Monday Musicale with the Maestro – August 03, 2020 – “Celebrating the 119th birthday of Louis Armstrong” August 4, 1901-July 1, 1971

 “Celebrating the 119th birthday of Louis Armstrong” August 4, 1901-July 1, 1971

Our July 20th installment featured music by the “King of Ragtime,” the African-American pianist and composer Scott Joplin, whose music can be regarded as a precursor to jazz.  Early jazz featured the syncopated rhythms of ragtime but with a slightly looser “swing” to them.  As ragtime gradually morphed into jazz between the end of WWI and the early 1920’s, the person who did the most to create this new music was the African-American jazz genius, Louis Armstrong.

Born in 1901 into abject poverty in New Orleans, his talent, his discipline, and his passionate love for jazz and the trumpet made possible his 50-year career as the greatest jazz artist of all time. I lived in Orleans from 1990 to 1996, and I knew several jazz musicians who worked with Armstrong.  They confirmed to me that Armstrong preferred for his name to be pronounced “Lewis”—not “Louie.” Louis had several nicknames, including Pops and Satch—or  Satchmo, short for  “satchel mouth” (meaning that he had a big mouth).  But his influence on American pop music was even larger, and permanent. My admiration for his music and his ebullient personality knows no bounds. To me, next to Mozart, he is my Apostle of Musical Joy.

Our musical selection for this Monday Musicale is a medley arranged by Ted Ricketts:  Satchmo: A Tribute to Louis Armstrong. Ricketts here gathers some of the songs most closely associated with Armstrong,  including “When the Saints Go Marching In” (the theme song of New Orleans), “ Basin Street Blues”, “What a Wonderful World,” and his greatest hit,  “Hello Dolly.”  In 1964 Armstrong’s grammy-winning recording  of this Jerry Herman song reached Number 1 on the Billboard Top 100 charts, ending The Beatles’ 14-week streak of Number 1 hits.

Our guest soloist for this medley is trumpeter Al Strong.  Through his playing and his teaching with “The Art of Cool Project” (which he co-founded), he has created his own impressive jazz legacy.

Louis Armstrong was also a superb jazz singer, whose performances displayed an instrumental virtuosity and a deep comprehension of the lyrics. His last hit was “What a Wonderful World,” the Number 1 song on UK charts in 1968.  But only after Armstrong’s death did it become a hit in America, with its use in the 1987 Robin Williams film Good Morning, Vietnam.

Two years after the recording’s initial release, Armstrong added a spoken introduction.  His words, a worthy prelude to the poignant poetry of the song, offer an optimistic message that we especially need to hear during these times.

William Henry Curry
Music Director, Durham Symphony Orchestra

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