From: "Kitich, Jerry" Date: Mon, 13 Dec 1999 09:38:39 -0500 Subject: =?iso-8859-1?Q?RE=3A_OB=B4s_=26_music? You're right about Louis Armstrong, I think I must have read a bad quote in some book that stuck with me. Just goes to show you can't take everything you read in music bio's at face value.
Just this weekend, before I read your post, I saw some old black & white footage of him & Dizzy Gillespie on the local French language channel in Toronto, and just as you say, Louis & Diz were blowing up a storm together.
Louis Armstrong and Dizzy Gillespie are both two of my all time musical heroes as well, so I take kindly to your defence of Louis. :-)
What is interesting is that in Louis Armstrong's early days in New Orleans, trumpet players used to sit in the audience and try to outblow the guy on stage. Harp players would call that "Gussing" but trumpet players called it a "cutting" contest. Trying to proove who was better and get the audiece to come over to your bar or nightclub. I never heard that any trumpet players in audience ever succeeded in winning a "cutting" contest with Louis.
Thanks for the correction.
- -----Original Message----- From: Bjarne Roupe [mailto:b-rou~obilixnet.dk] Sent: Saturday, December 11, 1999 3:30 PM To: harp~oo.garply.com Subject: Re: OB´s & music
Jerry, I agree 100% on your positive input on music development concerning the pioneering state of diatonic harp & its chromatic revolution........! ...and your reasoning is completely up my alley... Only, that Louis Armstrong quote wasn´t quite, well, .... true to him...
...maybe he said some stupid things, once,..early on,....everybody else did, too.... .but, generally, he was genuinely 100% positive about the geniuses of bebop....Parker, Gillespie, amo.... ....there´s some great films where Satchmo & Dizzy plays and raps in total hipness; buddies in music;....sorry, I know you´ll agree...but just to set the record straight... ..and all the trumpet players of bebop listened to Louis´s playing; took all what he did, and went beyond....and I´m sure he loved hearing it....
You can hear Louis in all modern jazz-trpt; Wynton Marsalis is a good example.... Louis Armstrong was not against the "bebop" revolution....he appreciated a great musician when he heard him play....no matter what....especially when he got to play with the great new jazz players of the 50´s & 60´s.... I´m sure he´d be completely indifferent to whether someone played a rubber tube or a balkan zither; if it´s good; it´s good... ....a rose is a rose is a rose..... Jerry, I´m certain you feel as I do; but since Louis Armstrong is one of my musical heroes; I´ll defend him as long as I live....:-) ...but you´re so right; the bebop players listened to what he played; instead of what he said, and that made the whole difference.... regards Bjarne
