Description

Never commercially available before, Louis Armstrong:Live In France features the audio from a quintessential European performance by the great Louis Armstrong which was recovered from the archives of the Louis Armstrong House Museum. This recording features the audio from a 1948 performance recorded from Louis Armstrong and his All-Stars’ run at the Nice Opera House. This historical concert marked Armstrong’s performance at the first ever Nice International Jazz Festival.

British trumpeter Humphrey Lyttelton caught Armstrong’s performance and vividly recalled how he found himself “quaking at the ferocity with which he directed the band. If Sid Catlett’s drums started to intrude too heavily upon a solo, Louis would turn to him and hiss at him like a snake. And more than once Earl Hines’s exuberance was curbed by a sharp ‘Cut it boy!’” The entire band sounds wonderful in Nice, especially the dynamic drums of Catlett and the peerless work by Teagarden–Armstrong’s favorite musician–but indeed, Armstrong demonstrates he’s the leader on each track. Every concert was always marvelously received.