The 12th title in the German History label's 15-CD box set Louis Armstrong,
Harlem Stomp chronicles a 21-month period in
Armstrong's recording career from the late 1930s to the early 1940s. At this point,
Armstrong, fronting
Luis Russell's big band, was touring the country tirelessly, pausing only occasionally for a recording session. When he did, Decca Records didn't have too many ideas for him; these relatively few sessions are given over to second-rate novelties and remakes that
Armstrong and the band tackle gamely, but without breathing much life into them. The sole exception is a four-song session on May 27, 1940, that finds a small, seven-piece group featuring
Armstrong and fellow New Orleanian
Sidney Bechet, along with a rhythm section of
Wellman Braud and
Zutty Singleton, playing some downhome favorites. The album does not contain all of
Armstrong's recordings of the period, missing several tracks recorded with
the Mills Brothers, but it does present the bulk of them. Universal Music, which controls the Decca catalog, claims copyright on this material in the U.S. (it is in the public domain in Europe). But the box set is readily available domestically at a modest price, which is good since there was no comparable Universal title at the time of its release, meaning that the only other way to obtain these recordings was on the quasi-legal Classics label's
Armstrong volumes
1939-1940 (615) and
1940-1942 (685), which are more complete but also more expensive.