The Complete Hot Five and Hot Seven Recordings

Album Notes & Community Reviews

This indispensable four-disc box set compiles the late-1920s Chicago studio sessions that fundamentally altered the trajectory of American music. Louis Armstrong's recordings with his Hot Five and Hot Seven ensembles effectively shifted jazz away from collective, polyphonic New Orleans ensemble playing toward the concept of the brilliant, virtuosic solo soloist. Featuring revolutionary tracks like 'West End Blues', it is universally heralded as the most important foundational text in jazz history.