[Dixielandjazz] Louis Armstrong: What a Wonderful World

[Robert Ringwald]

Louis Armstrong: What a Wonderful World  

    
Fifty Wonderful Years 



by Alexandra S. Levine



New York Times, October 25, 2017



Fifty years ago, the world heard Louis Armstrong’s flawlessly raspy voice sing “What a Wonderful World.”

He recorded the song in the summer, released it that fall, and in October of 1967, the melody made it to the Billboard easy-listening charts for the first time.



The song was inspired by a quaint, tree-lined slice of 107th Street in Corona, Queens, where Mr. Armstrong lived in a modest, red brick home for the last three decades of his life.



If you visit the location, now the Louis Armstrong House Museum, you’ll hear a recording of the musician describing the neighborhood:



“I saw three generations come up on that block. They’re all with the children and grandchildren, and they all come back to see Uncle Satchmo and Aunt Lucille. That’s why I can say I hear babies crying, I watch them grow, they’ll learn much more than I’ll ever know. I got pictures of them when they was 5, 6 and 7 years old, and it is a wonderful world.”



Ricky Riccardi, director of the research collections at the museum, said Armstrong simply would not leave. “The fame continued to grow, the money continued to grow -- after a while, even Lucille started to get the itch -- but he wanted to be right here,” Mr. Riccardi said, and at a time of war and racial strife, “the way the people lived on this one block in Corona was a life lesson for him.”



The museum is celebrating the song’s anniversary with “50 Years of ‘What a Wonderful World,’” an exhibition that traces the song to when it was first conceived by the producer Bob Thiele and the songwriter George David Weiss.



Mr. Weiss’s daughter, Peggy Weiss Self, who was at the Manhattan recording studio on that day 50 years ago, told us how Armstrong took her “small hand in his large one and said, ‘So you’re George’s daughter!’”



“He shook my hand and said, ‘Pleased to meet you,’ and I giggled. He was so joyful it was contagious.”



The songwriter’s son, Bobby Weiss, said Armstrong “traveled the world as a kind of international ambassador of good will, always talking about peace and love,” which inspired the song lyrics.



You can learn more about the song and Armstrong’s legacy at the exhibition, on display through the end of November. You can view the original sheet music, photographs from recording sessions and Armstrong’s trumpet, among other artifacts.



“The song just isn’t showing any signs of slowing down,” Mr. Riccardi said. “This is the story of one song, a four-case exhibit, and we could probably do this with just about any song from his output.” -30





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Fulton Street Jazz Band (Dixieland/Swing)
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“If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed, 
if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed.” -- Mark Twain




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