Louis Armstrong: St. Louis Blues (1929)

On Friday the 13th, six weeks after the Wall Street Crash of 1929, Louis Armstrong was singing the bluesto be precise, the "St. Louis Blues," and to be even more precise, playing not singing. Five years earlier, Armstrong had contributed cornet obbligatos to Empress of the Blues Bessie Smith's mournful recording of W.C. Handy's anthem, but now it was Louis's turn to take the lead, and he gives us a very different reading indeed. After a short tango intro, Pops Foster's sturdy bass powers a surprisingly jaunty two-beat romp featuring Higginbotham's trilling trombone and Nicholas's keening clarinet. But above all shines Armstrong's trumpetstunningly, transcendently, everlastingly brilliant. We don't know if Louis played the stock market, but he sure could play that damn trumpet.