Louis Armstrong

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    Or "Satchmo" (an abbreviation for Satchelmouth) or "Pops".
    I've been listening to a bit of The Armstrong Tapes, from the archives of BBC Radio 4 on Music. I don't know if it's still accessible. It's a random selection from Louis' own tapes, a mixture of music & conversation & reminiscing.
    The kind of music Louis plays is what I grew up on till about age 13, when I moved to the next stage in jazz history which was the swing bands. After that, maybe about age 16 I changed to modern jazz, first what they called West Coast jazz, people like Gerry Mulligan, Art Pepper. Then I discovered Charlie Parker and Bebop..
    But back to Louis. The thing about Louis is he was a one off. Age does not weary him. He set a standard for individuality even in the 1920s. There have been others of course - Charlie Parker I mentioned, Miles Davis, Thelonius Monk etc etc
    Louis was the first though and He stood out through all the changing fashions.
    He had a hit song with Mack the Knife, maybe 40 years ago?
    The first 8 bars has the same phrase repeated 4 times. What Louis does with those 4 phrases is what makes him stand out. Each time he plays it, thea timing of just one note will be changed, or it will be longer or shorter. It's just that slight variation, like some different ingredient a famous chef might add, that makes Louis the envy of so many musicians down the years, because how he plays the tune comes out so simple but so perfect.
 
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