[Dixielandjazz] Louis Armstrong's private tapes & other memorabilia.

[Stephen Barbone]

Hi Stan:

I didn't say I agreed that the tapes should be kept private. I only said that
many on the list thought so. I follow your logic. Lucille specifically left
them to NYC, no doubt in  my mind with a view towards the future of Pops'
place in history

Stan Brager wrote:

> I can't agree with you this time, Steve. If Louis didn't want the tapes to
> be made public, he would have either erased them, asked Lucille or someone
> to destroy them, or asked Lucille to keep them private. Lacking those
> instructions, I feel that he knew that they would be made public at some
> time.
>
> He surely had a sense of history and that would have been why he made the
> tapes in the first place.
>
> Why would he have made them otherwise?
>
> Stan
> Stan Brager
> Trombonist-in-Training
> -----Original Message-----
> From:   Stephen Barbone [SMTP:barbonestreet@earthlink.net]
> Sent:   Monday, September 30, 2002 11:59 AM
> To:     Dixieland Jazz Mailing List
> Subject:        [Dixielandjazz] Louis Armstrong's private tapes & other
> memorabilia.
>
> List Mates:
>
> Many of us feel that Louis Armstrong's personal tapes should not have
> been made public. Well, blame it on Lucille because the recordings,
> along with Armstrong's home and its contents, were left to the New York
> City Department of Cultural Affairs by Armstrong's wife, Lucille, upon
> her death in 1983.
>
> Was this what Louis wanted? I don't know but he left everything to her
> and she left the writings and records etc. to New York City. They are at
> Queens College in Queens County, NYC and available to the public.
>
> He was, as most of us know, a prolific writer as well as the generator
> of some 650 reel to reel tapes. Perhaps the most prolific writer in
> Jazz? Did he have his eyes and ears on his place in the history of Jazz?
> And so decide to codify his thoughts for future generations? Maybe so.
>
> Cheers,
> Steve
>
> PS Each tape is about 4 hours long. That's 2600 hours of priceless
> information and music  from this unique and wonderful man.
>
> PPS. For additional insight on Louis the man, you might want to read
> "Louis Armstrong In His Own Words", by Thomas Brothers, associate
> professor of M usic at Duke University. (Oxford Press) It is a
> collections of writings by Pops which as part of that memorabilia, were
> previously unpublished and is an interesting read.