Stardust

Louis Armstrong | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 25, 1990)
• Original Release Date: September 20, 1988
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B0000026IB
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #164,862 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Early Pops, January 26, 2001

By 

T. Bradley Tucker (Richmond, VA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Stardust (Audio CD)

Please do not be swayed by the bad review knocking the sound on this one. The recording quality is fine considering most of these cuts are 70 years old. An excellent collection, including 2-count 'em-2 majestic takes on the title cut, which is one of the finest songs ever written anyway. And fiddle-dee-dee on the fidelity, because IT'S POPS, MAN - IT'S POPS! This collection along with THIS IS JAZZ- VOLUME 1 (Columbia/ Legacy) are an excellent intro to early Louis. This stuff set the tone for practically everything that followed.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars King Louis: this is what jazz is all about, February 7, 2004

By 

Riccardo Pelizzo (baltimore, maryland USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Stardust (Audio CD)

This cd is absolutely great. The recordings included in this record were made in the early 1930s. Louis Armstrong considered these years the happiest period of his life. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't. But from a musical point of view, Armstrong made some of his best recording in these years. I do not think that Louis Armstrong ever played with the same energy, the same strength, the same passion and the same drive as he did in the late 1920s and in the early 1930s. But for that matter I do not think that anybody has surpassed what Louis Armgrong did in those years. His trumpet solos were just perfect. They're essential, and they're elegant. And they're really intense as the meaning of a whole life, of a whole existence hinged on each of those notes. Louis Armstrong's performance in Stardust, Georgia on My Mind, Home (When Sahdows Fall) is breathtaking. For those who want to understand what jazz is all about, for those who already love jazz, for those who love Pops, this cd - originally released in 1988- is a real treat.

5.0 out of 5 stars This album is outtasight, July 19, 2008

By 

Daniel Berger (Atlanta, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Stardust (Audio CD)

This album, lurking unlistened-to on my LP shelves for years, just knocked my socks off when I finally got around to it. I got me one of them LP-to-digital gizmos and started working my way through my LP collection, starting with A. Found this album, which I don't remember even owning, and which showed few signs of wear and tear. Maybe I got it at the end of the LP era and forgot about it? Maybe it was a gift? Who knows? Anyway, I sat down to transfer it and it blew me away. The digital remastering is fabulous; it sounds like it was laid down yesterday. This sounds great even on small computer speakers. Can't wait to put it on the Big Mama. Nat Hentoff's liner notes, and other reviewers here, say that this was one of the happiest periods in Armstrong's life. To me what's more interesting is the period, 1930 to 1932. This is at the birth of the Swing Era. You can both hear a highly-evolved form of Dixieland still going on, nothing like the formulaic stuff of five or ten years earlier. And, really, you have to admit, by the end, that it sounds like Swing. The rhythm and polyrhythm are phenomenal. Armstrong's horn leads in both heads and solo breaks. Lots of his distinctive jazz singing here as well; Hentoff calls him the best of all male jazz singers and I think he's right, one more feather in Armstrong's hat (along with his phenomenal playing and inventiveness, inventing the modern jazz solo, and inventing scatting.) Armstrong is the most important 20th century American musician. The second is James Brown.