Will Friedwald, author of The Great Jazz and Pop Vocal Albums, is exploring some of the finest recordings of the 20th century on The Jonathan Channel. This week he looks at the classic team up between Louis Armstrong and Oscar Peterson.

Will Friedwald: One of the great things about the album was it was an excuse to do things that weren’t normally done in other formats like live concerts or pop singles, and for Louis Armstrong in particular, the great thing was collaborations. Or special programs of stuff that he wasn’t doing like his great album of songs by W.C. Handy, the great album of songs by Fats Waller and these team ups with Ella Fitzgerald and the famous team up with Bing Crosby and a really excellent one with Oscar Peterson.

You might think it was out of his milieu; people think of Oscar Peterson as a modern, or at least a post-swing piano player, and Louis was definitely old school. Even in his all-stars when he didn’t have Earl Hines he had Billy Kyle, and Billy Kyle was the closest thing to Earl Hines. So Oscar was definitely much more modern that that. But the great thing about this particular album is that is showcases Louis in a modern rhythm section and it’s a whole new context for him, one that he never really worked in again.

It puts him out of his comfort zone and into the comfort zone of Oscar Peterson and of the producer Norman Granz into a whole different thing than he was used to doing. The really wonderful thing is that it got him to do a whole bunch of songs that were not really part of his repertory. Usually Louis sang the blues and new pop songs that were brought to him by A&R men and he very rarely got around to doing what we call the Great American Songbook… or at least not enough! This album is a great example of him doing those classic songs by George Gershwin and Cole Porter.

It’s also especially wonderful in that, on a lot of Louis’ albums he would record them after a gig. His manager Joe Glaser kept him working so much that usually they would schedule a recording session after he had already done three shows in a nightclub somewhere, so he’s understandably tired on a lot of his recordings. But on this album, he really sounds great. His chops sound fresh and invigorated, and Louis’ got tons of energy and nuance. He really brings all that to bear on these great songs. That’s why we have it in the book and why it’s one of the all-time great jazz and pop vocal albums.