[Dixielandjazz] Fw: Louis Armstrong New Recording

[Robert Ringwald]

This from Dan Barrett regarding the recent Louis Armstrong overdub with the Preservation Hall JB.  

I tend to agree with him.  I heard the recording and it just doesn't make it.  

I wrote back to Dan and asked him to say what he really means, and not to hold back...

--Bob Ringwald


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Daniel Barrett" 
To: "Robert Ringwald" <rsr at ringwald.com>
Sent: Monday, February 15, 2010 10:40 PM
Subject: RE: Louis Armstrong New Recording



Dear Bob,

 

Look for my new recording of The Whistler and His Dog, where my trombone--and maybe a vocal or two--will be featured alongside Jascha Heifitz; Enrico Caruso; Alma Gluck; Pablo Casals; Art Tatum; Rafael Mendez, and Django Reinhardt.  If the engineer can work it out, there might be cameo appearances by Sousa's Band, the Beatles, and Leadbelly.

 

I read a Lawrence Block mystery years ago; can't recall the title just now. It was shortly after the advent of "colorized" movies, wherein color is added digitally to pre-existing black-and-white films.  In the novel, Block's detective, Matt Scudder, was sitting at the bar of a place owned by an old friend of his.  The TV behind the bar was on. A classic film from the '40s came on, in the then-new, phony color. 

 

The old Irish bartender and Scudder watched for a few minutes. Then the bartender put his cigarette out in the ashtray on the bar. and reached up and changed the channel. He said to no one in particular, "Some things should be left the hell alone."

 

I agreed with the sage bartender about those movies, just as he would agree with me here, I'm sure. Exactly when did the great Louis Armstrong say he wanted to play with those guys?  It seems like Louis Armstrong earned the right to play with whomever he chose.  He also earned the right to rest in peace, and not have to be forced to again perform for and with charlatans who would use his venerable name for their own selfish purposes. Just because technology now allows anyone to perform with anyone who has ever been recorded--either on disc or film--doesn't mean it's right or proper to do so (to say nothing about simple good taste).

 

Kenny G did something similar to Armstrong a few years ago, superimposing himself in a video of Louis performing What a Wonderful World. (Note that the basis of the word "superimposing" is "impose").  Kenny G pissed me off then, and this pisses me off now. What utter gall!

 

So ends my latest rant.

 

--Dan Barrett

Itinerant Jazz Trombonist, who is proud enough of having played with all the greats with whom he has performed that he doesn't need to manufacture faux associations with those whom he never met (and never heard of him)



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