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The Origin of Armstrong's Hot Fives and Hot Sevens Gene H University of Richmond UR Scholarship Repository Music Faculty Publications Music 2003 The Origin of Armstrong's Hot Fives and Hot Sevens Gene H. Anderson University of Richmond, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.richmond.edu/music-faculty-publications Part of the African American Studies Commons, American Popular Culture Commons, and the Musicology Commons Recommended Citation Anderson, Gene H. "The Origin of Armstrong's Hot Fives and Hot Sevens." College Music Symposium 43 (2003): 13-24. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Music at UR Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Music Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of UR Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Originof Armstrong's Hot Fives and Hot Sevens Gene Anderson has been almostfifty years since Louis Armstrong'sHot Five and Hot Seven ecordingsof 1925-19281were first recognized in print as a watershedof jazz history andthe means by which the trumpeter emerged as thestyle's first transcendent figure.2 Sincethen these views have only intensified. The Hot Fives and Hot Sevens have come to be regardedas harbingersof all jazz since,with Armstrong's status as the"single mostcreative and innovative force in jazz history"and an "Americangenius" now well beyonddispute.3 This study does notquestion these claims but seeks, rather, to deter- minethe hitherto uninvestigated origin of such a seminalevent and to suggestthat Armstrong'sgenius was presentfrom the beginning of the project. /:Historical Background The seedsof the idea thatgerminated into the Hot Five and Hot Sevenmay have been sownin theearly morning hours of June8, 1923 at theConvention of Applied MusicTrades in Chicago'sDrake Hotel. On thatdate King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band, one ofseveral groups hired to entertainthe conventioneers at a "midnightfrolic," was scheduledat threea. m. fora twenty-minuteset, which, by repeatedcalls forencores fromthe band's "mob of admirers," grew to almosttwo hours. But typical of the racial climateof the time, twenty-one-year-old Louis Armstrong, inhis first known mention by thewhite press, impressed the reporter more by his appearancethan by his playing: "The 'darkhorse' orchestra of thewhole bunch was suredark. Especially the little frog-mouthedboy who played the cornet."4 'A somewhatunexpected problem in dealingwith Armstrong's Hot Fives and Hot Sevens is determiningthe body of literatureto be considered. In additionto the fifty-threetitles released as Hot Fives or Hot Sevens betweenNovember 1925 and July1928, Armstrong recorded almost two dozen morewith the same or similar personnel/instrumentationas Lil's Hot Shots, JohnnyDodds's Black Bottom Stompers,Jimmy Bertrand's WashboardWizards, Carroll Dickerson's Savoyagers,Armstrong's Stompers, Armstrong's Orchestra, and Armstrong'sSavoy BallroomFive. Some or all of these groupsand more besides have been consideredby variousauthors and compilersto fall underthe Hot Five/HotSeven rubric. The mostinclusive collection yet, Louis Armstrong:The CompleteHot Five and Hot Seven Recordings(Sony Music EntertainmentInc., 2000), contains,with alternate takes, eighty-ninecuts. 2AndreHodeir, Jazz, Its Evolutionand Essence, trans.David Noakes (New York: Grove Press, 1956), 49, 62. 3GaryGiddins, Satchmo (New York: Doubleday,1988), 86; JamesCollier, Louis Armstrong,An American Genius (New York: OxfordUniversity, 1983). "TalkingMachine World[hereafter TMW] 19/7(June 15, 1923), 73; TMW 19/8(August 15, 1923), 103; WilliamKenney, Chicago Jazz: A CulturalHistory, 1904-1930 (New York: OxfordUniversity Press, 1993), 131. The CreoleBand, probablyrepresenting Gennett for which they recorded in April,was theonly black band on the programthat included, among others, Benson's Orchestra(Victor), Albert E. Short'sTivoli Syncopators (Vocalion),Guyon's ParadiseOrchestra (OKeh), Yerkes' S. S. Flotilla Orchestra(Vocalion), and Isham Jones' Orchestra(Brunswick). 14 COLLEGE MUSIC SYMPOSIUM Two weekslater Oliver recorded for OKeh Records,and, in theWindy City's an- nualElks Paradethe following month, his band rolled through town on a flatbedtruck advertisingthe special release of "Dippermouth Blues" and"Where Did You StayLast Night?"Posters of OKeh race artistswere prominently displayed along the line of march,with the placarding of the colored district personally supervised by E. A. Fearn, "who sparedno expensein thiswork."5 Thus are introducedinto the Hot Five/Hot Seven storytwo namesindissolubly linked-OKeh and Elmer[E. A.] Fearn-without whichthe recordings would never have been made. OKehwas formedin 19 18 byOtto Heineman, president of the prosperous Heineman PhonographSupply Company (later reorganized into The General Phonograph Corpora- tion),to complement and expand his business of manufacturing high-quality phonograph motors,needles, and parts. Ostensibly derived from the "original Indian spelling of the termcolloquially known as O. K.,"the label in its earliest version highlighted the founder's initials-OkeH.6The company'saccidental creation of the race recordmarket-i. e., blackmusic for black audiences-with the serendipitous success of Mamie Smith's "Crazy Blues"in 1920 neednot be recountedhere,7 other than noting that by the time Armstrong formallyjoined OKeh in late 1925,the firm was therace market leader with dozens of blackartists signed to exclusivecontracts. A technologicalleader of theindustry as well,OKeh set standardsfor recording qualityunder the supervisionof C. L. Hibbard,recognized as "one of theforemost recordingengineers in thecountry" and the inventorof a numberof new recording methodsand devices, including the first portable recording studio. In 1925Hibbard per- fectedthe "Truetone" process which enhanced the tone quality of soundrecordings. Successof theprocess and Hibbard's technicalingenuity may explain the company's somewhatdelayed transition from acoustic to electronic [microphone] recording in 1927.8 E. A. Fearn,a nativeof Chicago, formed Consolidated Talking Machine Company fromfive smaller firms with himself at age thirtyas presidentin 19 18, andundertook the businessof phonograph sale and repairand of recorddistribution from his downtown storeat 227 W. Lake Street.Displaying early on a flairfor promotion that was todistin- guishhis career, Fearn became the sponsor of an "OKeh RecordFootball Team" with a mammothOKeh diskas itsofficial team mascot. Five yearsafter its founding Fearn's enterprisemoved from West Lake intoa four-storybuilding at 227-229 W. Washington, addedbranches in Detroit and Minneapolis, and boasted a local sales forceof fourteen, 5TMW 19/9(September 15, 1923), 102. 6TMW 14/5fMav 15. 19181 95. 7Forthe "Crazy Blues" story,see SamuelB. Chartersand LeonardKunstadt, Jazz: A Historyof theNew York Scene (GardenCity, N. Y.: Doubleday,1962), 82-94; David A. Jasenand Gene Jones,Spreadin' Rhythm Around: Black Songwriters,1880-1930 (New York: Schirmer,1998), 263-269; and Brian Rust, The AmericanRecord Label Book (New York: Da Capo Press, 1984), 212-217. %TMW 20/2 (February 15, 1924), 120; 21/5 (May 15, 1925), 1; 22/1 (January15, 1926), 1; Lillian Borgeson,"Interview with Ralph Peer,"(January-May, 1958). OKeh's firstTMW ad forelectronic recordings appearedin theApril 1927 issue,calling into question Panassie's claim of theprocess being used on theHot Five cuts the previousNovember (Hugues Panassie,Louis Armstrong[New York: CharlesScribner, 1972], 73). The earliestelectrical jazz recordingscommercially released may have been the JellyRoll Mortonand King Oliver duets cut aroundDecember, 1924 by Autograph(Laurie Wright,Mr. JellyLord [Chigwell,Essex: Storyville, 1980], 30; Rust, The AmericanRecord Label Book, 21-22). ARMSTRONG'S HOT FIVES AND HOT SEVENS 15 plusseveral "road men." ConsolidatedTalking Machine had by now grown to be "one of themost successful OKeh jobbersin thecountry" and itspresident generally re- garded"as one ofthe best-posted wholesale men in thecountry," whose observations aboutthe industrywere frequentlysought by thehead of OKeh's parentfirm, Mr. Heinemanhimself.9 TheKing Oliver recordings of June 22-23, 1923 were the first to be madeby OKeh in Chicago.Although the notice in TalkingMachine World failed to specifythe loca- tionof the temporary recording laboratory for the first Oliver dates, it was almostcer- tainlysituated in thefourth floor stockroom of ConsolidatedTalking Machine where Oliverrecorded his secondOKeh sessionthe following October. Consolidated hosted OKeh's nextvisit to the Windy City in early February 1924 whiletemporarily housed at 216 N. Michiganbecause of a firethat damaged the top two floors of itsheadquarters theprevious December. By mid-1924, Fearn's company, long back into its remodeled facilities,was thesole OKeh jobberin thearea withits president celebrated by com- panyexecutives in New Yorkfor his splendidachievements in thedevelopment of the label's business.A yearlater an "elaborateand scientificallyconstructed recording laboratory"was permanentlyinstalled on thefourth floor of Consolidated'sfacilities, therebyeliminating the necessity for transporting recording equipment from New York as in thepast.10 MeanwhileArmstrong had fallen in love with the Creole Band's pianist, Lil Hardin. Afterobtaining divorces from their respective mates-Daisy, still in New Orleans,and singer,Jimmy Johnson-the couple married in early February 1924 and spent their hon- eymoonwith the Oliver band playing one-nighters on an "extendedtour
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