Louis Armstrong - African Dreams (2000)

Tracklist

African Dreams

01. That's My Home (4:58)
02. Struttin' with Some Barbecue (5:52)
03. Jazz Me Blues (5:23)
04. Basin Street Blues (6:44)
05. Margie (2:01)
06. Mack the Knife (3:23)
07. After You've Gone (1:39)
08. What a Wonderful World (2:38)
09. My Bucket's Got a Hole in It (3:02)
10. Tiger Rag (1:15)
11. Now You Have Jazz (5:43)
12. High Society Calypso (2:59)
13. Ole Miss (3:26)
14. Perdido (2:06)
15. St. Louis Blues (5:40)
16. I Love You So (2:53)
17. When the Saints (3:28)

The Katanga Concert

01. I Surrender Dear (6:02)
02. Blueberry Hill (3:16)
03. Rockin' Chair (4:24)
04. Stomping at the Savoy (7:23)
05. C'est si bon (3:11)
06. La vie en rose (4:17)
07. Undecided (2:00)
08. Big Mama's Back in Town (3:07)
09. That's My Desire (4:45)
10. I Can't Give You Anything But Love (4:00)
11. When It's Sleepy Time Down South (2:58)

It seems that record labels will go to extremes to release "new" recordings by jazz legends who aren't around to contest them. The two-CD compilation The Katanga Concert, released in 2000, combines a previously unreleased concert from 1960 by Louis Armstrong in Katanga, Africa, with 17 tracks that were previously issued on one of two earlier Milan CDs, Blueberry Hill and What a Wonderful World: The Elizabethtown Concert. While Armstrong is his usual charming self, the recording quality of all three concerts ranges from barely acceptable to abysmal, with the master tapes full of wow, having occasional dropouts, and not being particularly well recorded in the first place. Almost all of the selections appear in better fidelity on other releases. The track labeled "I Can't Give You Anything But Love" is actually "Won't You Come Home, Bill Bailey?" Another source of irritation is that there was room for all 23 of the tracks on this compilation, yet six songs are omitted, seemingly at random. Of course, this omission will be of little concern to anyone but the most obsessive collector of Louis Armstrong, as nearly everyone else can safely bypass this collection.~Ken Dryden