Louis Armstrong
There are very few people in the world who haven't seen this iconic photograph of jazz trumpeter extraordinaire
Louis Armstrong.
Each Fourth of July, as Americans across the U.S. haul out flags and bunting, prepare to march in parades or simply have barbeques, I put CDs in the player on the porch recorded by "Pops" in honor of his birthday.
Louis Armstrong draft registration form
Yes, I know that historians think they have proved that he was actually born on August the 4th, because someone turned up a baptismal certificate for him with Aug. 4 as the day of his birth. For his entire lifetime, Louis Armstrong believed that he was born on July 4. He said his mother called him "firecracker baby." It's what he listed for draft application (pictured here), his Social Security application, and drivers licenses. The tradition of celebrating his birthday today has continued in communities and venues, like the
Louis Armstrong House Museum in Corona, Queens, New York.
Some jazz stations across the country and the museum hedge their bets and have birthday celebrations on both dates.
When I was the program director of WPFW-FM radio, Pacifica, Washington, D.C., we broadcast his music from 6:30 AM till midnight, interspersed with interviews with musicians who knew him and loved him.
Several musicians spoke of how he quietly took care of many older musicians financially, and not only did he sustain them while living he took care of their funeral expenses and looked after their families. His close friends called him "Pops."
So July 4th to me is "Pops Day." I have to admit that as a black descendant of enslaved people in this country there is a deep irony in celebrating U.S. independence from England, when so many of my ancestors were in chains and not even counted as full humans. That does not mean I neglect paying tribute to those folks in my family tree who fought in the American Revolution, but my civic pride is tempered by both the history of racism in this nation and its continuance.
I'm aware that for many jazz fans Louis Armstrong isn't viewed as a political figure. His music, and musical ambassadorship world wide has been his primary legacy.
I'd like to open with one of his earlier recordings, “West End Blues,” recorded on June 28, 1928, which is considered to be one of the classics of early jazz.
Follow the sound of the trumpet below the fold.
This is neither a biography, history, or musical treatise on Armstrong's body of work and influence on the course of jazz. There are musicologists and jazz historians who have written reams about him.
It's a celebration.
I did want to share one part of his history that relates to today, since we will hear the Star Spangled Banner, and other patriotic tunes played across the nation.
Armstrong became enmeshed in media frenzy when he spoke out publicly for the first time about racism and segregation. In his personal, musical life he had always demanded in his contracts that he would refuse to play if forced into segregated facilities, and his quiet insistence on being treated equally to white musicians opened doors for those who came after him. Yet there were those who lambasted him for his not taking a more active stance in the growing movement for civil rights.
In 1957, that changed.
In September 1957, Armstrong first spoke publicly about race relations in America. During that month, the entire country’s attention was on Little Rock, Arkansas, where state Governor Orval Faubus and a band of local segregationists were defying a Supreme Court ruling desegregating the city’s Central High School. Two weeks after nine black students, known as the “Little Rock Nine”, were first barred from the high school, the jazz trumpeter was on tour with his band, The All Stars, in Grand Forks, North Dakota. Larry Lubenow, a 21-year-old reporter for the Grand Forks Herald, was assigned to interview Armstrong at the Dakota Hotel on the night of Sept. 17, 1957, shortly before a jazz concert. Lubenow’s boss laid out some ground rules that strictly prohibited any discussion of politics with Armstrong, the first black man to stay at what was then the best hotel in town.
Lubenow was first told that he couldn’t talk to Armstrong until after the concert. Eager for a story, with the help of a hotel porter he sneaked into Armstrong’s suite, posing as a room service waiter, complete with a lobster dinner. The reporter revealed himself to Armstrong who granted him an interview. Within minutes Lubenow brought up Little Rock. “It’s getting almost so bad a colored man hasn’t got any country,” Armstrong said. President Dwight Eisenhower, he charged, was “two faced”, and had “no guts”. As for Faubus, Armstrong called him an “uneducated plow boy”.
Armstrong also recounted some of his experiences performing in the Jim Crow South. He then sang the opening of “The Star-Spangled Banner”, inserting obscenities into the lyrics. At that time, Armstrong had been contemplating a goodwill tour to the Soviet Union on behalf of the State Department. He would go on to cancel the tour.
“People over there are going to ask me what’s wrong with my country,” Armstrong said. “What am I supposed to say?”
For approval Lubenow showed Armstrong what he had written.
“Don’t take nothing out of that story,” Armstrong declared. “That’s just what I said, and still say.” He then wrote “solid” on the bottom of the story and signed his name.
Armstrong referred to himself as "black" and I always think of that when I hear his rendition of the Fats Waller tune "(What Did I Do To Be So) Black and Blue (1955)."
I don't want to make this piece too video heavy, so for those of you who'd like a soundtrack of Armstrong for part of the day, this is a long mix of many of his tunes.
I'm going to close with one of my favorite duets, Louis and Ella Fitzgerald, which is appropriate for a hot sunny summer day.
Hope you'll join me in comments with some of your favorites.
Happy "Pops" Day.