[Dixielandjazz] Louis Armstrong Bing Crosby

[ROBERT R. CALDER]

One thing I thought came clearly from the recording Bing Crosby made with the Ellington band, I mean as solo singer rather than as Whiteman Rhythm Boy (I found a 78 rpm single ina charity shop in Ken Mathieson's native Paisley) was the extent to which the phrasing and scatting were direct emulation of Louis. 
There was surely a huge influence there, with a refinement of phrasing drawn from the example of Louis' subtleties on trumpet -- largely I think because Bing needed to disguise some deficiencies in precise rhythm and swing.
He did have a more flexible voice than Louis, who was a lyric tenor by native endowment, and whose gruff and rough voice was physically a result of damage caused the vocal apparatus by forcing notes in the lower baritone range.  

There was indeed a famous quotation of Louis about Bing, an answer he gave in the middle of various questions concerned with the Colour. 
Now if Bing was not a man to invite people to his home, the fact that Louis spoke of them as friendly and getting on terribly well, but adding (as he is recorded as having done) that he had never been invited to Bing's home, would be a lovely, if robust, bit of muischievous fun.
From what I've read and been told, I could imagine Louis being confronted with the statement "but Bing never invites ANYBODY to his home" and grinning, since that could conceivably have been the point of the quip. 

cheeers!
Robert R. Calder