[Dixielandjazz] The Wonderful World of 'Pops'

[Marek Boym]

Without going into details, Armstrong recorded with white musicians
before the end of WWII.
Cheers

On 10 December 2010 21:52, Robert Ringwald <rsr at ringwald.com> wrote:
> 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
>
> War does not determine who is right - only who is left.
>
>
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