Louis Armstrong: Heebie Jeebies

     Louis Armstrong 
  Photo by Herb Snitzer

Heebie Jeebies is a typically rambling Hot Five performance with pedantic ensemble, some wrong notes and chord problems. So why is it a must for any introductory course on jazz and why the high ranking here? The answer is: Armstrongs pioneering scat singing during his second vocal chorus, of course. But Armstrong's first chorus is equally striking -- he sings with such naturalness that this alone would ensure the disk's reputation as a timeless performance. He sails from one chorus into the other and it is all of a piece; the scat-singing is just one more delightful ingredient. He is accompanied solely by St. Cyrs rhythmic six-string banjo and without competing chords the performance really takes off. Incidentally, the first known scat singing on record was done by vaudevillian Gene Greene in 1909.