Louis Armstrong in His Own Words: Selected Writings & The Louis Armstrong Companion: Eight Decades of Commentary.
Louis Armstrong in His Own Words: Selected Writings. By Louis Armstrong. Edited by Thomas Brothers. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. [xxvii, 255 p. ISBN 0-19-511958-4. $22.]The Louis Armstrong Companion: Eight Decades of Commentary. Edited by Joshua Berrett. New York: Schirmer Books, 1999. [xvi, 299 p. ISBN 0.02-864669-X. $15 (pbk.).]
After a life dominated by journalistic coverage, jazz trumpeter and singer Louis Armstrong (1901-1971) has more recently won the attention of scholars. The interest began with the 1988 publication of Gary Giddins's biography, Satchmo (New York: Doubleday; reprint, New York: Da Capo Press, 1998). Though directed at a popular audience, the book aroused scholarly interest with its revelation of Armstrong's actual birthdate. Even more surprising, Giddins presented lengthy excerpts of previously unknown autobiographical writings. The writings, it turned out, formed part of Armstrong's estate, which became a public matter upon the death of his fourth wife, Lucille, in 1983. The executors entrusted Armstrong's property to Queens College in New York, which founded the Louis Armstrong Archives to house and administer Armstrong's personal collections. Since opening in 1994, the archives have drawn a steady flow of researchers to examine Armstrong's beguiling writings and memorabilia. The anthologies by Thomas Brothers and Joshua Berrett are among the firstfruits of these visits.
In retrospect, the discovery of new Armstrong writings should not be surprising: Armstrong showed a lifelong passion for writing unmatched by most jazz musicians. The books by Brothers and Berrett take their place alongside older Armstrong collections, including two autobiographies, Swing That Music (London: Longmans, Green, 1936; reprint, New York: Da Capo Press, 1993) and Satchmo: My Life in New Orleans (New York: Prentice Hall, 1954; reprint, New York: Da Capo Press, 1986). Whereas the latter were more or less prettified by editors, Brothers and Berrett have let Armstrong speak freely, without a filter.
Louis Armstrong in His Own Words sets particularly high standards of editorial judgment and fidelity. The book contains nineteen items, all written by Armstrong and all previously inaccessible except through research libraries or photocopies from decades-old periodicals. Brothers has made his selections wisely, starting with the indispensable "Louis Armstrong + the Jewish Family in New Orleans, La., the Year of 1907." Other essential entries include source material for the first Armstrong biography (the "Goffin Notebooks") and the incomplete sequels to Armstrong's second autobiography ("The Armstrong Story" and "The Satchmo Story"). To contextualize the writings, Brothers provides useful ancillary materials: an appendix of well-informed commentary on each of the entries, a bibliography of sixty-five extant writings by Armstrong, and an annotated index compiled by Charles Kinzer.
Brothers takes a scrupulous approach to editorial policy. He preserves Armstrong's idiosyncratic uses of capitalization and punctuation, which he views as inflections of Armstrong's prose similar to the expressive devices of his trumpet playing. Brothers argues convincingly that such unorthodox writing style is neither meaningless nor consistently ironic (as some have proposed), but rather a way of conveying a specifically vocal emphasis. Indeed, one can almost hear Armstrong speak the following sentence from a letter he wrote to his manager Joe Glaser in 1955: "I--Just, Love, Your, Checks, in, My POCKETS--"OH" They look so pretty, until, I hate like hell to cash them" (p. 163). Since Brothers normalizes spelling, spacing, and other minor aspects, this book should not be seen as a critical text. Rather, it strikes a compromise between two somewhat contradictory goals: "To make Armstrong's writings accessible to the general reader and to preserve the unique features of his style" (p. xxv).
Despite some redundancy of material, The Louis Armstrong Companion complements Brothers's collection. Not limited to writings by Armstrong, Berrett's volume includes such important items as transcribed excerpts from Satchmo and Me, an LP memoir (Riverside RLP 12-120, 1959) by Armstrong's second wife, Lillian Hardin; notes on the bebop controversy of the late forties; interviews with members of Armstrong's last band, the All Stars; and essays by distinguished critics Hugues Panassie and Dan Morgenstern. Other selections--such as Armstrong's diet sheet ("Lose Weight the Satchmo Way") and a history of the Louis Armstrong postage stamp--seem less valuable.
As editor, Berrett shows affection and respect for his subject; still, his handling could be more assured. He chose not to keep Armstrong's unusual punctuation, a decision that does not seem unreasonable (though I wish he had provided an editorial rationale). But he sometimes intrudes on the writings of others, especially in his unnecessary use of "sic" (e.g., pp. 4, 9, 35). He Omits important details, neglecting to note, for instance, that his first entry, "The New Orleans Jewish Family," is only a portion of the original document. And he seems unfamiliar with Armstrong's literary voice. Berrett uncritically accepts that Armstrong wrote the following excerpt attributed to him by editors of the British magazine Rhythm: "I determined from the start to cultivate an original style, and while I tried hard not to force it, I tried out all sorts of ideas, discarding some, practicing others, until I reached, not perfection, since that is unattainable for the true musician, but the best that was in me" (p. 48). Apar t from the uncharacteristic tone, this statement betrays Western preoccupations (with originality, experimentation, perfection, self-actualization) that rarely surface in Armstrong's authentic writings. Indeed, the two volumes at hand reveal by contrast how much Armstrong was a product of turn-of-the-century African American ideology, especially that of Booker T. Washington. Like Washington, Armstrong was an accommodationist, determined to play--and win--by the rules of the white majority. In 1957, he engaged in a rare act of protest, loudly cancelling his Soviet tour for the State Department when Dwight D. Eisenhower hesitated to enforce desegregation in Little Rock. A decade later, however, he seemed embittered by the racial turbulence of the sixties, particularly the divisions and strife within the black community. In "Louis Armstrong + the Jewish Family" (1969-70), Armstrong implicitly urges his fellow African Americans away from political activism and, in Brothers's summary, "toward values of thrift, fam ily and group loyalty, honesty, and good work habits" (Brothers, p. 3). Here Armstrong is preaching the gospel of Washington, an up-by-the-bootstraps philosophy he seems to have absorbed deeply as a young man.
The Washington connection also helps to explain the most striking omission in the new autobiographical writings: Armstrong fails even to mention the Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings that undergird his reputation as a founder of jazz. (His treatment of them in "Jazz on a High Note" [1951] came in response to a specific request from the editors of Esquire.) He discusses his tenures with King Oliver, Fletcher Henderson, Erskine Tate's "symphony orchestra," and Carroll Dickerson. Why not the Hot Five? Armstrong makes his perspective clear in a 1941 response to critic Leonard Feather's query about the most important events in jazz history: "[W]ell the first one was when Pops [i.e.,] Joe Glaser] booked me for my first commercial program over the--N.B.C. ... Then too--those pictures--Pennies From Heaven'-'Artists 'N' Models'-- 'Everyday is a Holiday'--and that fine 'Going Places' " (Brothers, p. 147). Armstrong was proudest of his public advances in the entertainment industry, especially when he broke color barrie rs in radio and film. Toward his more esoteric contributions to the language of jazz he apparently remained indifferent or oblivious. In this sense, Armstrong followed a professional course advocated by Washington, a course targeting socioeconomic triumph rather than political power or artistic achievement.
Armstrong is often viewed as a man of contradictions: authentic yet mercenary, wise yet naive, race-proud yet eager to please. We have long needed an intellectual context in which to sort out the many parodoxes of his life. With the publication of his unexpurgated ruminations on a wide array of topics, the process of defining that context can now begin in earnest.
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| Author: | HARKER, BRIAN |
|---|---|
| Publication: | Notes |
| Date: | Jun 1, 2001 |
| Words: | 1289 |
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