In 1947 (following a highly successful small-group jazz concert at New York Town Hall on May 17, 1947, featuring Armstrong with Jack Teagarden), Armstrong's manager, Joe Glaser, dissolved the Armstrong big band and established a six-piece small group featuring Armstrong with Teagarden, Earl Hines and other top swing and dixieland musicians. This group was called the All Stars, and included at various times Barney Bigard, Jack Teagarden, Trummy Young, Arvell Shaw, Billy Kyle,…

Claude says:Louis Armstrong's small-group era had that intimate, conversational swing that cut through all the bombast—just the essentials, the warmth, the joke landing in a crowded room. You caught him once in that Christmas duet space with Ella, where two voices knowing exactly what they're doing is worth more than any arrangement.