Audio files

LOUIS ARMSTRONG, THE BEST OF THE HOT FIVE AND HOT SEVEN RECORDINGS (COLUMBIA/LEGACY) Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five, and later Hot Seven, ensembles put these classic tunes on wax 75 years ago, and they still have a dynamite sound. The Hot musicians, who were experimenting with improvisation back in the mid 1920s, were from New Orleans, but they recorded these sessions in Chicago. Weirdly enough, the members performed together only in the studio, never in jazz clubs. But those sessions were filled with enough energy -- and charming banter and miscues -- to become the stuff of legend.

Check out the classic Heebie Jeebies, which music historians claim is the first recording to feature Armstrong's signature scatting. (Although this disc's informative liner notes discredit that myth.) Willie the Weeper is a delight for its banjo solo, courtesy of Johnny St. Cyr. Wild Man Blues finds Armstrong's cornet conversing with Johnny Dodds' marvelously lyrical clarinet. Dodds is resplendent again on Potato Head Blues, dishing out an edgy, angsty solo before Armstrong cleans up with an elegant, vibrato-rich performance.

Struttin' With Some Barbecue shows Armstrong's evolution into a wild improviser. The banjo and Kid Ory's trombone are like an anchor and Armstrong's cornet a spirited ship fidgeting and squirming to be free.

These Hot sessions feature another Armstrong: Louis' wife, Lil, a fabulous piano player. A

-- GINA VIVINETTO, Times pop music critic

VARIOUS ARTISTS, SUN RECORDS: THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION (BMG HERITAGE) Anyone familiar with the legend of Sun Records and its brilliant papa, Sam Phillips, knows how Phillips recognized the genius of Elvis Presley. A wonderful story about Phillips and the King has Presley recording at Sun Studios on a hot summer night in Memphis. Taking a break from a country ballad he was having little luck with, Presley belted out an obscure blues tune called That's All Right, backed up by just a bit of guitar, bass and minimal percussion. Nothing like That's All Right was playing on the radio at the time, but Phillips knew it should be -- and would, if he could get the world to listen.

Boy, oh, boy did Phillips get the world to listen.

Sun Records introduced the world to Presley and many other giants of early rock 'n' roll, R&B and country (what we charmingly these days call "roots music"). Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, Little Milton, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash and James Cotton are among the stars that shone under Sun.

Sun Records: The 50th Anniversary Collection is a two-disc anthology of some of the label's brightest. It features all the aforementioned and many lesser-known but important pioneers. Johnny London's Drivin' Slow, Sun's first record, kicks things off with teenager London's wailing on alto sax. Feelin' Good by Little Junior's Blue Flames was the label's first hit, a one-chord boogie-woogie blues number that Junior Parker teased Phillips with over the telephone. Parker intended it as an impromptu gag song, but it was no joke to Phillips, whose ear proved to be on the cutting edge. (For Sun completists, both Parker's and Presley's versions of Mystery Train are included.)

The collection, filled with history and hits, contains several noteworthy cuts: Guitarist Pat Hare perhaps cursed himself with I'm Gonna Murder My Baby. Hare did indeed kill his girlfriend -- and also a police officer who attempted to arrest him. Hare spent the rest of his life in jail. Other cuts -- say Orbison's Ooby Dooby and Rosco Gordon's Shoobie Oobie- prove you don't always need compelling lyrics to get across a message. Sometimes a good knee-slapping beat and old-fashioned whoop-it-up delivery will do fine.

Phillips knew this. The man put his heart and soul into Sun Records, so much so, he even designed its famous rooster logo. "I honestly feel," Phillips said of Sun, "that I know what it's like to have a baby." Seems in this case, good parenting paid off. A

-- G.V.

THE FLAMING LIPS, YOSHIMI BATTLES THE PINK ROBOTS (WARNER BROS. RECORDS) According to the Flaming Lips, the future is a grim place. More an analysis of mortality, atheism and the evils of technology than a pop record, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots is a zany sonic essay, overflowing with insight, chutzpah and heaps of electro-rock charm.

The vanguard trio's skillfully executed narrative is a compelling listen, almost like a concept album. The songs are heavily layered, first with singer Wayne Coyne's affected voice, then with electric blips and a suave techno finish.

It's also theatrical music. Take, for instance Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, pt. 2, an instrumental, mechanized composition that, according to the press notes, tells the tale of Yoshimi slaying a robot with bravos abounding. (Yoshimi is a real person, musician Yoshimi P-we and a friend of the Lips.)

Other tracks, such as the breezy In the Morning of the Magicians, question the meaning of love, with brooding atmospherics. A

-- BRIAN ORLOFF, Times staff writer

© St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.