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Luis Russell
Appearances
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Louis Armstrong and Fats Waller only worked together twice, briefly in 1925 in Erskine Tate's band and four years later in the New York [more]
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The modern trombone can be traced back to the 14th and 15th century "sackbut," a rudimentary slip horn descended from the medieval slide trumpet. The 20th century jazz trombone grew [more]
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Joe "King" Oliver was Louis Armstrong's idol and mentor. Although preceded by the earliest recordings of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band (1917) and both the [more]
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Of less importance than the concurrent release of The Best of Louis Armstrong: The Hot Five and Seven Recordings is Satch Blows the Blues, since it only distills the great [more]
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The extraordinary 1924 recordings with Louis Armstrong are on the first CD, plus material from his long stint with Noble Sissle. The second volume includes the complete New Orleans [more]
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Draw up a list of some of the top jazz artists of all time, and the legend featured in this recording would likely be at the top of that list. Louis [more]
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This four-CD set does its best to summarize Louis Armstrong's career during 1923-1934, reissuing 81 of his finest recordings. The problem is that virtually [more]
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In conjunction with documentary filmmaker Ken Burns' ten-part 2000 PBS special, Columbia/Legacy and Verve teamed up to issue a special series of reissues covering much of [more]
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"Armstrong jovially balanced his calling as a musician with his job as an entertainer, applying his virtuosity while showing audiences a good time." —New York Times
In conjunction with the release of Ken Burns' ten-part, 19-hour epic PBS documentary {#Jazz}, Columbia issued 22 single-disc compilations devoted to jazz's most significant [more]
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While Louis Armstrong didn't invent jazz, he certainly shaped it in his own image, personalizing it, popularizing it, and giving it a template to follow into the modern [more]
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Biography
- Born Aug 6th 1902 in Careening Clay, Panama
- Died Dec 11th 1963 in New York, NY
- Styles
- Early Jazz
- Instrument(s)
Luis Russell led one of the great early big bands, an orchestra that during 1929-1931 could hold its own with nearly all of its competitors. Unfortunately, his period in the spotlight was fairly brief and, ironically, Russell fell into obscurity just as the big band era really took hold. Russell studied guitar, violin, and piano in his native Panama. After winning 3,000 dollars in a lottery, he moved with his mother and sister to the United States where he began to make a living as a pianist in New Orleans. In 1925 Russell moved to Chicago to join Doc Cook's Orchestra and then became the pianist in King Oliver's band. He was with Oliver when the cornetist relocated to New York before leading his own band at the Nest Club in 1927. Russell had recorded seven songs at two sessions as a leader in 1926 with his Hot Six and Heebie Jeebie Stompers. By 1929 his ten-piece band (which included several former Oliver sidemen) boasted four major soloists in trumpeter Red Allen, trombonist J.C. Higginbotham, altoist Charlie Holmes, and clarinetist Albert Nicholas; the other trumpeter, Bill Coleman, ended up leaving because of the lack of solo space. In addition, Russell, a decent but not particularly distinctive pianist, was part of one of the top rhythm sections of the era along with guitarist Will Johnson, the powerful bassist Pops Foster, and drummer Paul Barbarin. During the next couple of years Luis Russell's band recorded a couple dozen sides that (thanks to the leader's arrangements) combined the solos and drive of New Orleans jazz with the riffs and ensembles of swing; some of these performances are now considered classics. The band also backed Louis Armstrong on a few of his early orchestra recordings. But after a few commercial sides in 1931, Luis Russell only had one more opportunity to record his band (a so-so session in 1934) before Louis Armstrong took it over altogether in 1935. For eight years, the nucleus of Russell's orchestra primarily functioned as background for the great trumpeter/vocalist, a role that robbed it of its personality and significance. From 1943-1948, Russell led a new band that played the Savoy and made a few obscure recordings for Apollo before quietly breaking up. He spent his last 15 years, before dying of cancer in 1963, largely outside of music, running at first a candy shop and then a toy store. Fortunately most of Russell's early recordings have been made available on CD by European labels. ~ Scott Yanow, All Music Guide
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