"Body & Soul" is one of the most iconic standards in jazz that has been recorded countless times since Louis Armstrong among others recorded it. Per Wikipedia" "Body and Soul" was written in New York City for the British actress and singer Gertrude Lawrence, who introduced it to London audiences. Published in England, it was first performed in the United States by Libby Holman in the 1930 Broadway revue Three's a Crowd. In Britain the orchestras of Jack Hylton and Ambrose recorded the ballad first in the same week in February 1930. by the end of 1930 at least 11 American bands had recorded it with Louis Armstrong having recorded the first jazz version. After Coleman Hawkins made his famous recordings, it has become a requirement, to paraphrase Dexter Gordon, for all tenor saxophonists to play and/or record it. This will be the first of my Take 5 blog posts devoted to this standard. I will focus on performances that predate Hawkins.
First up is Louis Armstrong's 1930 recording.
The highly underrated trumpeter Henry 'Red' Allen recorded it in 1934 with a band that included Dickie wells and Chu Berry.
The Benny Goodman Trio with Teddy Wilson on piano and Gene Krupa did a version in 1935.
Chu Berry with Roy Eldridge in his band recorded it in 1938.
Finally, we have the great Art Tatum from 1938.
This sets us up for next week when we will start with the classic Coleman Hawkins recording.
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