Search - Louis Armstrong :: Love Songs

A Love Songs compilation of Louis Armstrong strikes a curious theme for the great one, who was always more of a sly flirt than an amorous romantic. With Satchmo's 100th birthday looming--by his calculation--on July 4 of this year, surely there are other similarly creative ways for Legacy to re-reissue his extensive catalog. Yet this hodgepodge of dates from the '20s to the '60s once again proves that you can never go wrong with Armstrong. His unrasping vocals on this collection's Okeh label sessions that Armstrong recorded in his youth are not as notable as the seminal trumpet licks he bounced off supergroups that included Lionel Hampton, J.C. Higginbotham and Eddie Condon, but who's complaining? The five tracks culled from the 1955 Satch Plays Fats album find him taking full advantage of Fats Waller's buoyant melodies, trading vocals with Velma Middleton on the mock-bawdy "Squeeze Me," plus an especially sprightly "Honeysuckle Rose." There is also a tender, relatively serious duet with Carmen McRae, backed by the Dave Brubeck Trio, on "One Moment Worth Years." But the best songs here are two concert recordings, "All of Me" and "Ko Ko Mo, I Love You So," the latter previously unreleased on CD, from the '50s, when Armstrong's vocal performances had achieved a near-perfect synergy between shameless mugging and rhythmic acumen. --Britt Robson