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Louis Armstrong and his Hot Seven was a jazz studio group organized to make a series of recordings for Okeh Records in Chicago, Illinois, in May 1927. Some of the personnel also recorded with Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five, including Johnny Dodds (clarinet), Lil Armstrong (piano), and Johnny St. Cyr (banjo and guitar). These musicians were augmented by Dodds's brother, Baby Dodds (drums), Pete Briggs (tuba), and John Thomas (trombone, replacing Armstrong's usual trombonist, Kid Ory, who was then touring with King Oliver). Briggs and Thomas were at the time working with Armstrong's performing group, the Sunset Stompers.

In five sessions between May 7 and May 14, 1927, the group recorded at least 12 sides, including "Willie the Weeper," "Wild Man Blues", "Twelfth Street Rag" and "Potato Head Blues" (celebrated for Louis Armstrong's stop-time solo and triumphant ride-out final chorus). Thomas Brothers cites "Wild Man Blues" as a "breathtaking breakthrough" for Armstrong's solo style because of its "effortless flow between melody, embellishment, fill-ins, and breaks."

In these records, Armstrong continued and further developed his mastery of the jazz solo, almost completely dominating some of the numbers and further breaking down the New Orleans jazz style of collective improvisation into a vehicle for the soloist. In addition to his continued personal development, the Hot Seven sides feature Armstrong's new inclination towards worked-out and rehearsed arrangements, which can be heard in "Chicago Breakdown" and "Willie the Weeper."

The Hot Seven song "Melancholy Blues" is included on the Voyager Golden Record, attached to the Voyager spacecraft.

See also

• Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five
• Louis Armstrong Hot Five and Hot Seven Sessions
• Hot Fives & Sevens

References

1. Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World Part 1 Media, Industry, Society. Bloomsbury Publishing p. 746. 2003. ISBN 978-1-8471-4473-7.
2. Brothers, Thomas (2014). Louis Armstrong: Master of Modernism. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company. p. 257. ISBN 978-0-393-06582-4.
3. Brothers, Thomas (2014). Louis Armstrong: Master of Modernism. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company. pp. 260–63. ISBN 978-0-393-06582-4.
4. Meier, Allison (September 29, 2016). "Reissuing the Voyager Golden Record, NASA's Quixotic Message to the Stars". Hyperallergic. Retrieved March 26, 2019.

External links

v t e Voyager Golden Record
Contents Voyager program Voyager 1 Voyager 2
Sound	first movement of Brandenburg Concerto No. 2, BWV 1047 "Cavatina" from Beethoven's String Quartet No. 13 Chakrulo "Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground" "Gavotte en Rondeau" from Partita for Violin No. 3, BWV 1006 "Izlel ye Delyo Haydutin" "Johnny B. Goode" Mugham Prelude and Fugue in C major, BWV 870, from The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II Puspawarna Queen of the Night aria from The Magic Flute "Sacrificial Dance" from The Rite of Spring Songs of the Humpback Whale first movement of Beethoven's Symphony No. 5
Contributors	Louis Armstrong and His Hot Seven Valya Balkanska Bavarian State Opera with Edda Moser, conductor: Wolfgang Sawallisch Budapest String Quartet Johann Sebastian Bach Ludwig van Beethoven Chuck Berry Columbia Symphony Orchestra conductor: Igor Stravinsky John Cohen Tom Djäwa Ann Druyan Glenn Gould Arthur Grumiaux Guan Pinghu Anthony Holborne Kamil Jalilov Blind Willie Johnson Kesarbai Kerkar Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Münchener Bach-Orchester conductor: Karl Richter David Munrow with the Early Music Consort K. P. H. Notoprojo Philharmonia Orchestra conductor: Otto Klemperer Carl Sagan Nick Sagan Laurie Spiegel Gorō Yamaguchi
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