Talk:Louis Armstrong Hot Five and Hot Seven Sessions

Album

Strictly speaking, this article is not about an album, though it had already been categorized as such. By contrast, Hot Fives & Sevens is about an album (specifically, a box set) comprising these sessions. However, I propose that we maintain this separate article about the sessions themselves. Compare this with Thelonious Monk Blue Note Sessions, which is also about recording sessions that have been collected on numerous albums (which have their own individual articles). -- Gyrofrog (talk) 03:32, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

I agree. I think it's really sensible for this to exist by itself, as it should eventually include information that is pertinent to a number of albums and box sets. I didn't get to do as much work on the album article as I would have liked due to time constraints, but I saw quite enough on these sessions to know that they are notable in themselves. --Moonriddengirl ^(talk) 23:23, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

Album tag removed.EddieHugh (talk) 13:20, 11 April 2013 (UTC)

Missing tracks

An essay attached to the Hot Five/Seven Sessions' National Recording Registry listing notes that there are known to be 89 recordings in total.[1] However, a few are missing from this wiki article. Presumably these are the Johnny Dodds' Black Bottom Stompers and Lill's Hot Shots recordings? Are they not considered part of the sessions? --2600:1008:B01C:EB58:D14B:BF3E:AE11:5168 (talk) 05:00, 15 January 2020 (UTC)

I also noticed this, and I'm not sure the essayist's count is reliable (I've seen errors/omissions in other registry essays). At the very least, it can be disputed. The sessions were selected to the registry in 2002, just a few years after two competing Hot Five and Hot Seven compilations had released: JSP/Definitive's Hot Fives & Sevens, and Columbia/Legacy's The Complete Hot Five and Hot Seven Recordings. Both compilations contain 89 tracks, so it may be that the essayist based his count on one or both of these sets. However, the sets differ by 20 tracks: Columbia/Legacy includes 3 by Lil's Hot Shots, 6 by Johnny Dodds' Black Bottom Stompers, 6 by Hociel Thomas w/ Armstrong & His Hot Five, 4 by Lillie Delk Christian w/ Armstrong & His Hot Four, and an alternate take of "Cornet Chop Suey"; whereas JSP/Definitive omits these but includes 2 by Carroll Dickerson's Savoyagers and 18 later recordings by Louis Armstrong & His Orchestra.

There seems to be no definitive count. Gene Anderson footnotes in a 2003 article:

"A somewhat unexpected problem in dealing with Armstrong's Hot Fives and Hot Sevens is determining the body of literature to be considered. In addition to the fifty-three titles released as Hot Fives or Hot Sevens between November 1925 and July 1928, Armstrong recorded almost two dozen more with the same or similar personnel/instrumentation as Lil's Hot Shots, Johnny Dodds's Black Bottom Stompers, Jimmy Bertrand's Washboard Wizards, Carroll Dickerson's Savoyagers, Armstrong's Stompers, Armstrong's Orchestra, and Armstrong's Savoy Ballroom Five. Some or all of these groups and more besides have been considered by various authors and compilers to fall under the Hot Five/Hot Seven rubric. The most inclusive collection yet, Louis Armstrong: The Complete Hot Five and Hot Seven Recordings (Sony Music Entertainment Inc., 2000), contains, with alternate takes, eighty-nine cuts."[2]

The uncertainty is exactly the type of thing this Wiki article should address, and regardless of which tracks the community elects to include in the Hot Five/Seven canon, the apocryphal tracks should at least be mentioned. (FYI: Neither aforementioned compilation contains the Washboard Wizards tracks.) 174.239.117.153 (talk) 09:02, 28 October 2023 (UTC)