[Dixielandjazz] Louis Armstrong's New Orleans - Smithsonian.com, January 31, 2013

[Robert Ringwald]

Louis Armstrong's New Orleans
Jazz is synonymous with the Big Easy, and there's no bigger name in the history of
the genre than Satchmo
by Nina Fedrizzi
Smithsonian.com, January 31, 2013
It would be difficult to find a better embodiment of the American dream than Louis
Armstrong, who was born in 1901 to a single mother in the rough, poverty-stricken
Back O' Town neighborhood near what is today the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. Though
he sang on street corners and taught himself the cornet, there was little to suggest
that a boy with scant education or formal musical training would become one of the
defining musicians of his age.
"The key to Armstrong's success is the discipline he brought to bear," says Bruce
Boyd Raeburn, curator of the Hogan Jazz Archive at Tulane University. "Armstrong
was a hard worker and was extremely curious as a child. He did the work necessary
and paid attention to everything going on around him."
What was going on, in many of the neighborhoods where Armstrong found himself, was
jazz. Back O' Town, Storyville and other areas were musical melting pots in the early
1900s, where blues and ragtime mixed with the city's prevalent opera and chamber
music traditions. Musicians such as Jelly Roll Morton, Buddy Bolden and Joe "King"
Oliver, who later became Armstrong's mentor, were helping to define the new genre,
making names for themselves in the smoky din of New Orleans' dance halls, saloons
and honky tonks.
Armstrong's own musical education was anything but conventional. His most basic instruction
came while he was incarcerated for 18 months (for firing a gun into the air) at the
Colored Waif's Home for Boys. The young cornet player would later hone his craft
on the Mississippi River, playing aboard the paddle steamer Sidney. "It was a safe
way to test greener pastures elsewhere, but with a round trip ticket, because he
could always come back to New Orleans," says Raeburn.
When Armstrong did leave the city in 1922 to join Joe Oliver's band in Chicago, it
would mostly be for good. The entertainer would spend much of the Prohibition era
back and forth between Chicago and New York during one of his most productive periods,
as a sideman and later as the leader of his Hot Five and Hot Seven bands. Armstrong,
who would soon become known to his audiences as "Satchmo" and "Pops," would find
that the world beyond New Orleans would not tire of his infectious smile, gravelly
voice and remarkable ability to convey a landslide of emotion in the singular note
of a trumpet -- a talent evident on tracks such as "West End Blues" and "Potato Head
Blues."
Sadly, Armstrong's birthplace was demolished decades ago, as was the Colored Waif's
Home where he learned to play. And though the city has made strides to commemorate
him -- with its airport, a downtown park and an annual "Satchmo" summer festival
-- the struggle to preserve New Orleans' early jazz sites continues. Those in the
know, however, can still pick up the trail of the Crescent City's greatest musical
treasure at these five spots -- and of course, hear some swingin' good jazz along
the way.
Louis Armstrong Park and Congo Square
A modest brown sign commemorates Congo Square, a spot in Louis Armstrong Park now
paved and lined with trees around its perimeter, where, from the mid-1700s to the
1840s, local slaves would congregate to play music on Sunday evenings. The pastime
helped to preserve African rhythms and music traditions that would work their way
into jazz, less than a century later. Located just steps from the French Quarter,
the 32-acre Louis Armstrong Park was founded in 1980 in honor of NOLA's favorite
son, and contains Perseverance Hall -- a Masonic lodge and later a dance hall where
jazz musicians, early on, played for black and white audiences alike -- and a larger-than-life,
bronze statue of Armstrong by sculptor Elizabeth Catlett.
New Orleans Jazz History Tour by John McCusker
As a child, Armstrong worked a series of odd jobs, from hawking newspapers and cleaning
graves to picking vegetables from the trash and selling them to neighborhood restaurants.
At the young age of four or five, he went to work for a local Jewish family, the
Karnofskys, selling junk from the family's wagon by day and buckets of coal by night
to prostitutes.
"After a day's work in the Hot Sun… that evening we would finish up -- unhitch the
horse and wagon… have a good Jewish meal -- relax for the night Route through the
Red Light District selling Stone Coal a Nickel a Water Bucket," Armstrong writes
in Louis Armstrong in His Own Words.
John McCusker, a veteran Times-Picayune photojournalist and the author of Creole
Trombone: Kid Ory and the Early Years of Jazz, offers history tours with stops at
the Karnofsky family's tailor shop and other key sites, including the former Iroquois
Theater, where Armstrong once won a talent competition in "white face," and the Eagle
Saloon, a popular watering hole where Armstrong likely drank and listened to other
Back O' Town artists.
*Tours can be arranged through the contact form on McCusker's Web site (
www.johnmccuskermedia.com
) and by phone: (504) 232-5421. $30 per person.
The Little Gem Saloon
The recently reopened Little Gem Saloon is one of the few success stories among the
small cluster of dilapidated jazz relics on the 400 block of South Rampart Street.
When it opened in 1903, the Little Gem was as a hangout for early jazz legends such
as Buddy Bolden and Jelly Roll Morton. And it was outside its doors, on New Year's
Eve in 1912, that Armstrong celebrated by firing a pistol into the air -- an event
that led to his arrest and confinement in the Colored Waif's Home for Boys. Today,
the Little Gem Saloon's early 1900s-inspired interior and daily live music harkens
back to the club's heyday, and its Sunday jazz brunch features a historic Creole
menu by Chef Robert Bruce, with dishes such as oxtail soup, pickled oysters and molasses
pie.
Steamboat Natchez Dinner Jazz Cruise
At 17, Armstrong accepted a job with John Streckfus and his bandleader Fate C. Marable
aboard the Sidney, a New Orleans paddle wheeler, performing along the Mississippi,
Missouri and Ohio rivers. Armstrong's time on the riverboats was his first exposure
to musical literacy, and the by-ear musician -- who until that point would memorize
his parts -- was forced to sight-read. It was also the place where he fine-tuned
the improvisational techniques that would become his signature. NOLA travelers can
get a feel for Armstrong's time on the river on the last of the city's authentic
paddle wheels, the Steamboat Natchez riverboat, which offers nightly dinner jazz
tours, featuring the Grammy-nominated Dukes of Dixieland, on its 15-mile roundtrip
route on the Mississippi.
Old U.S. Mint, Louisiana State Museum
Built in 1835, this Greek Revival structure just blocks from the river is the only
mint to have produced both American and Confederate coinage. Though it retired from
printing in 1909, the Old Mint now serves as part of the state museum, featuring
live jazz twice a week in its state-of-the-art performance hall and a world-famous
jazz collection that includes Louis Armstrong's first cornet, his iconic handkerchief
(he always used a hankie to wipe the sweat from his brow when he performed) and hundreds
of letters and recordings. When Armstrong returned to New Orleans for a visit in
1965, he identified the museum's cornet as his own after recognizing the grooves
in the mouthpiece, which he filed himself in order to improve the fit on his lips.
___________________________________
Five Essential Louis Armstrong Tunes to Listen to Before You Go
Selected by Smithsonian jazz curator Joann Stevens
Dipper Mouth Blues -- This early composition by Louis Armstrong and his mentor, the
legendary New Orleans cornet player Joseph "King" Oliver, was a featured piece of
King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band.
West End Blues -- This King Oliver composition was popularized by Louis Armstrong
and His Hot Five. The 1928 recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in
1974.
Weatherbird Rag -- This improvisational conversation between Armstrong and pianist
Earl Hines has been called the most celebrated duet recording in the history of jazz.
Satchmo at the National Press Club: Red Beans and Rice-ly Yours -- Five months before
his death, Armstrong transformed a National Press Club awards ceremony into a music
celebration. This Smithsonian Folkways Records recording, produced with The National
Press Club and The Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation, captures history.
What a Wonderful World -- Armstrong made this tune by Bob Thiele and George David
Weiss a global anthem of unity and optimism that joined Grammy Hall of Fame favorites
in 1999.
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/Louis-Armstrongs-New-Orleans-189048861.html
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-Bob Ringwald
www.ringwald.com
Amateur (ham) Radio Operator K6YBV
916/ 806-9551

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