Ske-Dat-De-Dat: The Spirit of Satch is a tribute album by American musician Dr. John, composed of thirteen songs from Louis "Satch" Armstrong's repertoire. It was released on August 19, 2014, via Proper/Concord Records, making it his final studio album before his death from a heart attack in 2019.
The album was primarily recorded at Esplanade Studios in Dr. John's hometown of New Orleans from December 10 to 13 in 2013 and January 2 to 3 in 2014, with additional recording on February 24, 2014. The recording sessions also took place at World Alert Music in New York, The Village Studios in Los Angeles, G Studios Digital in Studio City and Sugar Hill Studios in Houston for several featured artists. The album was produced by Sarah Morrow and Dr. John.
Ske-Dat-De-Dat: The Spirit of Satch was met with generally favourable reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 72, based on eleven reviews.[1]
Hal Horowitz of American Songwriter praised the album, calling it "a feisty, dynamic hour long set that does what it sets out to: captures Armstrong's indefatigable spirit and keeps his music alive for a new generation".[3] Terry Staunton of Record Collector wrote: "though billed as a salute to Armstrong, Ske-Dat-De-Dat… could more accurately be described as a celebration of Crescent City, the magic and wonder of the burg embraced to the max on a gloriously heartwarming 'That's My Home'".[7]AllMusic's Thom Jurek stated: "though a couple of cuts fall short of the mark, and the set may have a few too many guests, Ske-Dat-De-Dat is a solid tribute to Armstrong. It does take chances and almost always pulls them off thanks to Dr. John's signature blend of musical imagination, wit, and savvy cool".[2] George de Stefano of PopMatters wrote: "none of them is a complete dud--Sandoval's red-hot soloing saves "Tight Like That"—they just feel like they belong on different albums. Had they been pruned, Ske-Dat-De-Dat really would have been a dream tribute to Satchmo".[6]
In his mixed review for Drowned in Sound, Jack Doherty concluded: "there's no doubt that Skee-Dat-De-Dat...Spirit of Satch is a project of love, but by the closing stages there's no getting away from it; the album is a bit of a... drag".[5]
Randy Lewis of the Los Angeles Times wrote that tribute albums come and go, "but it's a real rarity that can snap a listener to attention like Dr. John's new salute to jazz founding father Louis Armstrong. Ske-Dat-De-Dat turns many of the songs Armstrong recorded inside out and upside down, fast-forwarding them to 2014 with hip-hop beats, funk grooves and wildly inventive horn arrangements that are the work of John and his co-producer and arranger for the project, trombonist Sarah Morrow".[9] Robert H. Cataliotti's review in Living Blues underlines that Sarah Morrow's "dynamic, textured, and swinging horn charts play a big part in shaping all the different stylistic approaches into a unified soundscape".[10]
Mojo ranked the album at No. 50 on its '50 Best Albums of 2014' list.[11] It was selected as a DownBeat editor's pick.[citation needed]
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