The Hot Fives & Hot Sevens, Vol. 2

Louis Armstrong's Hot Fives and Sevens existed only as recording bands, with the members working regularly in other groups, but they created music that will endure as long as people listen to jazz. The sessions on volume 2 of the Columbia series come from 1926 and 1927, with the first eight tracks continuing the work of the Hot Five and the final eight showing the beginnings of the expanded Hot Seven. The varied sessions demonstrate Armstrong's broadening confidence and musical invention, ranging from the clarion trumpet of "Wild Man Blues" to the bawdy vocal on "Big Butter and Egg Man." Raucous but well arranged, this is cornerstone ensemble music with enormous energy and bright, spirited blasts. --Stuart Broomer