Contemporary Publications

3. Louis Armstrong's 125 Jazz Breaks

this page first published by John Wright, 14 Mar 1998
last update 1 Nov 2006vintage@jabw.demon.co.uk

In 1927 Melrose Bros Music Corp published "Louis Armstrong's 125 Jazz Breaks for Hot Trumpet". I have a copy of the British edition published here by the Herman Darewski Music Publishing Co. Below I have scanned:

i). The front cover, with a contemporary picture of Louis.

ii). The foreword, in which Louis is praised for his contributions to jazz and to the hot dancebands of the time.

Foreword

Throughout the world the name of Louis Armstrong is known to thousands of musicians. It is accepted by interpreters of jazz and commands at all times a place of honor. During the past few years jazz music has come into international vogue. Armstrong was among the pioneers who brought it into popularity and has been a big factor in keeping it to the front. His influence is felt everywhere. Hundreds of jazz cornetists, who by the way are an important feature in all dance orchestras, have adopted the Armstrong style of playing. Many of the greatest hot men we have today, men who have made enviable reputations as recording artists, will tell you they conceived many of their tricks and ideas from the Armstrong style of playing. His ability is enthusiastically endorsed by all the great and near great.

The breaks in this book depart in principle of production from any breaks on the market. They are genuine inspirations obtained, not by the old method of the artist writing down his breaks one note at a time, but from actual recordings. Special phonograph recording apparatus was employed to make them. They are red hot inspirations extracted from red hot jazz recordings.

If you want to get hot and stay hot, memorize these breaks. They will prove invaluable to all jazz cornetists as they can be used in playing any and all dance melodies.

Publisher's Note.

iii). An arrangement of Copenhagen,

and the examples of breaks on page 8:

I have several questions about Louis Armstong's 125 Jazz Breaks.
i) Are the 125 examples of breaks ALL transcribed from recordings?
ii) One of the arrangements in the booklet is for Milenberg Joys yet Louis had not made a recording of this title before 1928. Two other arrangements are Copenhagen see above, and Sugar Foot Stomp. Louis had recorded these titles with Fletcher Henderson, and also the similar 'Dippermouth Blues' with Joe 'King' Oliver. Are the breaks based on the earlier recordings, or as the foreword suggests were new recordings of breaks made?
iii) And what of the other 100 or so breaks, were they just 2-bar improvisations, in eleven different keys, not for particular song titles?
iv) What was the 'special' recording apparatus supposedly used to record the breaks?
v) If Louis did make 100 and more recordings of breaks, where are they now?

Thanks to discussions with the 78-L group I have found out that apparently Louis did make a series of recordings of 'hot breaks' and they were made on a dictaphone cylinder machine but there whereabouts now are not known, they may be lost forever.

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