Only the most hardhearted of cynics could resist the melancholy sweetness of this album's beloved title track. The song was a hit in 1968, and only became the opening cut on this wonderful album some 20 years later. This well-known recording of the tender ballad -- complete with a 16-piece string section -- is lovely enough. But it is Pops' gravelly voice and inimitable, signature delivery that really bring out its beautiful, aching quality. Also included are such hits as "Cabaret," "Dream a Little Dream of Me," and the Mills Brothers' "I Guess I'll Get the Papers and Go Home." New songs such as "The Home Fire" and "Give Me Your Kisses" show that Armstrong, even in his later years, was still bursting with personality and the essence of jazz. One of his best-selling albums ever, What a Wonderful World is, well, wonderful! This disc acts as a fond tribute to one of the most important figures in American music.© TiVo

Ella and Louis is an inspired collaboration, masterminded by producer Norman Granz. Both artists were riding high at this stage in their careers, and Granz assembled a stellar quartet of Oscar Peterson (piano), Buddy Rich (drums), Herb Ellis (guitar) and Ray Brown (bass). Equally inspired was the choice of material, with the gruffness of Armstrong's voice blending like magic with Fitzgerald's stunningly silky delivery. Outstanding are Irving Berlin's "Cheek to Cheek" and "Isn't This a Lovely Day," and everything else works like a dream, with the golden star going to the Gershwin brothers' "They Can't Take That Away from Me." Gentle and sincere, this is deserving of a place in every home.© TiVo

Recorded in 1957, Ella & Louis Again re-teams Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong after the success of their first album and a popular series of concerts at the Hollywood Bowl the previous year. Stylistically, Fitzgerald and Armstrong had very different histories; he started out in Dixieland before branching out into classic jazz and swing, whereas Fitzgerald started out as a swing-oriented big-band vocalist before becoming an expert bebopper. But the two of them have no problem finding common ground on Ella & Louis Again, which is primarily a collection of vocal duets (with the backing of a solid rhythm section led by pianist Oscar Peterson). One could nitpick about the fact that Satchmo doesn't take more trumpet solos, but the artists have such a strong rapport as vocalists that the trumpet shortage is only a minor point. Seven selections find either Fitzgerald or Armstrong singing without the other, although they're together more often than not on this fine set.© Alex Henderson /TiVo

Gershwin's World is a tour de force for Herbie Hancock, transcending genre and label, and ranking among the finest recordings of his lengthy career. Released to coincide with the 100th anniversary of George Gershwin's birth, this disc features jazzman Hancock with a classy collection of special guests. The most surprising of Hancock's guest stars is Joni Mitchell, who delivers a gorgeously sensual vocal on "The Man I Love," then provides an airy, worldly take on "Summertime." On these two tracks, she shows she has come a long way from her folksinger beginnings to become a first-class jazz singer in her own right. Stevie Wonder's unmistakable harmonica complements Mitchell's singing on "Summertime" and shares lead instrument space with his own voice on the W.C. Handy classic "St. Louis Blues." Jazzman extraordinaire Wayne Shorter smokes a solo spot on Duke Ellington's "Cotton Tail" and carves out some space for his soprano saxophone in the midst of "Summertime." A number of the young lions of jazz are featured on various cuts, and Herbie's old pal Chick Corea joins the leader for a piano duet of James P. Johnson's "Blueberry Rhyme." Gershwin's wonderful, extended "Lullaby" finds Hancock teamed with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, as does an attractive arrangement of a "Concerto for Piano and Orchestra" by Maurice Ravel, whose jazz influence can be heard on the piece. In addition, one of the most beautiful tracks on the album places star soprano Kathleen Battle's voice at the forefront of Gershwin's own "Prelude in C# Minor." Yet with all the fine performances by his guests, Gershwin's World remains Hancock's show, and he plays magnificently throughout. From beautiful to funky, percussive to melodic, improvisational to tightly arranged, Hancock and cohorts take a wondrous journey through the music and world of Gershwin.© TiVo

Download not available

1976. The punk explosion is shaking the world of rock'n'roll, from New York to London, via Mont-de-Marsan. Wiping the slate clean and making a fresh start is the order of the day. In short, it is not a good time to proclaim your love for the Beatles or the Stones. But these bands were still heroes to the Flamin' Groovies', an incredible group born under the Californian sun in 1965 and neatly tucked in between the two stools of these two illustrious British groups. After Teenage Head, their third album published in 1971, the Flamin' Groovies saw some tricky times. Their label, Buddah, let them go and singer Roy Loney took off, leaving guitarist Cyril Jordan at the tiller. All the same, England loves the Groovies, who stick to holy scriptures and don't go in for the flowers and patchouli so beloved of the hippies who were swarming all over the world at the time. With a new label (Sire records) and a new singer (Chris Wilson), Shake Some Action, which came out in summer 1976, brought a new sound! It's a revolution to the ears. Blues, rockabilly and rock give way to a powerful pop, fed on the legacy of the greatest hours of the British Invasion. A restlessness which will shake the nascent punk scene and prepare the ground for the wave of power pop that would follow it. A new style came caged in the eponymous track that opens the record, the single Shake Some Action which easily counts amongst the greatest pop songs in the history of the genre. © MZ/Qobuz

Music usually tells a story. And great composers often tell the best stories. When the pandemic descended over the world, veteran sci-fi dystopian storyteller Lindsay Olsen holed up in her apartment and built "a temporary synth space station fortress" out of keyboards and computers. Safe inside her instrumental fortification, she proceeded to imaginatively collaborate with kindred synth adventurers like Soccer96 from the U.K., who added what she calls a "jacking cosmic psychedelic rock and jazz touch" to the title track, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, who added strings, as well as Juuwah, Brijean, Danalogue, and Sergio Machado Plim to create Akousmatikous, a sequel to her much-praised 2019 album Zdenka 2080.  The story here is similarly complex. Asked for a short synopsis, Olsen elucidated, "Akousmatikous/Akousmatikoi (or acousmatic) translates to 'sound where there is no identifiable source.' The Akousmatikoi were a sect of Pythagorean mystics who focused on ritual, harmony, and ethical behavior. In my conceptual sci-fi story, Akousmatikous is the name of a being from another galaxy who comes to earth to question the motivation of her old friend, Zeeanori, who has been using imagery to manipulate the minds of the earthlings into a state of complacency." While that narrative is not always apparent, the ideas and experimentation are. In "Sugar Coating," Olsen blends the universal, "Oh my dear we started losing/ When we took more than we need" with the obviously personal, "Like we have a say/ When all of our fate/ Belongs to a few unstable guys/ With access to our lives." While the vocals remain high and light throughout, the settings vary. In the short "Fireflies," which explores the fear-and-joy duality of falling in love, keyboards twinkle under innocent utterings in lines like "Bicycles through the night/ Kiss by moonlight." An appealing thump powers the successful dance track, "Propaganda." Contrasting low and high-toned rolling rhythms drive "The Giddy Aquatic," as well as "Cathartic Interlude." These compositions tend to change in interesting ways as the mood strikes. "In Gradients" features looping synth gulps and gasps overlayed with held chords that pulsate before becoming gentle synth chords over which Olsen multi-layers her voice repeating, "I would go out walking/ Just to look in your eyes." Closing with "Exhaustion and the Open Mind," which mixes metallic notes, synth shimmers, and a steady programmed rhythm, the principal of our story observes, "We define and thus we simplify," before concluding, "Better to let you alone so you can learn to be." In the end Olsen pleads for keeping an open mind, while she continues her search for global solutions, lasting meaning, and a better way forward. © Robert Baird/Qobuz

The most important musician of the century past has had a trumpet-load of retrospectives appear since the 100th anniversary of his birth in 2001, and few are more brisk, enjoyable, shot full of goofy energy, and essential than the remastered reissue of The Best of Louis Armstrong: The Hot Five and Seven Recordings box set. The box is four CDs of remastered, priceless 1925-1927 Chicago work when Armstrong cemented his reputation as a player, singer, and most of all, an innovator without equal. Now it's occurred to Legacy that not everyone can shell out the big buckaroonies for bountiful box sets, even for a bonanza of 79 recordings of this kind of history. So they've kindly edited it down to a single disc, distilled to a succinct and smartly chosen 18 rambles. The "Hot 5" (originally Armstrong on trumpet; his wife, Lil Armstrong on piano; Johnny Dodds on clarinet; Kid Ory on trombone, and Johnny St. Cyr on banjo) and "Hot 7" (these five plus Pete Briggs on tuba and Baby Dodds on drums) that set down this remarkable booty were his Windy City studio band(s), a tremendous ensemble he didn't actually play with live -- despite having played with them going back to the 1922 King Oliver Band days, when he was second cornetist. Feeding off his missus' barrelhouse saloon playing and St. Cyr's rhythmic strumming (when they didn't have Dodds' drums), the three horns interweaving off each other helped make New Orleans Dixieland jazz the "up" music that could never die, as the leader's unforgettable solos on "Strutting with Some Barbecue" and "Potato Head Blues" are, in a word, thrilling. The opening "Heebee Jeebees" greatly exposed the world to Armstrong's skat singing, his staple until his death in 1971. More generally, the group (and his totally different 1928 "Hot Five" band, featuring his old, brilliant partner, Earl Hines, on piano) set the standard for the form that remains to this day. © Jack Rabid /TiVo

These distinctive small-group sessions, featuring Duke Ellington as pianist in a blues context, are part of a group of recordings issued under the confusing titles Back to Back and Side by Side, and further reissued under the not particularly distinctive name of Blues Summit. But there should be no confusion about the high quality of music that came out of these sessions -- it is all "cooking with gas" as the expression goes. From the jazz world, it would be difficult to find more profound soloists on traditional blues numbers than the Duke or his longtime collaborator Johnny Hodges, who does some of the most soulful playing of his career here. Also hitting a very high standard for himself is trumpeter Harry Edison and, while musicians are being patted on the back, the Jones boys in the rhythm section should be given a hand. That's Jo Jones (drums) and Sam Jones (bass), so as not to create additional confusion in the Jones-heavy jazz world. The songs all have titles that end in "Blues," with the oddball having "Love" in the title not once but twice. (It's "Loveless Love," what else?) But these songs are just vehicles for playing the blues, a formula that has produced great music many times, and certainly did every time this particular pianist was leading the group.© Eugene Chadbourne /TiVo

Louis Armstrong and Fats Waller only worked together twice, briefly in 1925 in Erskine Tate's band and four years later in the New York revue Connie's Hot Chocolates. But Waller made an indelible enough impression for Satchmo to record the tribute album Satch Plays Fats: The Music of Fats Waller in 1955, when such ideas were new. The nine tracks feature Armstrong ably supported by his All-Stars on such classics as "Honeysuckle Rose," "Squeeze Me," and "Ain't Misbehavin'." The mid-'50s was a fertile time for Armstrong, and this makes for a stellar package.© Cub Koda /TiVo

This four-CD set brings together all the recordings made during the period of the Hot Five and Hot Sevens along with all the attendant recordings that Armstrong was involved in during this breakthrough period. Although this material has been around the block several times before -- and continues to be available in packages greatly varying in transfer quality -- this is truly the way to go, and certainly the most deluxe packaging this material has ever received with the greatest sound retrieval yet employed. In addition to sounding better than the competition, it also sensibly lays out all the recordings Satchmo made during this period, grouping all the original Hot Five recordings from 1925 to 1927 (and all attendant material) together on the first two discs, all of the Hot Sevens on disc three, with the final disc devoted to the second coming of the Hot Five in 1928 along with the attendant material from the following year. There are also several categories of "bonus tracks" aboard this deluxe set, including the "Lil's Hot Shots" 1926 Hot Five Vocalion recordings, a 1927 Johnny Dodds session that became the prototype for the Hot Seven recordings that soon followed, and the only known alternate take of "I Can't Give You Anything but Love." You can't have a Louis Armstrong collection without this historic set. Come to think of it, you can't have any kind of respectable jazz collection without it, either. Beyond indispensable.© Cub Koda /TiVo

A festive compilation, 2018's Ella & Louis Christmas brings together a hearty mix of holiday-themed songs recorded over the years by trumpeter/vocalist Louis Armstrong and vocalist Ella Fitzgerald. Here we get a cross-section of tracks each artist made on their own, including traditional favorites from Fitzgerald like "Sleigh Ride," "Jingle Bells," and "Frosty the Snowman." There are also several of Armstrong's humorous hipster cuts including "Cool Yule," and "'Zat You, Santa Claus? Also featured are several of their famed duets, including 1951's "Would You Like to Take a Walk?" and 1957's "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm."© Matt Collar /TiVo