Jazz Icons: Louis Armstrong Live in '59 (2006)

Louis Armstrong at the hight of his powers...

I seldom write reviews for items on Amazon, but I felt compelled to do so in this instance as the only other reviewer of this DVD on Amazon at this time gave this disc only a four star rating. Fewer than five stars for this DVD seemed like a real injustice to me.

This is with no doubt the best Louis Armstrong concert DVD currently in print. There are a handful of documentaries, but, if you are looking for a concert, your only other choice is the 1962 Louis Armstrong performance with Eddie Condon and the Bobby Hackett Sextet. Although that DVD is also a classic, there are only 6 songs with Louis Armstrong appearing on them, and, by contrast, his performance is more subdued than in this 1959 concert.

In this concert, Louis is in his absolute prime, hitting a series of truly astounding notes, singing and scatting at his best, and performing with an ebullience that was unique only to Louis Armstrong in his prime. In one sequence he chases his trombone player around the piano in a phenomenal dueling horn solo. If you are a Louis Armstrong fan in the least, please do not debate buying this DVD... If you can spare the cost, simply buy it and be enriched by the brilliance of a true American master in his prime. There is good reason why the pioneering jazz masters were called America's classical musicians, on a par with Europe's classical masters, and this DVD provides ample proof of that claim.
November 30, 2006

Solid performance from a founding father of jazz

Although his style was relatively conservative, Louis Armstrong's position as a founding father of jazz, and as a world-class performer, is indisputable. Here he is, at peak form, playing his heart out in an hour-long late-1950s European concert, backed by a band that seems to take as much pleasure blowing the old-style New Orleans trad as Satchmo himself. The music is thematically static, but each song is so joyful, you hardly mind. Armstrong throws himself wholeheartedly into each melody and every note, and his enthusiasm, though obviously the product of intense professionalism, is irresistible. This is a wonderful look at one of the greatest showmen of the 20th Century. Recommended! October 15, 2006

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