If you're looking for great music at a great price, you can stop looking, because you've found what you're looking for. Thomas "Fats" Waller and Louis "Satch" Armstrong are two of the world's most beloved music legends, each on his own merits and style. This CD is a wonderful blend between the two.

"Satch Plays Fats" was originally released in 1955 as a 9-track album dedicated to Fats Waller, who had died suddenly 12 years earlier. Armstrong had had the priviledge of working with the Jazz great, briefly, many years before.

In addition to the original 9 tracks, the CD contains added alternate versions of songs that never made it onto the 1955 release, as well as 7 recordings from earlier years. With 20 tracks in all, this is certainly a bargain buy and THE album to own.

The CD's digitally remastered sound cuts out all graininess fans have had to deal with in past years. The songs come through with every ounce of hearty vitality that they were intended to have. I was expecting less quality and was pleasantly surprised!

The last thing worthy of mention are the liner notes. Too often these days compilation cds and re-releases are almost completely devoid of informarion. The notes contained in this CD are AWESOME. There is info on both Satch and Fats and the histories of their respective careers, as well as album info for the original 1955 release. Simply great!

Many years ago, a very good friend of mine had a cassette player in his car and he would drive around town playing this album on cassette tape over and over again. I eventually heard it when I was riding in his car one day and I begged him for a copy. He gave me a cassette tape of the original album, with just the original nine tracks that the original LP had--and, of course, I played the tape until it was worn through! I feared that I would never get hear this beautiful music again. Imagine my joy when I discovered this CD for sale at Amazon! I couldn't get it here fast enough.

This CD version of the original record album exceeded my expectations by far. There are 11 (yes, ELEVEN) bonus tracks on the CD, of which four were never before released! You get edited alternate versions with people coaching and commenting to Louis after the take. Other tracks date as far back as 1929 so you truly get a perspective of how Louis admired Fats Waller all through his life. (The two worked together only briefly once or twice at the most.) Moreover, the quality of the sound is excellent even on my portable music player. Louis Armstrong both sings and plays the music of "Fats" Waller so darn well you'll never tire of playing this one. Louis, his trumpet and the music of "Fats" Waller? Ha! Play it LOUD AND OFTEN because this album's a winner!

For example, the CD starts off beautifully with the classic "Honeysuckle Rose." We also hear "Ain't Misbehavin'" and "I'm Crazy 'Bout My Baby." After spending the entire afternoon listening several times to all the tracks over and over again, it's still tough, if not impossible, to isolate any "favorite" song of mine on this CD. Two of the finalists, however, would have to be "Keepin' Out Of Mischief Now" and "All That Meat And No Potatoes."

Armstrong gets a strong boost from the vocals of Velma Middleton, whose talent is almost entirely uncredited and undervalued in this recording. Her voice complements Louis' beautifully and their half sung/half spoken dialogue in "All That Meat And No Potatoes" is catchy, to say the least. The two singers have a natural and relaxed rapport that makes you feel so comfortable listening to their vocalizing.

The CD has a sticker on the front of the jewel case that you get the liner notes by George Avakian and the story of "Fats" Waller (born Thomas Wright Waller). For some inexplicable reason, however, the liner notes are printed twice! There isn't much to read about Armstrong and Velma Middleton is only pointed out in a picture of her singing one of the songs along with Armstrong. The liner notes could be better--a real mistake, in my opinion.

Overall, this CD is still must have music and a real value with the extra tracks. I recommend this for fans of classic jazz, fine trumpet playing and the early work of Louis Armstrong with his band the All-Stars. Barney Bigard plays the clarinet really, really well as it was his specialty and the liner notes do include great photos. Do yourself a favor--get this CD and find out why Amazon chose this as an "essential recording!" SMILE

Waller and Armstrong were of the same generation and were collaborators in music in the 1920s. Louis's first big leap to popular stardom beyond the tight group of Jazz musicians and performers came when he introduced "Ain't Mis Behavin'" on the Broadway stage. The audiences often forced him to do three or four encores. Folks who had seen the show before would pay full price just to get in to hear Louis sing this one song.

The recordings in the late 20s by Louis with all the vocals are simply my idea of the best music ever recorded by anyone. Rather than get them selected this way, you might want to get one of the CDs or collections that covers that period of time with everything, rather than just the songs by Waller.

Likewise, while the All Stars were not as good as his original Chicago and New York Groups, particularly these later all-stars (I prefer the albums with the great Jack Teagarden), if you get into the music you will want that all too.

At any rate, there is no one else but Louis who can do these songs justice except the Fat man himself, Mr. Waller!

If you want to buy only one Louis Armstrong CD, buy this one. But remember to buy this remastered version (dated 2000) and not the 1987 release of the same title which has fewer songs and the sound quality is not as good as this one.

The more I hear Armstrong the more I like him. On this 1955 release, he did nine of Fats Waller's songs with perfection and great sound quality. In 2000, Sony put out this CD with the original LP plus some alternate versions of those songs, and then stretched the thing to well over 70 minutes with seven Armstrong recordings from 1929-32 of Waller's best. Even the old recordings sound pretty darn good. If one MUST find a flaw, perhaps we really do not need THREE versions of "Blue Turning Grey Over You" and "What Did I Do To Be So Black and Blue." Yet none of the three renditions are low-quality. Fats Waller's career ran from 1925 until his too-early death in 1943. The 11 songs on this disc (in 20 tracks) reveal him to be quite worthy of that Broadway tribute of a few years back, "Ain't Misbehaving." Armstrong's female vocalist of the mid-50's, Velma Middleton, contributes on three of the tracks. At first, I did not think I'd like her, but after two listenings, I find I like her a lot. She fits the Waller style, and provides a nice contrast to Satchmo's famous and wonderful croaking. Of course, the Armstrong All Stars, including Trummy Young on trombone and Barney Bigard on clarinet, are superb here also.