Don't Play Favorites session, "Music to Shave By" and finally the 1966 "Cabaret." We even cheated a tiny bit and snuck on a version (and alternate) of Trummy Young's feature, "Tain't What You Do," that was originally tacked on to the end of the last Handy session but wasn't conceived as part of that album. Then with time to spare, we dumped the best (not all) of the "Mack the Knife" sequence to illustrate how one of Louis's biggest hits came to be (not to mention the hilarious trainwreck version with Lotte Lenya). 

With singles out of the way, we were free to start Disc 3 with the original Louis Armstrong Plays W. C. Handy album. I might have explained some of this in the past but let me do it again for those in the back. The Mosaic Way has usually been to break everything into session order, masters first, alternates grouped at the end. But we felt strongly that the Handy album was a sacred listening experience, one that benefitted from countless hours of postproduction performed by Avakian. Not only that but (story for another blog), not every take survived in Sony's archives; some were hacked to death from Avakian's razor blade. Thus we made the decision to present the album as Avakian wanted to hear it, all of his edits and splices in tact. After it, though, it was time for the parade of alternates, which we also decided to sequence in the original album order instead of chronological so listeners could get to experience something of an "Alternate Album." All told, we included 1 hour and 41 minutes of bonus material, eating up the rest of Disc 3 and the entirety of Disc 4. 

Come Disc 5, we decided to do the same thing for Satch Plays Fats, presenting the original (fairly short) LP and then following with 67 minutes of bonus material. This spilled onto Disc 6 but with 50 minutes remaining, we decided to stick the original 1962 issue of The Real Ambassadors right there to close out that disc. In 1994, The Real Ambassadors received a new CD release with bonus songs (some solo features for Carmen McRae) and even a shuffle in the original track order towards the end. If you have that CD and love it, keep it nearby because we ignored it and sequenced the album as it originally appeared in 1962. 

That left Disc 7, entirely devoted to Real Ambassadors bonuses. Again, because this is a Louis Armstrong set, we left out any alternates of Carmen McRae's features (though we did tack on two Lambert, Hendricks and Ross alternates on tracks that Louis also appeared). Three songs from the 1994 CD start of the disc but over an hour will be seeing the light of day for the first time.  

So there you have it! Once again, I think I kind of went overboard but I would like to post more in the future weeks leading up to the release of the set, the hardcore stuff for the discographical geeks to explain the work we had to do (and especially the incredible team at Meyer Media) to reconstruct tracks from a variety of disparate sources, plus I'll explain why the 1986 and 1997 reissues of Handy have "fake" alternates but why you might not want to trade them in just yet. 

More to come--pre-order NOW!