The Hot Five was
Louis Armstrong's first
jazz recording band led under his own name. It was a typical New Orleans jazz band in instrumentation, consisting of trumpet, clarinet, and trombone backed by a rhythm section. The original
New Orleans jazz style leaned heavily on collective improvisation, where the three
horns together played the lead: the
trumpet played the main melody, and the
clarinet and
trombone played improvised accompaniments to the melody. This tradition was continued in the Hot Five, but because of Armstrong's creative gifts as a trumpet player, solo passa…
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