Capsule review: Louis Armstrong - What a wonderful world (1970)

Very late (last?) Armstrong session. He's a guest in his own band and he doesn't really know these songs ('Everybody's talking', 'Give peace a chance' and others). The title track is definitely not the performance we all know. But it works. Moving stuff, filled with his big hearted personality.

Capsule review: Louis Armstrong - The definitive collection (1938-68) (2006 released)

Early Satchmo is another world, academic. I don't get it. Later Satchmo, the 'entertainer', is glorious, sentimental, over ripe. Somewhere in the middle is 'That lucky old sun (just rolls around heaven all day)' (1949), one of the best renditions (see also Ray Charles, the Caravans...) of maybe the prettiest song ever written.

Capsule review: Louis Armstrong & Duke Ellington - The great reunion of... (1961)

Sequel overclasses original (Together for the First Time, also 1961). Classicism.