I was thinking, for some reason, about Louis Armstrong and Mahogany Hall Stomp, the astonishing piece recorded March 1929. In it you can hear both New Orleans style – it was an older composition – as well as the innovations to come.
“All of a sudden when Pops takes his solo [at 1:33], the piece zooms ahead from the shaky, 1917-style two-beat of the first section to pulsating, swinging, sweating, modern jazz,” writes Ricky Riccardi of the Louis Armstrong Museum. “Foster [bass] ditches the bow and starts walking, Johnson [guitar] doesn’t quit playing countermelodies and Pops takes over, mute in bell, for three of the most perfect choruses he ever blew. It’s one of those great Armstrong moments, more than likely improvised on the spot yet I don’t think anyone could have composed anything any better.
“The Armstrong solo comes in three flavors: the first chorus is rather relaxed and finds Armstrong taking a simple motif and playing it from every angle possible. The second chorus finds Armstrong marrying great feats of skill with pure crowd-pleasing showmanship as he holds a high Bb for the entire 12 measures, the tension mounting with each passing second. And finally, in his third chorus, Armstrong equates swinging with simplicity as he repeats a simple five note riff six times, the first four notes ascending and the last note dropping all the way back down like a weightlifter who bit off more than he could chew.”