“All Of Me” (PDF) from the Kermit Ruffins album We Partyin’ Traditional Style!

Kermit Ruffins features New Orleans vocalist Mykia Jovan on one of Louis Armstrong’s signature tunes. Written in 1931 by Gerald Marks and Seymore Simons, author Ted Gioia suggests that Armstrong’s up-beat presentation of “All Of Me” contradicts the sentiment of the lyrics, that the song is essentially a blues of resignation and heartbreak, and he points to the 1941 Billie Holiday and Lester Young recording as the definitive interpretation. Perhaps the song also reflects the economic hardships of the Great Depression and the relinquishment of non-essential luxuries.

Early in this recording, Lucien Barbarin rids his solo of non-essential melodies by playing off of drummer Shannon Powell’s rhythms. Barbarin occasionally finds the thirds and sevenths that define the chord changes, however the trombonist mostly relies on the blues scale and tonal effects that invoke the gutbucket sound that Satchmo helped to popularize.

Here’s a YouTube video of Lucien Barbarin dueting with Shannon Powell:

Recommended reading: The Jazz Standards: A Guide to the Repertoire by Ted Gioia. Published by Oxford University Press.