Almost everyone knows Louis Armstrong (even if it's only because Kenny G played a duet with him!). But there are a few names that
will impress casual jazz fans, and will keep you in the conversation with more knowledgeable afficianados. Like any acquired taste,
jazz is unfamiliar territory that's easier to understand once you learn how to read a map.
Trumpeter Louis Armstrong was the first legitimate soloist to "star" in jazz, that's true. But a number of talented musicians shared the spotlight with
Satch (short for Satchmo, short for Satchelmouth, thanks to his large, toothy grin). Slightly older, and also from New Orleans was
soprano saxophonist and clarinetist Sidney Bechet (Be-shay'), who had already traveled to Europe by the time Armstrong made his first
recordings. Knowing a little about the music played by these two covers significant ground in the first 10-15 years of recorded jazz, which we'll loosely label "early jazz to swing".
Other key soloists and vocalists to know before 1935 are pianists Thomas "Fats" Waller and Earl "Fatha" Hines (he and Armstrong
recorded together in 1927-28, and those recordings were the most adventurous up to that time), cornetist Leon "Bix" Beiderbecke and blues singer
Bessie Smith (a major influence on Janis Joplin). This is not an exhaustive list, but recordings by these legends should give you a good start. If you just can't bring yourself to listen to music before
the mid-'30s, the next paragraph deals with Billie Holiday and the bandleaders.
Conveniently, at the beginning of the Swing and Big Band era that followed, Billie Holiday started recording with Benny Goodman when neither was very well-known or important (1933).
In fact, if you picked four legends from this swing/big band period leading up to 1945, there is an incredible confluence in the careers of Goodman, Holiday, Duke Ellington and Count Basie (perhaps also because all were based in New York City).
Nearly everyone who was anyone in jazz during these years recorded with or passed through groups led by or organized for these musicians. While certainly others made an impact, listening to large and small groups led by and including these four define the Swing/Big Band era.
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 Louis Armstrong
Stomp Off, Let's Go
Erskine Tate Orchestra 2/26/1926
Weather Bird
(with Earl Hines) 12/5/1928
Knockin' A Jug
(with Jack Teagarden, trombone)
3/5/1929
Stardust
Louis Armstrong & His Orchestra
11/3/1931
Sidney Bechet
Maple Leaf Rag
(with Jelly Roll Morton, piano)
9/15/1932
The Sheik of Araby (overdubbed)
(Bechet plays clarinet, soprano, tenor,
piano, bass and drums) 4/18/41
Strange Fruit
(with Willie "The Lion" Smith, piano)
9/13/41
Stompy Jones
(with Earl Hines)
9/6/40
Fats Waller
Handful of Keys
Fats Waller - Piano Solo
3/1/1929
Don't Let It Bother You
Fats Waller & His Rhythm
8/17/1934
Honeysuckle Rose
Fats Waller & His Rhythm
11/7/1934
Keepin' Out of Mischeif Nows
Fats Waller - Piano Solo
6/11/1937
Bix Beiderbecke
Singin' the Blues
(with Jimmy Dorsey, clarinet
& alto sax and Frankie Trumbauer,
C-melody saxophone)
2/4/1927
For No Reason At All in C
(with Frankie Trumbauer, C-melody
saxophone and Eddie Lang, guitar)
5/13/1927
Since My Best Gal Turned Me Down
(with Bill Rank, trombone,
Don Murray clarinet & tenor sax,
and Adrian Rollini, bass sax)
10/25/1927
Bessie Smith
St. Louis Blues
(with Louis Armstrong)
1/14/1925
Sobbin' Hearted Blues
(with Louis Armstrong)
1/14/1925
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Storyville
The bordello area of New Orleans
where Louis Armstrong was raised
Lincoln Gardens
Where the world first heard Louis
Armstrong with King Oliver's
Creole Jazz Band (Chicago 1923)
Roseland Ballroom
Where New York first heard Louis
Armstrong (and countless others).
Armstrong joined Fletcher Henderson
at this jazz landmark in 1924.
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