"Weather Bird" | |
---|---|
Single by Louis Armstrong | |
B-side | "Dear Old Southland" |
Released | late 1928 or early 1929 |
Recorded | December 5, 1928 |
Genre | jazz |
Label | Okeh 41454 [1] |
"Weather Bird" is a musical composition by Joe Oliver. [2] However Thomas Brothers has suggested that it was composed by Louis Armstrong, because Armstrong sent a lead sheet of "Weather Bird Rag" to Washington, D.C. for copyright in April 1923 [3]: 108 and that, despite its 1923 copyright date, it was composed by Armstrong during his time on the Mississippi river boats. [3]: 313
On December 5, 1928, Louis Armstrong and Earl Hines recorded it as a duet between trumpet and piano. [2] [4] [5] [6] That recording is regarded as the "most famous duet in jazz history". [7] (In fact, it was issued by Okeh Records as Louis Armstrong's "trumpet solo with piano accompaniment by Earl Hines" [1] and is sometimes considered a solo. [4] Armstrong had also performed the composition before, as second cornet with Oliver's Creole Jazz Band in 1923. [2]) Citing its improvisational sound, Brothers describes this recording as "fun and exceptional, a worthy document of a unique musical friendship." [3]: 313–17
The recording by Louis Armstrong and Earl Hines was inducted in the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2008. [8]