Music: Satch Plays Fats

This remastered edition of a 1955 recording session captures the great Armstrong at his mature best; his trumpet virtuosity and singing were never more supple or expressive. Along with the nine Fats Waller gems from the original LP, the CD offers four alternate takes from that session and seven tracks of Armstrong’s older Waller recordings. Satch dazzles with familiar songs like Honeysuckle Rose and Ain’t Misbehavin’, but his playing and singing of the lesser-known lament Blue Turning Grey Over You are staggering and unforgettable.

–By Elliot Ravetz