Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five – West End Blues (1928)

On June 28th 1928, Louis Armstrong entered the studio with pianist Earl Hines,
clarinettist Jimmy Strong, trombonist Fred Robinson, banjoist Mancy Carr and
drummer Zutty Singleton on hand cymbals, also known as his ‘Hot Five’ to record one
of the most famous recordings in Jazz.

‘West End Blues’ was not an especially memorable composition by the standards of the
Roaring '20s or later decades1 but when the Louis Armstrong version of this song was
recorded, it was a ‘mile marker in the evolution of jazz’ and where ‘Armstrong emerges
for the first time as a mature musician’ according to John Burnett in his NPR article.
Billie Holiday states in her autobiography ‘Lady sings the blues’ “sometimes the record
would make me so sad, I’d cry up a storm. Other times the same damn record would
make me so happy.” She’s go on to say of his instrumental technique, “it sounded like
he was making love to me. That’s how I wanted to sing.”2 According to History.com
“Armstrong’s playing established a new standard for rhythmic and melodic complexity,
for technical mastery and, most important, for sheer beauty and emotional content.”
And this recording would make him an international sensation. 3

Intro

This recording starts with a short but extremely influential and virtuosic Trumpet solo,
which is out of time and explores the full range of the trumpet. The intro contains a lot
of melodic and rhythmic variation, starting off with crotchets and then exploring more
flowing quavers and triplet figures. Armstrong uses chromaticism and also outlines a C
minor chord triadically. The second half of the intro has Armstrong descending into the
lower half of his register and ends with him outlining a Bb7 dominant triad which is
the V chord of the I chord of this song which is Ebmaj.

Form and melody

This song is in the form of a 12 bar blues but with some alterations and substitutions
to the usual chord sequence of a 12 bar blues. It is based on the following pattern I : I :
I : I : IV : IV : I : I : V : V : I : V. The melody of the song is played by trumpet with some
sustained accompaniment from clarinet and trombone who take bits of the melody
and embellish it behind Armstrong. There is also piano accompaniment from Hines
who outlines the chord sequence by playing block chords on each beat.

1 John Burnett, NPR 100 review of the 20th century's most important American
musical works, “West End Blues”
<https://www.npr.org/2000/08/06/1080400/west-end-blues>
2 C.C. Rider, Louis Armstrong “West End Blues” <http://ccriderblues.com/louis-
armstrong-west-end-blues/>
3 History.com Staff, Louis Armstrong records “West End Blues”,
<http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/louis-armstrong-records-west-
end-blues>
Section A2 contains a Trombone solo from Robinson who plays a bluesy solo with lots
of slides between notes. There is also a new texture in the accompaniment which
features Hines playing a trill like figure throughout the sequence and Carr on banjo
taking over the quarter note comping on each beat. Singleton also joins in this chorus
on hand cymbals with a swung triplet feel.
Section A3 is a call and response chorus between Armstrong scatting and Strong on
Clarinet trading melodic ideas between one another. Strong plays in the lower and
more soulful register of the clarinet, which is a change from the high register Dixieland
style of the era and reflects the bluesy mood of the song. This vocal section by
Armstrong is one of the earliest recorded examples of scat singing 4.
In section A4 all members of the ensemble drop out to leave Hines playing a virtuosic
piano solo. In this solo he plays some stride and alters the chord sequence with chord
substitutions and chromatic bass lines. According to C.C.Rider, Hines is stated as saying
“When it first came out, Louis and I stayed by that recording practically an hour and a
half or two hours and we just knocked each other out because we had no idea it was
gonna turn out as good as it did.”5
Section A5 has Armstrong as the soloist again with him holding a high note for a full 4
bars with the trombone and clarinet sustaining notes behind this. Piano and banjo join
in behind this playing a quarter note accompaniment in what feels like a sort of fan
fare for the last section of the song.
Solo piano plays for a short interval at the very end before trumpet comes in and
signals the end of the song with all instruments joining in for a chromatic version of a
plagal cadence.

According to Artscolumbia.org, this piece is extremely important in the development of

Jazz because it was the ‘beginning of the virtuoso musicians and led the way for
improvisational yet scored music.’6 Which shows us how important this recording (and
Armstrong in general) is to the development of jazz.

4 History.com Staff, Louis Armstrong records “West End Blues”,

<http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/louis-armstrong-records-west-
end-blues>
5 C.C. Rider, Louis Armstrong “West End Blues” <http://ccriderblues.com/louis-
armstrong-west-end-blues/>
6 Artscolumbia.com Staff, West End Blues by Louis Armstrong, <
https://artscolumbia.org/performing-arts/music/analysis-west-end-blues-
louis-armstrong-4801/>
 Coleman Hawkins – Body and Soul (1939)

On 11th October 1939, Coleman Hawkins entered the studio with Tommy Lindsey, Joe
Guy, (trumpets) Earl Hardy, (trombone) Gene Rodgers, (piano) William Oscar Smith
(bass) and Arthur Herbert on drums to record ‘Body and Soul’ like ‘nobody had ever
played it’.7

‘Body and Soul’ was a very famous pop song at the time but the Hawkins version
became ‘one of the essential documents of jazz’ and a ‘hit on jukeboxes until the
1950s’8 which was something that Hawkins did not expect, especially because he
hadn’t even planned to record it and was told by a recording supervisor that he should
do it9. Hawkins said afterwards "It's funny how it became such a classic…I don't
understand how and why, because I was making notes all the way. I wasn't making a
melody for the squares. I didn't even bother to listen to it afterwards."10

Dan Coleman from openculture.com states that jazz historians call this recording one
of the "early tremors of bebop" because "Hawkins hints at the song's melody during
his first six bars, but he is improvising right from the start, never actually stating the
theme" writes Kenny Berger in The Oxford Companion to Jazz. 11 Legendary
saxophonist Joe Lovano says that this solo taught him how to “improvise and to be
creative with the material and not be a repeater” because Hawkins recorded this solo
was only played once and every other time he played it, he did something new.

Intro

The song starts with a short four bar intro by Gene Rodgers on piano who sets the
song up for the Hawkins and the rest of the band to join in. Rodgers says that Coleman
told him to make an introduction on ‘Body and Soul’, he goes on to say “I don’t know
where it came from, I Just put my hands down and it came out.”

7 John Lewis, Coleman Hawkins records Body and Soul,

<https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/jun/17/coleman-hawkins-body-
and-soul>
8 Tom Moon, 'Body And Soul', <
https://www.npr.org/2000/03/06/1071243/body-and-soul>
9 Michael P. Zirpolo, “Body and Soul” (1939) Coleman Hawkins,
<http://swingandbeyond.com/2016/11/01/body-and-soul-1939-coleman-
hawkins/>
10 Dan Colman, Coleman Hawkins’ Landmark Recording of “Body and Soul”
Turns 75 This Week, <http://www.openculture.com/2014/10/coleman-
hawkins-landmark-recording-of-body-and-soul-turns-75-today.html>
11 Kenny Berger, The Oxford Companion to Jazz by Bill Kirchner (ISBN:
9780195183597)
Form and melody

The form of body and soul is an AABA structure with Hawkins playing around the full
form twice. In most jazz recordings, the artist will play the melody over the form once,
solo over the form and play the melody once again once finished soloing but Hawkins
never truly states the melody in this version of the song, only hints at it whilst playing
two choruses of flowing melodic improvisation. This was very rare at the time but I
think due to how popular ‘Body and soul’ was at the time and his beautiful warm tone
made people forget that the melody wasn’t even played during the recording.

Whilst Coleman Hawkins is soloing, the rhythm section is just laying down a nice
foundation for him to solo over. Gene Rodgers and Arthur Herbert are playing a
quarter note feel throughout while William Oscar Smith plays a two feel on bass, they
never derive from this but it gives Hawkins the perfect base to construct his solo on.
The only other feature from the band in this recording is the sustained chords from the
horns during his second chorus of soloing but the journalist Michael P. Zirpolo states
that these become ‘basically irrelevant’ because you wouldn’t notice them due to the
beauty of Hawkins soloing.

His solo is very diatonic throughout and is mainly based around arpeggios with the
aim of making them as melodic and flowing as possible. He uses a lot of repetition of
short melodic patterns that are repeated at different pitches. There is a gradual
crescendo throughout the solo with his phases getting closer in regards to rhythm and
the range of intervals. During the last part of his solo he reaches the climax by jumping
between intervals in the upper range of his horn. He ends the solo by chromatically
descending arpeggios until he reaches the tonic key of the piece that is Db major.

Apart from the beautiful melodic content of this solo, I think the reason why this
version of ‘Body and Soul’ became so popular is due to his warm, husky tone which
people fell in love with and is why he is called the “Father of Jazz Saxophone”.

In conclusion, I believe that both of these recordings are two of the most influential
recordings of all time, both were very ground breaking for different reasons and they
have influenced all of my influences and pretty much any Jazz musician today. I think
what I can take from these recordings is that there is beauty in simplicity of playing at
times and to take risks with things that have become standard in Jazz.

Word Count – 1652

Joseph Leighton