New Orleans

This recording is a mastered re-release of the soundtrack from Arthur Lubin's 1947 film New Orleans, which paired Billie Holiday with Louis Armstrong as entertainers. In real life, the two belonged to a mutual admiration society. In reel life, the jazz singer and the trumpet player/ vocalist perform many of the wonderful songs penned about the cradle of jazz. Holiday was thrilled to perform with the man after whom she patterned her voice and singing style. The only thing she did not like was that she was cast as a maid, a role too reminiscent of her mother and her painful past. Nonetheless, some of the high points in the history of musicals are made in this romantic drama, which starts in bawdy New Orleans and carries on in even more lawless Chicago. The soundtrack employs the talents of many fine musicians of the day, including Mutt Carey, Fats Ford,Ed Mullins, and Louis Gray on trumpets; Buddy Bigard on clarinet; Red Callender and Arvell Shaw on bass; Nat Allen, James Whitney, and Waddey Williams on trombones; Lucky Thompson and Joe Garland on tenor saxophones; Amos Gordon and Don Hill on alto sax; and Charlie Beal and Earl Mason on pianos -- just to name some of the artists. They tear it up on tunes like "Milenburg Blues," "Dippermouth Blues," "Mahogany Hall Stomp," and "Basin Steet Blues." But it is the singing of Holiday and Armstrong that steals the show time after time, leaving the listener astounded at their genius. Their rendition of "Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans?" is without peer. Their two unique voices express so much feeling that the listener cannot help but be moved by their love for the city that gave birth to jazz: New Orleans. ~ Rose of Sharon Witmer|