[Dixielandjazz] Louis Armstrong: Master of Modernism - sleepy time down south

[Richard Broadie]

Joe, I rarely visit djml thse days but happened upon your post below. 
Clarance Muse, the composer of Sleepy Time Down South, was a friend who 
owned a "ranch" in Perris CA that I had the pleasure of visiting from time 
to time.  Clarance was an actor as well as musician and had a very dramatic 
and professional way of presenting himself.  Morgan Freeman would be a good 
candidate, were I casting for Clarance's role.
If memory serves me right, Mr. Muse wrote the song around 1930 and the 
lyrics reflected many racial stereotypes as was necessary for a black man to 
sell a song that was targeted for a white audience. According to Clarance, 
Louis was a good friend of his and by retaining that song in the heated 
1960s racial environment, Clarance would be assured of very good royalties 
and a very secure life so long as Armstrong continued that song as his thme. 
So personal friendship could have been a factor.
I first met Louis at Wellman Braud's rosery in 1966 and had sporadic 
communications with him over the next few years.  I was backstage at the 
Shrine Auditorium on July 3 1970 when I heard someone ask Louis about the 
appropriateness of the song.  He was given the evasive answer, "It's a 
pretty song with a beautiful melody.  Why should I change?"

Louie was a practical man who believed in giving his audience what it 
wanted.  He was also ratially aware and did many things behind the scene to 
battle the outrageous prejudice that was ever present in his world that few 
people heard about. His clarinetist and friend, Barney Bigard was my pal and 
mentor for 25 years.  He had many positive things to say about Louis' 
contribution to "the cause."   This ancient brain now contains far more 
impressions than facts so I don't think I will continue with this thread 
other than to say I hope its helpful

All the best.  Back to hibernation from djml for another year?  I'm working 
on a book.  Maybe more memories will be triggered if I hang out here more. 
Hope future postings will be more cogent than this one. Dick Broadie


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Joe Carbery" <joe.carbery at gmail.com>
To: "Richard Broadie" <rbroadie at dc.rr.com>
Cc: "Dixieland Jazz Mailing List" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Friday, March 07, 2014 10:58 PM
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Louis Armstrong: Master of Modernism


> Dear Listmates,
>
> Here's the text of a review of the above book I submitted to Amazon:
>
> Review of *Louis Armstrong: Master of Modernism*
>
> By
>
> Thomas Brothers
>
> (Norton)
>
> I ordered this book on-line and received it with some excitement. I was
> very disappointed. Brothers is a professor of music at Duke University, so
> I expected a learned treatise from a musicological point of view. Instead
> Brothers takes a sociological approach, emphasising racial issues
> throughout the book. Not being an American I may be missing the need for
> the racial emphasis, but it appears to be much over-emphasized to me.
>
> Some examples: "....he slayed the ofay demons with *West End Blues." 
> *(Apart
> from not being able to make sense of this statement, I would have thought
> "ofay" an insulting racial epithet.
>
> He says Louis sang *Sleepy Time Down South *"to assure white audiences on 
> a
> deep level that he had no designs on social progress." So he didn't
> actually like the song? Why did he continue to sing it to the end of his
> career?
>
> On page 443 he makes reference to "the white mind." What or whose white
> mind? This implies all "white" people have the same attitude. Did John
> Hammond have the same mindset as a KKK member? Does Brothers himself? This
> sort of lazy generalisation is extremely irritating and is unbecoming from
> an academic musicologist.
>
> Speaking of a Betty Boop cartoon: "the lure of African-American jazz and
> its dangerous potential to seduce white women and, with that, the threat 
> to
> *the* purity of the white race." What balderdash!
>
> His musical analysis can obfuscate more than it illuminates: "What made
> Louis Armstrong great? Put generally, his greatness emerged from a unique
> combination of where he came from, who he was, and the conditions that
> shaped his career. The inspired melodic results of this configuration 
> still
> hold a powerful attraction, many generations later." What meaningless
> piffle! It tells us nothing. Put "Mozart" in the sentence and it would 
> tell
> us just as little about him.
>
> The record Lil & Louis made with Jimmy Rodgers is "heavily laden with
> racist ideologies." I've heard this recording for years and just heard a
> country singer making Lil and Louis really stretch their ears!
>
> I wonder if Brothers has played any jazz. In *Blue Yodel Number 9 *he says
> Lil was using a lead sheet. I doubt Rodgers would or could have prepared 
> on
> (who would for a blues) and if he had it'd be useless since he wouldn't
> stick to it!
>
> He says of Louis' solo on *Body & Soul *"Armstrong stays very close to the
> tune; he probably felt constrained by the unusual and challenging 
> harmonies
> of the original."  This is an amazing statement from a musician. As
> written, the chords of the tune are simple. The tricky bits are the two
> modulations in the middle eight. Once one is aware of them the tune is
> simple. I wonder if Brothers ever played it? Or can he play.
>
> The book is full of such flawed conclusions.
>
> Finally, he accuses Bix Beiderbecke of pederasty and masochism as part of 
> a
> "shadowy sexual deviance" but offers no supporting evidence.
>
> I could go on, but I think the above shows why I was so disappointed.
>
>
>
> Joe Carbery.
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