"Weather Bird"
Single by Louis Armstrong
B-side"Dear Old Southland"
Releasedlate 1928 or early 1929
RecordedDecember 5, 1928
Genrejazz
LabelOkeh 41454[1]

"Weather Bird" is a musical composition by Joe Oliver.[2] However Thomas Brothers has suggested that it was composed by Louis Armstrong, because Armstrong sent a lead sheet of "Weather Bird Rag" to Washington, D.C. for copyright in April 1923[3]: 108  and that, despite its 1923 copyright date, it was composed by Armstrong during his time on the Mississippi river boats.[3]: 313 

On December 5, 1928, Louis Armstrong and Earl Hines recorded it as a duet between trumpet and piano.[2][4][5][6] That recording is regarded as the "most famous duet in jazz history".[7] (In fact, it was issued by Okeh Records as Louis Armstrong's "trumpet solo with piano accompaniment by Earl Hines"[1] and is sometimes considered a solo.[4] Armstrong had also performed the composition before, as second cornet with Oliver's Creole Jazz Band in 1923.[2]) Citing its improvisational sound, Brothers describes this recording as "fun and exceptional, a worthy document of a unique musical friendship."[3]: 313–17 

Awards

The recording by Louis Armstrong and Earl Hines was inducted in the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2008.[8]

References

  1. ^ a b "Louis Armstrong - Weather Bird / Dear Old Southland (1929, Shellac)". Discogs. Retrieved 2020-01-25.
  2. ^ a b c Ilse Storb (1999). Louis Armstrong: the definitive biography. Peter Lang. ISBN 9780820431031.
  3. ^ a b c Brothers, Thomas (2014). Louis Armstrong: Master of Modernism. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-06582-4.
  4. ^ a b Hugues Panassie (1979). Louis Armstrong. Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0-306-79611-1.
  5. ^ Rick Kennedy (8 February 2013). Jelly Roll, Bix, and Hoagy: Gennett Records and the Rise of America's Musical Grassroots. Indiana University Press. pp. 148–. ISBN 978-0-253-00769-8.
  6. ^ Edward Brooks (1 July 2002). The young Louis Armstrong on records: a critical survey of the early recordings, 1923-1928. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-4073-7.
  7. ^ Neil Powell (2000). The Language of Jazz. Taylor & Francis. pp. 50–. ISBN 978-1-57958-277-7.
  8. ^ "GRAMMY Hall Of Fame". GRAMMY.com. Retrieved 2020-01-25.
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