[Dixielandjazz] Armstrong in long tie and different suits?

[Stan Brager]

The problem with the Town Hall concert in 1947 is that it was NOT the 
Armstrong band...yet. It was more of a jam session with Armstrong being the 
leader. It was an experiment to try to boost the sagging career of 
Armstrong and, more importantly, to return him to the public as the leader 
of a small jazz band.

The whole affair was the brainchild of Ernest Anderson who had to convince 
Armstrong's manager Joe Glaser to let Louis do the gig.

All the participants were hired for that evening (May 17, 1947) only, so I 
doubt that band uniforms were paid for. They dressed in suits and ties 
which were standard fair for jazz musicians at that time for that 
engagement.

All who were contracted for the evening showed up except for Sidney Bechet.

Reference: Liner notes from the French RCA CD set "Louis Armstrong At Town 
Hall".

Stan
Stan Brager
Trombonist-in-Training

-----Original Message-----
From:	Stephen Barbone [SMTP:barbonestreet@earthlink.net]
Sent:	Wednesday, July 10, 2002 7:14 PM
To:	Dixieland Jazz Mailing List
Subject:	[Dixielandjazz] Armstrong in long tie and different suits?

Jim Beebe asks:

Anyway, can anyone produce a picture of Armstrong's band with different
dress and straight ties?


Sure:

Louis in 1939 at the Apollo. Louis is wearing a light colored double
breasted suit and long tie. I will say however, the big band is in Tux
with bows.

But then, check out the band at the historic Town Hall NYC concert in
1947. Louis in light colored single breasted suit, long tie, Hackett in
light colored double breasted suit long tie, Teagarden in dark colored
single breasted suit, long tie, Hucko in medium dark single breasted
suit, long tie, Haggart in dark colored single breasted suit, long tie,
Catlett in dark single breasted suit, long tie, Well, you get the
picture and it is readily available. (Since they were in NYC, maybe they
were corrupted by "East Coast" musicians? :-)

Anyway, as we all know, this multi suited band is what re started Pops'
career.

It does seem to me when I saw the all stars, in the 1950s, in the
Eastern USA, they were also multi suited. Also on some European and
African tours, they dressed like that. There is a picture of the band in
West Africa dressed in long ties & different suits from the Jack Bradley
collection.

I suspect Armstrong did the tux / bow bit with the All Stars as well as
the long tie different suit bit. One thing for sure, he did not always
present the band in bow tie and uniform and Pat Cooke is quite correct
in observing this.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone