Louis Armstrong - Louis Wishes You A Cool Yule / red vinyl LP

The final recording by Louis Armstrong, a recitation of Samuel Clement Moore’s beloved poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas” (popularly known as “The Night Before Christmas”) is the first newly-released track by the great entertainer in more than 20 years & is included on Satchmo’s first-ever Christmas album, Louis Wishes You A Cool Yule,

Already ailing, Armstrong made the recording of “A Visit from St. Nicholas” on his reel-to-reel tape recorder at his home in Corona, Queens, New York, which is now the Louis Armstrong House and Museum. It’s not known why he felt compelled to commit the holiday staple to tape months after Christmas, but it became his final recording. It is now augmented with a newly-recorded musical bed by New Orleans pianist Sullivan Fortner.

Remarkably, although Satchmo’s holiday recordings are a standard part of the holiday soundtrack, he never released a Christmas album during his lifetime. Louis Wishes You A Cool Yule gathers together his festive recordings as a cohesive body of work, featuring almost all of his holiday output. This includes six Decca singles from the 1950s, including “Cool Yule,” “Christmas Night in Harlem,” and the swinging “‘Zat You Santa Claus?”.

The 11-track collection also offers duets with two of Pops’ favorite vocal collaborators, Velma Middleton (“Baby, It’s Cold Outside”) and Ella Fitzgerald (“I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm”).