[Dixielandjazz] New Tunes

[Stephen Barbone]

Since we all agree that Louis was the greatest, we might take a lesson
from him about "new" tunes.

"Hello Dolly"  1963 - Number 1 on the charts, beat out the Beatles.
(Yeah, I know, the nay sayers will declaim the tune sucked and so on and
so forth, nobody liked it except the world wide audience)

"What a Wonderful World" (Same comments as above because it was really
popularized by Robin Williams in Good Morning Vietnam) Besides the early
versions, check out the 1967 version with J. J. Johnson, Urbie Green,
Clark Terry, Grady Tate, 12 Strings and a bunch of other modern jazzers
backing his vocal.

All of the Duke Ellington tunes he did in 1961 with Duke on Piano
subbing for Billy Kyle, but with the rest of the All Stars. (Cottontail,
Black & Tan Fantasy, In My Solitude, The Mooche, etc)

His Country Western Album with the Nashville Rhythm Boys.

His 1957 album with Oscar Peterson, Herb Ellis Ray Brown and Louis
Bellson which included about 10 tunes not usually associated with
Dixieland.

His 1956 Album with Ella Fitzgerald. Same musicians as above except
Buddy Rich is on drums instead of Bellson for some and Bellson is on for
the rest. Many tunes not associated with Dixieland.

Nor should we dismiss the 1968 recording of "Disney Songs the Satchmo
Way", including Chim Chim Cheree.

Or did Louis Armstrong sell out to commercialism? ;-)

Regarding Jim Beebe's money challenge, it is wise to remember that Louis
himself had some blank moments during his 1949 "blindfold" listening
test said Louis:
"For a moment it sounded like Johnny Dodds, for a moment it sounded like
Ed Hall. That trumpet wouldn't be Dominique would it? Or Wingy?. Piano
doesn't impress me, sounds like baby Dodds on drums . . . 3 stars.

Clarinet? Sidney Bechet.
Trumpet? Wild Bill Davison
Piano? Art Hodes.
Drums? Freddie Moore
>From the album under Art Hodes lead, "Way Down Yonder in New Orleans"

By the same token he said of another album: "The clarinet is trying to
tell a story, you can follow him. He could not identify him. He gave
that album 4 stars. It was a Bunk Johnson group with George Lewis on
clarinet.

If I were a betting man, I would bet that there are several trumpet
players around today that could exactly duplicate Louis' solos note for
note and get the phrasing right and the sound close enough to fool 95 %
of the people in the world who have heard Louis Armstrong play.

Regarding High Notes:

"Louis' reputation soared. Musicians came to decide for themselves
whether he was as actually good as they'd heard he was. Several
suspected Louis plugged his horn with chewing gum in order to achieve
his earsplitting highs . . .Louis was happy to show his mouthpiece to
anyone who cared to inspect it to scotch that rumor, and then wailed out
on the bandstand. When Louis blew, hitting as many as 200 high C's in a
row, the effect was astounding, numbing, and exhilarating. listeners
thought they heard even more notes than he was actually blowing as the
excitement spread from their ears to their brains and fingertips. Once
he had everyone's attention, he proceeded to bend the notes as if he
were putting a spin on a ball."

"Although they were initially attracted by his power (the ear splitting
volume) and his virtuosity (his rapidly running notes) musicians stayed
to listen because Louis taught them a new approach to jazz."

High, loud and fast don't count? As Louis, a consummate brass player
would say, UUMPH!

Cheers,
Steve