| April 1998
by Steven R. Rochlin
Look my friends, I won't say any more other than if you want more Satch' in your batch of music, this recording is a natch match with no catch in my opinion. Do you love jazz? Do you love great live historic recordings? Then what are you waiting for? Here's Louis in his prime with other great musicians. Are you still reading this? Why? Isn't the music store still open? Ya know, the one near-or is that in-the mall? You know the one. Stop reading this. STOP I SAY! Sheeesh, what's a woman to do? Enjoy the music! GO BACK TO: |
Louis Armstrong - Master
of Jazz Vol. 1
![[Reviewed on Gold CD]](../format/goldcd.gif)
What fun
would music be without good ol' Satchmo? Odds are, like
you, I've bought quite a few compilation CDs with Louis
Armstrong on them. Ya know what, almost all of them stink
sound-wise to my ears over my system. Some sound like tin
cans were used as microphones, while others are just so
compressed dynamically and rolled off in the highs and/or
boomy in the bass that the music is simply ruined. Leave
it to the great folks at Mobile Fidelity to bring us an
excellent live performance with the sound quality that I
wish every historic recording had. Truly wonderful! Many
of the great songs are here, like "When it's Sleepy
Time Down South," "Give Me a Kiss to Build a
Dream On," "Mack the Knife," "When
the Saints," "Blueberry Hill" and many
more. There are 17 wonderful songs remastered in a way
that even makes me cry at times. Aaaah, I can even hear
some of the more subtle nuances in his voice too! As I
listen to this CD, it's as though I'm at the live
performance...even including Armstrong's joking around
with the audience. Makes me wish I were older and could
have attended this concert in person. Even most of my
rare vinyl records don't quite come this close
emotionally speaking. Sound-wise this CD seems to have
more-realistic highs and an overall full-frequency
rightness, whereas some of my vinyl has glorious
midrange, yet the frequency extremes may be another story
at times.