The Louis Armstrong House Museum has acquired the only known film of the great jazz musician in a recording studio, recording the 1959 album, “Satchmo Plays King Oliver.” This exclusive video depicts Armstrong and his All Stars recording the master take of “I Ain’t Got Nobody,” as well as silent footage of them listening to the playback. Also featured in the clip are Trummy Young, trombone, Peanuts Hucko, clarinet, Billy Kyle, piano, Mort Herbert, bass and Danny Barcelona, drums. The original album was produced for Audio Fidelity records by Sid Frey, who commissioned the film to be made. It was discovered in a storage facility in 2012 and was brought to the Armstrong House with help of Frey’s daughter, Andrea Bass.
As both a huge fan of Satchmo and a former audio engineer, this was just a delight to me. I hope others enjoy.
Also, that was almost definitely not a cigarette at the end.
Fantastic post! I love Satchmo and I’m a trained audio engineer too.
I hope the simplicity of the whole thing was as enjoyable to watch for you as it was for me. I had this dream for years of opening up an entirely pre-tape technology recording studio. This isn’t quite pre-tape, but it’s close enough for me to really enjoy seeing it.
Serious O’ Brother Where Art Thou vibes. Live to track recording is my absolute favorite.