[Dixielandjazz] The Wonderful World of 'Pops'

[Robert Ringwald]

Terry Teachout interviewed
The Wonderful World of 'Pops'
Author looks at life of jazz great Louis Armstrong
by William R. Wood
Kalamazoo Gazette, December 9, 2010

Look at three ambassadors of jazz, trumpet players Wynton Marsalis, Miles Davis and
Louis Armstrong, and you get a great contrast.
Davis, part of the post war generation, was stylish and bad as Civil Rights and Black
Power ushered in a new type of black hero. He viewed jazz as high art and had no
interest in entertaining the public -- instead, whoever was interested got on his
wild music ride.
Marsalis sees himself as an artist rather than an entertainer and studied both classical
and jazz music in school. He was also the first jazz musician of his generation to
reach back and take interest in Louis Armstrong's musical innovations at the advent
of jazz music.
Louis Armstrong was a great artist, but that was not the way he wanted to present
himself, which turned out to be part of the source of his popularity. He was an entertainer.
Playing music was his way of making a living.
It is no accident that Armstrong was America's first ambassador of jazz. He may not
have been the first to play jazz or to scat sing, but he was one of the first to
be widely imitated by other jazz musicians, and that is what made the difference,
Terry Teachout explains in his new book, "Pops" (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $30).
His presence helped make jazz famous among whites in what was a racially segregated
America. When Armstrong went overseas to play, jazz spread with him.
"'Humble' is not the right word, but it is in the ball park," Teachout said by phone
from his Manhattan apartment about Armstrong's personality. "He wasn't vain, he wasn't
the type to rub your nose in (his talent). Instead of impressing you, he wanted to
make you happy."
As the century evolved, both jazz and black attitudes about Armstrong changed. Jazz
became bebop, a cerebral, listener's music, and it lost those fans who couldn't understand
it. Armstrong maintained a danceable repertoire which sustained great following but
in the process distanced many blacks who grew to view his grinning stage presence
as being too close to the plantation.
"There's a difference between an Uncle Tom and someone who was fundamentally optimistic
about life," said Teachout, drama critic for the Wall Street Journal. "He had no
illusions. He knew the score on racial matters. In later life, he was very outspoken
about it. But, he didn't believe it needed to be part of his music."
It took Teachout five years to write "Pops." Most of the time was used doing research
at the Armstrong Archives at Queens College in New York. Teachout was one of the
first people to have access to hundreds of private reel-to-reel tapes that Armstrong
recorded from 1947 until his death.
Armstrong was one of the first musicians to tape record performances, Teachout said,
and the recorder became a toy to Armstrong as he also recorded special events in
his life and candid backstage conversations.
"These tapes made me feel as though I was a fly on the wall of Armstrong's hotel
rooms," Teachout said. "Since I was not old enough to have known him, they brought
me close enough to him as I could get."
In "Pops," Teachout spends pages putting Armstrong's life in historical context.
It is hard for the average person to image a racially segregated society and how
that might form a person's attitudes or lead to a person's actions, Teachout said.
Teachout wrote the book, in part, to introduce Armstrong to a new generation because,
"they sort of know he was this grinning fellow who played music a half century ago
-- they know he was good but don't know why."
One clear message that emerges from "Pops" is that jazz musicians were among the
first Americans to defy laws and attitudes of racial segregation. Armstrong often
led the charge.
"Off stage, Armstrong befriended many white musicians and recorded with them as soon
as it was possible to record, with them after (World War II)," Teachout said. "He
had no prejudice or reverse racism at all. Music is a meritocracy. It is about what's
good. It is not about what color, personal beliefs you have or behavior. If (jazz
musicians and fans) hear something good, they want more of it. They want to be around
it, they want something good.
"Jazz has always been a closed society of people who cared about the music rather
than anything else. I like the values of the jazz culture then and still do among
musicians today."


--Bob Ringwald
www.ringwald.com
Fulton Street Jazz Band
530/ 642-9551 Office
916/ 806-9551 Cell
Amateur (Ham) Radio K6YBV

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