I Ain’t Gonna Play No Second Fiddle
Document Records DOCD-5353
Before leaving New York for Chicago at the end of 1925, Louis Armstrong had one last session.
The leader was the very busy pianist, composer and manager Perry Bradford, who called his studio band the “Jazz Fools.” He was the man behind Mamie Smith’s 1921 recording Crazy Blues, which sold over a million copies. Here he leaves the piano playing to the great James P. Johnson and does the vocal in a pleasant voice.
The recording was made by Vocalion, and they did not manage well, which is why Armstrong’s muted trumpet is saturated. Still, we can enjoy his enormous capacity and skills, which were already in full evidence only two years after his recording debut.
The other musicians are the “usual suspects”: Buster Bailey, clarinet; Don Redman, alto sax; and Charlie Green on trombone.
Kaiser Marshall is probably handling the cymbals, while the identity of the banjo player is pure guesswork, but Sam Speed has been suggested.