By Loren Schoenberg, Conductor and Saxophonist These lists have been compiled with the newcomer to jazz in mind. We have shied away from compilations wherever possible, for the simple reason that you may very well wind up buying the complete albums that were excerpted in the compilations. Here you have a small but representative sampling of some of the very best music Louis Armstrong recorded in every period of his career, with as little duplication as possible. Chimes Blues Recorded April 6, 1923 (Courtesy Columbia/Legacy) Cake Walkin' Babies From Home Recorded January 8, 1925 (Courtesy Columbia/Legacy) Potato Head Blues Recorded May 10, 1927 (Courtesy Columbia/Legacy) Star Dust Recorded November 4, 1931 (Courtesy Columbia/Legacy) West End Blues Recorded June 28, 1928 (Courtesy Columbia/Legacy) The Complete Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong [Box Set] Louis Armstrong & Ella Fitzgerald Verve The Complete Louis Armstrong & Duke Ellington Sessions Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong Roulette The Complete Decca All Star Sessions Mosaic Highlights From His Decca Years GRP Louis Armstrong: Hot Fives & Sevens JSP (4 Cd Set available individually) Louis Armstrong Plays W.C. Handy Sony Louis Armstrong: Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man Sony (Compilation 1924-34) Disney Songs the Satchmo Way Disney NPR's Basic Jazz Record Library: Louis Armstrong NPR's Murray Horwitz and jazz critic and poet AB Spellman recommend Armstrong's Best of the Decca Years, Vol. 1 (MCA). (Courtesy NPRJazz.org) NPR's Basic Jazz Record Library: Louis Armstrong NPR's Murray Horwitz and jazz critic and poet AB Spellman recommend Armstrong's The Hot Fives and Hot Sevens (Sony Legacy). (Courtesy NPRJazz.org)