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Louis Armstrong's trumpet solo is the sole improvisation on this recording. Spanning half a chorus of the 32-bar ABAC form at a relaxed 83 BPM with a swing feel, the solo runs approximately 53 seconds. Armstrong's trumpet statement carries the easy, conversational quality that characterized his later work, his phrasing behind and around the beat creating the rhythmic tension that first established swing as a musical concept decades earlier. Louis Armstrong was 54 to 55 years old at the time of this 1956 recording. "Isn't This a Lovely Day?" was composed by Irving Berlin for the 1935 RKO film Top Hat, the fourth and most commercially successful pairing of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.
Louis Armstrong was 54 to 55 years old at the time.
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