November 9, 2023
BEHIND THE BEAT:
Louis Armstrong's Last Word: For decades, Americans have argued over the icon's legacy. But his archives show that he had his own plans. (ETHAN IVERSON, November 2023, The Nation)
Riccardi took a breath. "OK. You can name a thousand great instrumentalists or you can name a thousand great vocalists, but he's the only person you could find who changed the way people played their instruments and the way people sang. Louis does that in a four-year period in the 1920s; by 1930, if you aren't playing or singing like him, you're out of work."He was also born at the right time to be a multimedia superstar. Louis was there for acoustic recordings in 1923. After accompanying silent movies, he then made pioneering appearances in film, radio, and television. In many cases, he was the first African American to have featured billing in these new industries."He had a rags-to-riches story intimately tied with race. He was born in New Orleans one generation removed from slavery, saw lynchings as a child, then was part of the Great Migration. Eventually, he was in a position to call out a sitting US president, Dwight Eisenhower, over integration."He was the soundtrack to the Jazz Age, the Depression, and World War II. In the '60s, his 'Hello, Dolly' took over from the Beatles as the No. 1 hit."If you had to pick one person to write the history of 20th-century American culture, it would have to be Louis Armstrong."
Posted by Orrin Judd at November 9, 2023 12:00 AM