[Dixielandjazz] Grooves on Armstrong's Mouthpiece

[Stephen G Barbone]

 From "Horn of Plenty", The Story of Louis Armstrong - by Robert  
Goffin pages 65 and 66: (When Louis was given a cornet at the Colored  
Waif's Home)

"All that afternoon Louis practiced so intently and patiently that his  
friends began to make fun of him. Kid Rena, who also played the  
trumpet warned him that 'he would blow himself out.' But Louis was  
trying to smooth out his high notes. Despite all his efforts, the  
mouthpiece had ann unfortunate tendency to slipm= from his unpracticed  
lip.

Next day Louis went off to the workshop with his trumpet.

'What are you doing here?' asked the tookeeper.

'I wants to borrow a file please!'

Thereupon, much ton the other players' surprise, he began to scrape  
with the file on the trumpet held fast between his knees: The marks  
can be seen on the instrument today.

Ten days later, Louis Armstrong had taken the measure of all the other  
trumpet players in the Home. Peter Davis had never met such an apt  
pupil."

You can read this book. 300+ pages, at:

http://www.archive.org/stream/hornofplentythes001648mbp/hornofplentythes001648mbp_djvu.txt

Cheers,
Steve Barbone
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband