[Dixielandjazz] Armstrong-- personal experience. Phil Barnhart

[Norman Vickers]

To:  Musicians and Jazzfans list & DJML

From: Norman

 

The Rev. Phil Barnhart, a Pensacola jazz stalwart, relates this personal anecdote.

 

From: Phil Barnhart [mailto:pastor.phil.barnhart at gmail.com] 
Sent: Friday, September 17, 2010 7:34 AM
To: Norman Vickers
Subject: Re: Don Jones respoinds. Marek Boym--review of book on Armstrong.

 

A story I told you some years back you 

might want to share: When I was an undergraduate in the fifties Armstrong came to Huntington, WV,and played the field house. I took a date and attended, our seats way up and way back. After the concert, back at the fraternity house, some of the brothers wanted to go to the Congo Club on what we referred to at that time as the DARK side of town. We did, as we had many times, and were warmly welcomed , as we always were. The proprietor liked to see "the rich white kids" come. The Congo Club had a couple of lodging rooms upstairs and, unbeknownst to us, Louis Armstrong was staying in one of them because he was prohibited from staying in the downtown hotels. Around two in the morning he grew restless upstairs, came down to the club with his horn, sat on the bar, and jammed with the local band. He was very near and very close. What an experience!!

_________________________________________________________________________________


Norman comments:  Armstrong must have been an unusually sensitive person.   This example by Phil Barnhart seems a recurring theme.  Thanks, Phil for sharing with the lists.

 

One of  the pleasures of my life was friendship with Floyd Levin, late jazz writer/historian/ enthusiast and friend of Louis Armstrong.   A couple of years back, Floyd was unable to travel from LA to New Orleans for the Armstrong Conference, Satchmo Summerfest, so he made a video and sent.  He describes how  both their wives were named Lucille ( Armstrong’s 4th and final wife, that is.)  Levin was invited to Las Vegas where Armstrong was giving a show and he was able to celebrate Armstrong’s birthday with his group.  Levin sponsored big concert in LA in honor of Armstrong’s (thought to be) 70th birthday.  This was to raise money for the Armstrong statue which ( now) stands in the Armstrong park in NO.

 

Levin said that Bing Crosby donated final $10,000 which was enough to have the statue sculpted in Mexico.  It was presented to the city of NO on July 4, 1976.  ( Armstrong had died in 1971)  The full story of the statue is covered in Levin’s book published by U. of California Press.

 

Similarly, I understand, that Ellington was also a person who would make friends for life.  I could give a couple of examples of this, but that’s another subject for another time.

 

Thanks, all.

                                                                           --End--