Armstrong and Jordan: Two Sides

Reprinted from http://jazzwax.com, January 06, 2016

In August 1950, trumpeter Louis Armstrong and alto saxophonist Louis Jordan record two sides together as a duet. Their pairing by Decca producer Milt Gabler was natural, since both superstars were signed to the label at the time. The recordings—Life Is So Peculiar and You Rascal You—are so good, it's a shame they didn't record a dozen more.

Armstrong and Jordan were backed by Jordan's Tympani Five—Aaron Izenhall (tp), Josh Jackson (ts) Bill Doggett (p) Bill Jennings (g) Bob Bushnell (b) and Joe Morris (d)—one of the hottest jump blues ensembles of its day. As Terry Teachout notes in Pops, his marvelous Armstrong biography: "On one memorable occasion, Gabler teamed Armstrong with Louis Jordan's Tympany Five for a hard-swinging duet version of You Rascal You, in which Armstrong ad-libs with colossal gusto, then tosses off three trumpet choruses full of the old-time fireworks. Armstrong's solo is all the more impressive given that his lip was in bad shape that day. 'Louis came to town and his lip had busted on him—had busted all the way down...Finally he says, Let's go, and we went and played it," Jordan recalled. "He even played those high C's and things with his lip busted."

Jordan was hardly a slouch. The two sing, swing and engage in vocal repartee, with Jordan at one point doing an imitation of Armstrong's scatting on Life Is So Peculiar, which was written by Johnny Burke and Jimmy Van Heusen. On You Rascal You (written by Sam Theard), Armstrong and Jordan have a knee-slapping time exchanging lyrics. Armstrong blows beautiful harmony lines behind a singing Jordan while Jordan blows cool lines when it's Armstrong's turn to "talk about it for a while." The joy is relentless and infectious.

Interestingly, Armstrong and Jordan first recorded You Rascal You in 1932, when Jordan as in the Armstrong band's sax section. Reuniting with his old boss in '50, Jordan seemed eager to show his stuff and hold his own. And he does, gloriously. In most other hands, these songs today would come off as silly novelty tunes. But Armstrong and Jordan turn these numbers into jumpers of the first order. Busted lip and all.

JazzWax tracks: You'll find Life Is So Peculiar and You Rascal You on Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five: 1950-1951 here.

JazzWax clips: Here's Life Is So Peculiar...

And here's You Rascal You...

Here's Louis Armstrong in 1942 with Velma Middleton...

And here's Jordan in action singing Jack, You're Dead...

Used with permission by Marc Myers