[Dixielandjazz] Louis Armstrong birthday broadcast

Robert Ringwald rsr at ringwald.com
Fri Jul 13 22:24:04 PDT 2012


Concert, Broadcast Honor Louis Armstrong on What He Thought Was His Birthday -- July
4
by Jim Beckerman
Bergen Record, July 3, 2012
"Born on the Fourth of July." A likely story. And yet it's been claimed by everyone
from the hero of the song "Yankee Doodle Dandy" to Hollywood mogul Louis B. Mayer,
who used to host big MGM studio picnics every July 4 to celebrate "his" birthday.
Louis Armstrong really did believe he was born on the Fourth of July.
It wasn't until years after the great jazzman's death in 1971 that newly recovered
records established his actual birth date as Aug. 4, 1901 -- not July 4, 1900, as
his mother had told him.
This posed a problem for WKCR-FM (89.9), the Columbia University radio station, which
beginning in 1970 had turned the 24-hour "Louis Armstrong Birthday Broadcast" into
a July 4 tradition.
John Philip Sousa might be the more popular July 4 soundtrack. But thousands of metro
area jazz fans prefer Armstrong -- who is considered by many to be the true father
of American music -- and blast "West End Blues" and "Struttin' With Some Barbecue"
as they grill their July 4 hot dogs. What to do?
These days WKCR hosts two birthday broadcasts -- one on Armstrong's actual birthday,
Aug. 4, and one on his "traditional" birthday -- Wednesday. Armstrong, says Grammy-winning
jazz expert and WKCR radio host Phil Schaap, is worth it.
"I have often said on the radio that no one, including myself, has listened to enough
Louis Armstrong," Schaap said in a 2004 interview.
Armstrong -- who always insisted his first name was pronounced "Lewis" -- has been
called one of the cornerstones, not just of jazz, but of American culture as well.
The New Orleans-born trumpet player didn't invent jazz, true. But he turned the jazz
solo into an art. He reinvented pop singing -- previously stiff and fake-operatic
-- with his growly vocals, paving the way for everyone from Frank Sinatra to Axl
Rose. And he elevated the idea of "swing" -- the lilt or groove that gives American
music its kick -- to center stage.
"Prior to him, musicians might have been a little bit stiff," says Teaneck drummer
Chuck McPherson, who organized a "Louis Armstrong Is Forever" birthday concert at
Teaneck's Puffin Foundation on Saturday.
He'll be joined by Loren Daniels on piano and Reggie Pittman on trumpet, as they
barrel through some of the great tunes in the Armstrong repertoire: "What a Wonderful
World," "A Kiss to Build a Dream On," "When the Saints Go Marching In."
"He loosened everybody up," McPherson says. "And he exposed African-American culture
to the world. He was a cultural ambassador."
McPherson had occasion to discover that himself.
Originally from Michigan, he's a bop drummer (his father, alto sax-man Charles McPherson,
played with Charles Mingus) who found himself, several years ago, touring Europe.
The Wayne Shorter type of "modern" jazz they were playing wasn't going over. But
Armstrong, he discovered, was a universal language. "All of a sudden, one night I
said, 'Why don't we do a couple of Louis Armstrong tunes?'" McPherson recalls. "From
that point on, we got a result. People loved it."
Everyone loves Louis Armstrong. Even Louis loved Louis. Satchmo himself, Schaap learned,
had been listening to the second "Louis Armstrong Birthday Broadcast" on July 4,
1971, just 70 hours before his death.
"Armstrong was having a Fourth of July party in his back yard," Schaap says. "They
took the kitchen radio and just put it up on the garden wall. I guess it was good.
He left it on, didn't he?"


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