Louis Armstrong Plays W. C. Handy is a 1954 studio release by Louis Armstrong and His All Stars, described by Allmusic as "Louis Armstrong's finest record of the 1950s" and "essential music for all serious jazz collections".

Here are Louis Armstrong and his All Stars at two different locations in San Francisco 1954, doing what they loved and did best: playing Jazz of a quality defying description, and, as Louis would have said “pleasing the people”. These recordings happily capture Louis and his cohorts at the glorious height of their powers during two engagements (broadcast from the Downbeat and Hangover clubs) of the kind that often formed the All-Stars’ nightly round. Seldom, if ever, have Armstrong and his All-Stars been captured in more exultant form. Such performances as this are seminal to Jazz. Like Louis Armstrong, music like this will never come again.

In 1955, Louis Armstrong, along with vocalist Velma Middleton, got into the studio to pay tribute to the late Fats Waller. All the standards are here: "Honeysuckle Rose," "Squeeze Me," "Ain't Misbehavin," rendered in fine and mellow but gently, genially swinging fashion. Armstrong's trumpet is superb and his voice carries the good-time spirit of Waller's music.