Why write about Louis Armstrong?
I've written about him so much, I love him so much, why add more? In the earliest rendition of rock nyc I stole a Lennon line and translated to the greatest musician ever: "Before there was Louis Armstrong there was nothing"
Dylan claimed music was his religion in his Chronicles memo. Armstrong is mine. He towers above most things you can imagine, to love his sweet trumpet (or voice, they sound the same) is to love life and with world coming to an end (waiting on a hurricane in nyc) we need to embrace what we love most.
For me? Family, a certainly young lady with big boob(s), the business I work for, Armstrong, music, rock nyc. That puts him pretty fucking high on the least.
I read Gary Giddens (one of my favorite writers) bio and wasn't thrilled by his take. Love Gary on Davis, Mingus but -I don't know why it is so hard to grasp the guy: he was protecting himself -there was a lack of reveal. He seems self evident but in all the things that are missing there is stuff well beyond it: I know what my childhood was like and yet people think this Grandson of a slave, son of a prostitute, who learnt his craft in bordellos and steamships was one of us… I don't know what I am listening to that kinda poverty must be aching through his work. It is so difficult, even in the stunning WC Handy meets, all that pain.
Maybe it is why he is great? Have you heard the WC Handy album? How can the blues be so deep and so bright at the same time? Have you heard him on Porgy And Bess? Who could portray Porgy that well…?
I don't love Armstrong to say, wow, you thought he was "What A Wonderful World"? any more than I write about music to prove how much more t know about music.
I worship Armstrong because in earliest, completely brilliant Hot 5 and Hot 7 recordings HE STOOD ON TINS WHILE HE WAS BEING RECORDED IN A STUDIO IN A WAREHOUSE TO GET AN ECHO.
It is not Kanye's fault he doesn't have to do that 80 years later, but jeez guys… kinda outrageous, right?
I love Armstrong because when I listen to Coltrane and Mingus and Brubeck and Marsalis today and Ellington… they feel so above me. I don't feel that way about Armstrong. He is me. And he is better than the lot of us.