Satch Blows the Blues

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 Satchmo into one field he excelled at (sort of like a documentary devoted entirely to Babe Ruth's cannon-like throwing arm), but for those deep in the blues themselves, there's no denying the deep-soul balm of "Memories of You" and his famous comment on the effects of racism, "Black and Blue." So many of these songs he would revisit again decades later, such as "When You're Lover Has Gone," but this is the purest form of the deep, dark night of longing, missing, doing without, and licking one's wounds — with sweet vibraphone, elongated trumpet solos, and his syrupy, sandpapery, sad voice. You can't go wrong with anything international musical ambassador Satchmo did when he was playing honest jazz. This is just the latest entry in Armstrong bins that take up rows and rows in any store; dive in just about anywhere that looks good.