[Dixielandjazz] From Garrison Keillor's Writer's Almanac for 8/4/07

[Laurence Swain]

>From Garrison Keillor's Writer's Almanac for 8/4/07:

    It's the birthday of Louis Armstrong (music and books by this artist), born in New 
    Orleans, Louisiana (1901), in a poor section of town known as "The Battlefield." In 
    1907, Louis formed a vocal quartet with three other boys and performed on street 
    corners for tips. The Karnofskys, a family of Russian Jewish immigrants, hired Louis 
    to work on their junk wagon. Louis purchased his first cornet with money the family 
    lent him.

    In 1913, he was sent to a reform school as a juvenile delinquent, and that's where he 
    learned to play the cornet. Armstrong listened to pioneers like New Orleans cornetist 
    King Oliver, who gave Armstrong his big break by letting him play in the Creole Jazz 
    Band in Chicago in 1922.

    Armstrong's Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings (1925-1928) were among the first 50 
    items preserved by the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress. His 
    autobiographies include Swing That Music (1936) and Satchmo: My Life in New 
    Orleans (1954).

    He said, "Musicians don't retire; they stop when there's no more music in them."

    He also said, "If ya ain't got it in ya, ya can't blow it out."

Larry Swain
(Backup piano player of last resort, Boston area)