2021 Tribute Album features New Arrangements and Performances of Tunes Associated with Louis Armstrong, with Special Guests including Wynton Marsalis and Common!

The A-list ensemble The Wonderful World of Louis Armstrong All Stars release a tribute album to the great musician on Verve Records entitled A Gift To Pops. It celebrates the continuing influence and undying legacy of the jazz giant and storied entertainer, 50 years after his death in 1971, with special guests including Wynton Marsalis and Common. The group is comprised largely of stellar Crescent City musicians, who have inventively re-envisioned music associated with the trumpeter and vocalist during his five-decade career. A Gift To Pops includes new arrangements and performances of tunes ranging from “The Peanut Vendor” (recorded by “Satchmo” in 1930) to his late-period No.1 “What a Wonderful World,” the most successful recording of his career).

“We decided to make a recording that captures the essence of Pops,” says co-producer and band member Wycliffe Gordon. “We wanted to perform the music the way he might have played it if he were still alive. We all had ideas for how to pull this off, by including songs influenced by gospel, the blues, the traditional brass band sounds, popular music and rap.” Impresario George Wein writes in the liner notes for the album: “With this recording, this music of Louis Armstrong demonstrates how he created the language of jazz and influenced all the music that followed – from swing to bebop and even to rap, as demonstrated by Common. But there’s one thing for sure: This band and record demonstrate that there was nothing common about Louis Armstrong.”

Nicholas Payton, who arranged seven of the songs, stars on trumpet throughout, including on his own arrangements such as the swinging “Strutting with Some Barbeque,” the lyrical and bluesy “A Kiss to Dream On,” and the playful “I’ll Be Glad When You’re Dead.” The latter rendition features vocals by Gordon, drummer Herlin Riley ,and bassist Reginald Veal. Payton takes lead vocals on his modern arrangement of Fats Waller’s “Black and Blue,” with its theme of racial consciousness and prejudice, with Common delivering his rap poetry in such lines as “Went through black and blue for the bright day,” and “My school of thought is black openness/To define and redefine what the culture is.” “Common added a different spin to the tune,” notes Gordon. “It seemed like things we had talked about as a country had changed, but they didn’t, which is why this is important.” Adds Harris: “We’re hoping Common will draw young people into Louis Armstrong. We’re out to make changes.”

Gordon also arranges “Up a Lazy River,” with features his and Riley’s vocals; Veal’s “Just a Closer Walk with Thee” gospel hymn; pianist Davell Crawford’s bluesy “Rockin’ Chair” by Hoagy Carmichael; and Riley’s percussive festive take on “The Peanut Vendor,” on which Marsalis takes an extended solo. “Louis Armstrong’s singing, playing and his interpretations illuminate timeless human fundamentals,” says Marsalis. “His grace, eloquence, intelligence and naturalness are still showing us how to play and what playing means. Rightfully beloved across the world, he embodied what is best about America. In these trying times, his music and memory are the perfect inspiration for us to rise up and be the very best of ourselves as artists, citizens and as people.”

The band also features trumpeters Ashlin Parker and Wendell Brunious, tenor saxophonist Roderick Paulin, pianist Courtney Bryan, banjo player Don Vappie, vocalists Niki Haris and Menia Chester. Guitarist Derwin “Big D” Perkins makes a guest cameo appearance on “Black and Blue.”