Thursday, March 31, 2011: Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five - Heebie Jeebies

The Hot Five was trumpet player Louis Armstrong's first jazz recording band led under his own name. The Music of the Hot Five (and his later group, Hot Seven) is considered by most critics to be among the finest recordings in Jazz history.

And probably the most important jazz recordings of the 1920's.

Not only were these informal sessions breakthrough records, but they also managed to begin a whole new musical style - scat sining.

The story goes, Louis invented "scat", or vocal improvisation with wordless vocables and nonsense syllables, in November 1925 recording this tune, “Heebies Jeebies” with his Hot Five.

In “Jazz on a High Note,” published in Esquire in 1951 he wrote: “…the day we recorded “Heebie Jeebies,” I dropped the paper with the lyrics—right in the middle of the tune…And I did not want to stop and spoil the record which was moving along so wonderful…So when I dropped the paper, I immediately turned back into the horn and started to Scatting…Just as nothing had happened…When I finished the record I just knew the recording people would throw it out.. And to my surprise they all came running of the controlling booth and said—“ Leave That In”…

Thus, a whole new musical style is born.