I interviewed Louis Armstrong exactly once, in the early 60s. He talked to me between sets in Evansville, Ind., having come down U.S. 41 with his band on a bus from Chicago. "Are you tired?" I asked.
"Man, I've been tired since I was 13," he replied.
I've stolen that line more than once.
One thing I asked was whether there was going to be a volume two of his autobiography. A first volume, Satchmo, was recently in paperback, It ended with Armstrong coming up the river from New Orleans. (There was an earlier autobiography I didn't even know about.) He said there was "something" in a bank vault -- in New Orleans or New York, he was vague about which -- that would come out "sometime."
Turns out, there was no volume two of Satchmo -- a nickname Armstrong didn't particularly like. There was something better.
A rousing sample is in today's New York Times. It is behind the Times's semi-permeable paywall, but if you can get it, it's well worth reading. Armstrong saved his letters, essays and even jokes. He made home recordings of himself talking and playing along with other artists' records. He made collages. That last may sound odd, but so did my mother and aunt; it must have been a generational thing.
Anyhow, all of this has been digitized by The Louis Armstrong House Museum in Queens, thanks to a grant from Robert F. Smith. And, thanks to modern technology, the Times can add sound and big photos to a description/review of the collection.
The collection is available at the Museum's Web site. We may now know all the things that Armstrong in his day dismissed as "something in a bank vault." Quite a guy.
Incidentally, I had been told he didn't like to be called "Louie," so I practiced saying "Louis." After listening to him play for an hour, when I got to him to talk, "Mr. Armstrong" popped out naturally.
For those who can't breach the Times wall, and for the whole world in general, here is a taste of what made me call him Mister. Real good trumpeters today can imitate that opening 15 seconds or so, but they say that when Armstrong made the recording real good trumpeters couldn't figure out how he did it.
Any guy who interviewed Louis Armstrong and called him Mr. Armstrong is Mr. Blackburn to me. Thanks so much for NYT article reference. Shows an active, aware, restless mind. In my youth, I remember him being a well known beloved celebrity. But I don't think I really knew anything about him until I heard his early recordings. He expanded the musical universe.
ReplyDeleteI'll have to tell Judy, one of my dance partners, about the collage with Armstrong, Bix Beiderbecke and Bunny Berrigan. Her father played trumpet in Berrigan's band.
About the criticism from beboppers, it seems to me as if James Clerk Maxwell were criticising Isaac Newton. Maybe it's something like children separating from their parents to live their own lives.
Stanley, We have to remember Miles Davis et al were under criticism themselves from the old guard. (Mezz Mezzrow even jumped on members of the old guard for not being guarded enough, or something.) That's art. I stand in awe of Davis' virtuosity, but I feel all warm in loving about Armstrong's.
DeleteI liked hearing of Armstrong's catholicity in music, and his voracious appetite for it. I was never for proponents of one style of music putting down another. The more I learn about Armstrong, the more I like him.
DeleteThanks, Tom! I sent this to The Boy. He was awarded the Louis Armstrong Jazz Prize in high school. He will enjoy knowing that Mr. Armstrong was interested in all kinds of artistic expression.
ReplyDeleteCheck out this piece on Mr. Armstrong. I have a hunch you'll like it.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/23/opinion/23margolick.html
Great story, Gene. But do you have a backup supercomputer where you store all this stuff you pull seemingly out of nowhere?
DeleteThe telegram about holding a kid's hand is in the new NYT story I promoted above. But not the back story.