Louis Armstrong's biographer John Chilton enjoys a new 10-CD boxset that showcases a musical master.
Louis Armstrong's reputation as the greatest of all jazz musicians will be consolidated by the issue of a ten-CD box set covering much of his recording career.
The 165 racks range from his first recorded solo (Chimes Blues in 1923) through to his Hit Parade success What A Wonderful World 44 years later.
All of Armstrong's influential masterpieces are featured, including Potato Head Blues - on which his stop-time chorus became a test-piece for aspiring young trumpeters - and West End Blues with its ingenious opening cadenza, its mellow vocal chorus and Armstrong's dramatic rise to a top 'C' that goes on for bar after bar.
