Chords for Louis Armstrong "West End Blues"

June 28th, 1928, Louis Armstrong and Earl Hines went into the studio and recorded a
King Oliver tune, West End Blues.
It would become one of the best known recordings in
the history of jazz, a perfect reflection of the country in the moments before the Great
Depression.
_ And it would once and for all establish Louis Armstrong as the first great
solo genius of the music.
When I was 15, I bought a copy of Louis Armstrong and Earl Hines.
And I put it on and the first
track was Basie Street Blues and I was so astounded by that that I had to [N] take the needle
off the record and just kind of get my breath.
It took me about six months to get through
the whole side of the record, you know, memorizing and learning each track before I would go
on to the next one.
And I was no doubt in my mind that Armstrong was, you know, just
the greatest figure in contemporary music and where could he go beyond that?
And then
I turned the album over after some six months and the first track is, you hear that cadenza
bop bop bop, boo dah boo dah bop, boo dah boo doo bee boo doo bee boo doo bee.
West End Blues.
Trumpet players all throughout history, we always play fanfares.
You know, you could
start with the elephant.
The elephant goes, _ that's like a fanfare.
Get out of my way.
I'm coming through.
And from that you have these like trumpet calls that you've heard
all the time on the Saturday movies, like, [D] _ _ _ _ _ you know, things like that.
And in Beethoven
Lenore Overture you have a trumpet call like.
_ [Bb] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [Fm] _ _ _ _ So you always hear the trumpet doing that.
Now the West End Blues go.
_ _ _ [Eb] _ [Ab] _
_ [D] _ _ _ [F] _ _ _ _
_ [Fm] _ _ _ [Abm] _ _ So that's like another whole concept of a fanfare.
And Armstrong
goes into two different times and he uses the same arpeggios and he uses all these chromatic
notes and he used the sound of the blues.
It's like everything is in there, but it's
so natural.
It sounds very simple.
But let me tell you, it's hard to get that D too.
And when you hear him play it, [Eb] it's so just the brilliance of it, but also how natural
it is.
It's like, OK, here's West End Blues for you.
I played West End Blues once for a music professor and I put it on the turntable and we played
it once and he said, play that again.
_ _ _ _ _ We played it again in complete silence and he said,
I think that may be the most perfect three minutes of music I've ever heard in my life.
_ _ _ [Ab] _ _ _ _ [F] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [Bb] _ _ _ _ [Eb] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [Bm] _ [G] _ _ _ [Eb] _ _ [Ab] _
_ _ _ [Abm] _ _ _ [Eb] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [Bb] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [Eb] _ _
[Ab] _ _ [Cm] _ _ [Bb] _ _ [Eb] _ _
_ _ _ _ [Ebm] _ _ [Eb] _ _
_ [Bbm] _ _ _ _ _ [Ab] _ _
_ _ [Abm] _ _ _ _ [Eb] _ _
_ [Bb] _ [Eb] _ _ _ _ [Fm] _ _
_ _ [Bb] _ _ _ _ [Eb] _ _
_ [Abm] _ [Eb] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [G] _ _ _ _ [Ab] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [Eb] _ _
_ [N] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _