Duke Ellington

Edward Kennedy Ellington was born in Washington, D.C. on April 29 1899. His name was a combination of his fathers, James Edward and his mothers, Daisy Kennedy. The title of "Duke" was given to him as a young man and it was with this nickname that he developed the persona of elegance and smoothness that he presented the rest of his life, particularly when it came to women. His charming "lines" flowed freely to any woman in the room and the sincere manner that he delivered them left just about any woman floating on air. He would say, "I can tell that you're an angel; I can see the reflection from your halo shining on the ceiling." Or, "My, but you make that dress look lovely!"

His suave demeanor and presentation in public of the utmost self assurance with his audience and his fans perpetuated an air about him but in private Duke had many superstitions. The author James Lincoln Collier writes:

"He would not wear certain colors; he would not give or receive gifts of shoes, which suggested that the recipient would use them to walk away; he was afraid of drafts and kept the windows around him closed at all times; he was frightened of flying and refused to do it until the demands of travel forced him into planes; and he subjected himself to many similar taboos. Ellington was hardly the first person to be superstitious, but his collection of taboos make a richer array than most people possess. It is difficult to find an explanation for them."

Patricia Willard wrote of her observations of Dukes superstitions:

"I know once he had put all the telegrams he received at an opening around his mirror, some of them from very famous people. When the engagement was over and he was packing up his stuff and the valet was packing his clothes I started to take the telegrams down. He said, "No, don't touch those. Leave them there." I asked why.
"It's bad luck to take down your opening night telegrams."
The last twenty five years of his life that I knew him, he never had a watch and wouldn't wear one, but yet he always wanted to know what time it was."

Cornetist Rex Stewart recalls Dukes disdain for missing buttons saying:

"I have often seen him abruptly stride off stage to change after a button fell off. During that period when I was with the band, some lucky fellow would be the proud possessor of an Ellington suit or jacket, as Duke would not wear a garment after it lost a button."

Other than Ellington's superstitions another private quirky trait he had was his appetite. Legendary would be one way to describe his eating habits. In the 1940's Derek Jewell observed in awe Dukes eating by writing:

"With the amount of energy he expended, he needed fuel and these were the years of Ellington the gourmand rather than the gourmet. Many descriptions of typical Ellington menus exist from this period, revealing, so often, a man whose virtuous resolution to keep his weight down collapsed in stages so that he ended up eating three or four separate meals in succession.

Maybe he started well, with breakfast cereal and black tea, proclaiming that this would be enough. Then, viewing companions carving at steaks, he would add, straight faced, a plain steak. Several minutes might elapse before the will to resist finally disintegrated. A second steak, onions, french fries, salad, with a Maine lobster on the side might next appear. Then fruit and cheese, and, with coffee, a specially concocted Ellington dessert, for which he was renowned; chocolate cake, custard, ice cream, jelly, apple sauce, and whipped cream. He adored ham and eggs, so that might be added as an afterthought, with pancakes and syrup, of course. The after-afterthought would be a resumption of the diet: cereal and black tea to finish with."

Duke's style of writing catered to different sounds that many people had never heard. He loved creating ambient landscapes with his musicians which lead to the term or "Jungle Music" by his fans. Because he used his orchestra in much the same way he played the piano Duke was by far a very easy man to work for. The way he saw it, he would rather cater to a musician so that he could the exact sound he wanted rather than reprimand him and risk loosing the unique quality of the performance. If a musician did however start hindering the vision of where he wanted the band to go Duke didn't fire him, he just made things so uncomfortable for them that they left on their own. If drinking became a problem Duke would give them a solo and keep calling chorus after chorus until the pressure sobered them up real quick. Another trick he would use is he would simply hire a better musician to sit beside the troublesome one and play the exact the same part; he even did this with drummers and bass players. Duke's drummer Sam Woodyard didn't show up one night for a gig so Duke hired a local drummer to replace him. Sam finally showed up to the job and Duke had him set up right beside the local drummer and both of them started the set. Sam was wise to what Duke was doing and he slowly started to play with the time of the music here and there throwing the local guy off until he had enough and he resigned and Duke had his band back together the way he wanted it. Grover Mitchell wrote about his first few days after joining Ellington's band:

"I had only been working with him for about a week. The first night or two everbody had gotten on the bandstand and had really roared. But the next two, three or four nights, maybe there would be five or six of us on the bandstand and eight or ten guys walking around out in the audience talking to people or at the bar. One night we were on the bandstand and a waiter came up and told Jimmy Hamilton that his steak was ready. He stepped off the bandstand and started cutting into a steak. Later I says to Duke, "Man, how can you put up with this?"
And he told me, "Look, let me tell you something. I live for the nights that this band is great. I don't worry about nights like what you're worrying about. If you pay attention to these people, they will drive you crazy. They're not gonna drive me crazy."

Many musicians aspired to play with Duke even if was for just one night. The opportunity to say that you had played in his band was a badge of honor and some musicians even left their own bands to do so. The drummer Lee Young talks about when he got that chance:

"Duke was opening at the Trianon Ballroom the same night we were opening at Billy Berg's. So Ben Webster and Jimmy Blanton called me and said, "Sonny Greer is not gonna make it tonight. You better come on and open with us." I told them that it was my opening night, that my name was out front, Lee and Lester Young. I told Billy Berg, "I'm gonna go play with Duke tonight. You'll have to get another drummer." "What do you mean? You are the leader!"
"I don't care. I may not ever get a chance again in my life to play with Duke and I'm not gonna give this up." I had signed a contract with the man, but Billy Berg was very fond of me. "You've got to be the craziest man in the world. How can you be the leader of the band and not make your opening?" "There's no need talking about it. I'm going to play with Duke tonight." Luckily, when I came back the next night I still had a job."

Duke Ellington was the most prolific composer of American music the world has ever known having wrote nearly 2000 different pieces of music. Many claim that he is the most important figure to come from the Jazz world, a point Duke would probably humbly deny. Duke never really called what he did anything other than music saying in interviews: "I am a bandleader and I am a composer." "I like any and all of my associations with music writing, playing, and listening. We write and play from our perspective, and the audience listens from its perspective. If and when we agree, I am lucky."

Duke Ellington died on May 24, 1974 of lung cancer. He is buried in Woodlawn cemetery in the Bronx, New York. In 1997 a large memorial to Duke Ellington, was dedicated in New York's Central Park, near Fifth Avenue and 110th Street, an intersection named Duke Ellington Circle. I'll leave you with a quote from Jazz critic Leonard Feather on Duke's influence on other musician's:

"He has withheld his throne from the grasp of thirty years of pretenders, imitated but inimitable. What he has done in those thirty years was best summed up one evening at the Opera House in San Francisco by Andre' Previn, a musician who was not born when the Cotton Club era began. "You know," he said, "Stan Kenton can stand in front of a thousand fiddles and a thousand brass and make a dramatic gesture and every studio arranger can nod his head and say, "Oh yes, that's done like this." But Duke merely lifts his finger, three horns make a sound and I don't know what it is!"

Greg

Ahmet Ertegun

Born July 31, 1923 in Istanbul, Turkey Ahmet Ertegun is not a name that you would think of when it comes to music history. The son of the Turkish Ambassador to the United States he would go on to found, with his brother, Atlantic Records and become one of the most influential figures in music almost sculpting the American musical landscape with his bare hands.

As a young man Ahmet had a passion for music and record collecting. His tastes were varied but also eclectic to the time frame of his youth. To remedy the problem of not being able to find enough "black" music in his local record shop Ahmet and his brother Nesuhi approached producers Tom Dowd and Herb Abramson and formed Atlantic Records in 1947. In its early years Atlantic was nothing more than an independent record label that put out small time artists where it could. Their reputation grew in the music scene due to Ahmet's uncanny talent of predicting what young people in America would and would not like. Atlantic would help create the Rhythm and Blues genre and found moderate success with acts like "Big" Joe Turner, The Drifters and Ruth Brown but it was a young blind piano player named Ray Robinson who would be one of Atlantic's and the world's most popular artists.

Ahmet discovered Ray Robinson around 1952 and immediately signed him. Ahmet is quoted as saying "The first time I saw Ray I told him, 'You are the end, you know.'" Ray Robinson was convinced to drop his last name and just use his first and middle name and went on to become of course Ray Charles. Ray's first big hit with Atlantic was the classic "Mess Around" which was written by A. Nugetre who was actually A. Ertegun, Ahmets name spelled backwards. Ahmet wrote several other hits for various artists such as "Chains of Love" and "Sweet Sixteen" but all of them under the pseudonym of "Nugetre."

Through the 1950's and 60's with the help of Jerry Wexler Atlantic Records went from a small "Independent" record label into a powerhouse of new and fresh music. Cultivating new musical styles, other names began to emerge onto the scene under the watchful eye of Ahmet such as Aretha Franklin and Wilson Pickett.

In the 1960's after hearing Led Zeppelin's demo Ahmet predicted a huge smash and quickly signed them to Atlantic. Led Zeppelin went on to become arguably the greatest Rock Band of all time. Another British group that owes a great debt to Ahmets knack for hearing talent is the longest touring and most enduring rock band, The Rolling Stones.

Whether it was the likes of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young or Sonny and Cher the influence of this little Turkish immigrant can be felt through out the music industry even to this day with Atlantic Records still going strong with artists like Jewel, Jimmy Page & Robert Plant, Junior Senior, Kid Rock, Lil Kim and Phish just to name few.

During a Rolling Stones Concert in New York City on October 29 2006 Ahmet was back stage, he slipped and fell hitting his head. He was immediately rushed to the hospital where he slipped into a coma. With his family at his side Ahmet Ertegun died on December 14 2006, he was 83 years old.

"We started Atlantic simply because we wanted to sign a few artists whose music we liked, and make the kind of records we would want to buy. I honestly never imagined I would be able to make a living from doing something that was so much fun. I am very glad I was wrong." -Ahmet Ertegun 1923-2006

Check out the Atlantic Records website for a great tribute to their founder and hear a recording of Ahmet actually teaching Mess Around to Ray Charles in the studio.

http://www.atlanticrecords.com/ahmet/

Thanks for reading.

Greg

Prejudice

Prejudice the horrible condition that has existed as the bane of humanity since the beginning of time. Prejudice is defined as An adverse judgment or opinion formed beforehand or without knowledge or examination of the facts. We are all guilty of it in some form or another regardless of if we admit it or not. The nature of the human condition is to fear change and what is different. One thing in America began to blur the lines of prejudice and started to erode the racism that was rampant throughout the country and that one thing was Jazz. The common pleasure derived from Jazz was a catalyst for certain relationships between blacks and whites that, at the time, were unheard of. If one had an ear for it Jazz was a common language understood by anyone regardless of skin color. Its impossible to admire a piece of music performed perfectly and not admire the musician performing it. White America began to realize that this new music coming from the predominantly black areas of New Orleans and elsewhere was something to be admired regardless of the obtuse way of thinking in regards to a persons skin color.

During the 1920s and 30s Jazz musicians were able to enjoy the social freedom to associate with whom they wanted, outside of the social norm of the United States at that time. Many enduring friendships were made by white and black musicians, but outside of the Jazz world certain elements were still in place that greatly looked down on these friendships. The music was enjoyed by most all Americans but in a strange way rejected at the same time. It would seem that white America loved to hear the music as long as they could not see it performed by interracial bands or even bands that might look interracial even if they were not! Billie Holiday tells of an incident at the Fox Theater in Detroit when she was performing with Count Basies band:

"After three performances the first day, the theater management went crazy. They claimed they had so many complaints about all those Negro men up there on the stage with those bare-legged white girls, all hell cut loose backstage. The next thing we know, the revamped the whole show. They cut out the girls middle number. And when the chorus line opened the show, they fitted them out with special black masks and mammy dresses. They did both their numbers in blackface and those damn mammy getups.
When he saw what was happening, Basie flipped. But there was nothing he could do. We had signed the contracts to appear and we had no control over what the panicky theater managers did. But that wasnt the worst of it. Next they told Basie that I was to yellow to sing with all the black men in his band. Somebody might think I was white if the light didnt hit me just right. So they got special dark grease paint band told me to put it on. It was my turn to flip. I said I wouldnt do it. But they had our names on the contracts and if I refused it might have played hell with bookings, not just for me, but for the future of all the cats in the band. So I had to be darkened down so the show could go on in dynamic-assed Detroit. Its like they say, theres no damn business like show business. You had to smile to keep from throwing up."

The traveling black Jazz musician faced many unnecessary hardships on the because of the blatant racism of certain areas of the country. Being refused service at restaurants, denied access to hotels and even some clubs where the band was performing refused to allow the entertainers to use the front doors. For the white Jazz musician things were not as bad but Stan Shaw recalls an incident when he was traveling with an all black band in Virginia saying:

"I was one of the first white musicians that ever went below the Mason-Dixon Line with an all black group. Lips Page took me when I was fifteen on a tour of the south. We played at the Star Theater in Norfolk, Virginia. It was a segregated theater; they had the whites in the orchestra seats and the blacks in the balcony. I dont know why Lips accepted the engagement. I guess they were all segregated. There was a tremendous uproar when the curtains parted and there we were. Apparently white people thought I was lowering myself to play with a black group and the black people thought I was intruding on their music. The whole audience started towards the stage; they came to get us. Lips ran out the back door of the theater yelling "Cops! Police!" And the cops came swinging their clubs at us! We ran like hell for the train station. I left four hundred dollars worth of drums in the Star Theater in Norfolk, Virginia. We got out of there with our lives and we were lucky."

The first black musician to be hired by a major white band was Teddy Wilson who was hired by Benny Goodman. Jimmy Maxwell told of an incident in which Benny made it a point to stand by his new band member saying:

"Benny is a very mercenary man. Hes very interested in money. But he cut off almost half the country for Teddy Wilson. He didnt want to travel in the South with the band, so he cut off a large part of his income. Ive heard him stand up, even in the New Yorker, the first time we went in there. We had Sid Catlett, John Simmons, Charlie Christian, Cootie Williams, five or six black guys. And I remember the manager saying "I dont want these black guys coming in through the lobby and through the restaurant. In fact, I dont even want them here at all." And Benny said "Well, Im sorry. This is my band. If you dont want them in the band then screw yourself. Were walking out." So then he said, "Well, they'll have to go through the kitchen." Benny said "They do not go through the kitchen." Then he said "All of the musicians go through the kitchen." And Benny said, "None of the musicians go through the kitchen." "Well, then they cant wear their uniforms when they come." " All right, they wont wear their uniforms." But he stuck up for them. It wasnt just he put black guys in the band and then said Good luck you know. He didnt give any particular race or guy a bad time. If he was giving anybody a bad time it was just he felt that way. It wasnt because of their ethnic background."

Many black Jazz musicians turned to Islam for religious and social reasons thinking it would help fight the racism they faced in America. The line of thought was that as a member of the Muslim faith they were no longer a colored from poor America. As a Muslim they were someone important. Milt Hinton recalls a trip with a band in Nebraska where he witnessed first hand this new empowerment found by newly converted musicians:

"We had a guy in the band named Rudy Powell. He changed his name to Musa Kalim. He wore a fez and grew a little beard. They got into town after midnight and found everything closed. Having no way to locate the rooming houses that accepted black musicians, they decided to park the bus in front of the theater and sit there until morning. Rudy had a better idea. He walks into this white hotel and the minute he hits the door the man said, "Im sorry were filled up." Rudy says, "Wheres the manager?" The manager comes out and says "Well it isnt the policy of this hotel to rent rooms to colored." Rudy says "Im not colored." He whips this card out which says, My name is Musa Kalim and I am a descendant of Father Abraham and the mother, Hagar and Im entitled to all the rights and privileges of the Mystic Knights. He's wearing this fez. He says "Call the State Department in Washington. I want to speak to someone in the State Department right now!" The manager got scared to death. "Im sorry sir" he says. "We'll get you a room." Rudy says "I've got nine of my brothers out in the bus there and they dont speak English. Ive got to have room for the nine." So the guy claps his hands says to the bellhop "Get this Gentleman nine rooms." Rudy got up the next morning and collected the money from all the guys and paid the bill and walked out."

The civil rights movement brought about many changes in the way that black musicians were treated but some black musicians felt that Jazz should be an exclusively black expression. It was of course to late for that. The idea of this great jazz medium had already escaped and there was no stopping it from spreading to all types of people. In 1958 George Wein arranged to stage a jazz festival at the old resort hotel at French Lick in southern Indiana. He demanded and received assurances that there would be no discourtesies shown the black musicians and fans who would be visiting the formerly lily white resort. The hotel manager told George that French Lick had changed with the times. When Gerry Mulligan Quartet arrived there however, Art Farmer and Dave Bailey expressed doubts about using the swimming pool. They wanted to avoid any ugly scenes.

From the lobby the blue water of the pool looked inviting and Art and Dave had just about decided to go get into their swimsuits when Dizzy Gillespie stepped out of the elevator. He was wearing bathing trunks from the French Rivera, an embroidered skull cap from Greece and embroidered slippers with curled up toes that he'd picked up in Turkey. A Sheraton Hotel bath towel draped over his shoulders like a cape was fastened at the neck with a jade scarab pin from Egypt. With a Chinese ivory cigarette holder in his left hand and a powerful German multiband portable radio in his right, he beamed cheerfully through a pair of Italian sunglasses. "I've come to integrate the pool!" he announced. He led the way to the beach chairs at poolside, enthroning himself in one. After he had the attention of everyone at the poolside he grabbed Jimmy McPartland who had also come down for a swim. Arm in arm, the two trumpet players marched to the diving board and jumped in together and the last barrier to integration at French Lick was down.

Greg

Louis Armstrong

In my first blog about the origin of the word Jazz I discussed how the term for the music came about. I find it only fitting to talk about how Jazz music as we know it today came about and the only way to do so is to go back to one man, Louis Armstrong.

Louis Daniel Armstrong was born a poor child in the city of New Orleans, LA in 1901. It seemed fitting and no one asked questions when Louis would brag about being born on July 4th of 1900 but it has been concluded through hospital records that his actual birth was around August 4th. Growing up in the slums of New Orleans, specifically an area called Storyville young Louis worked doing odd jobs here and there to raise money to help support him, his sister and his mother. One of the jobs that he had was a junk collector with an immigrant Russian-Jewish family called the Karnofskys. Louis wrote extensive pages on his life growing up in Storyville and his relationship with the Karnofskys and revealed that the kindness and generosity of the family is the reason he became who he was, one of the biggest reasons was that they loaned him the money to buy his first cornet.

On New Year's Eve young Louis, out with his friends, decided to have a little fun while celebrating the holiday and pulled out a gun from his clothing. Aiming straight up into the air he fired the gun and got the expected attention of all the people and then was promptly arrested. He was sentenced to the New Orleans Home for Colored Waifs which is where he received his first formal instruction in music. Upon his arrival at the boys home Louis was already a self taught horn player and thought that his skills were good enough to earn him the right of being the leader of the Boy's Home band.

When released from the Waifs Home Louis would follow any band he could soaking up the music. At the time pickup bands would roam the city streets performing for various events such as funerals and parties and young Louis would be right there watching and listening intently, learning. One of the people that Louis met at this time was the man who would become his mentor, Joe "King" Oliver. King Oliver was the trumpet player in Kid Ory's band which at the time was the best band in all of New Orleans. Louis idolized King Oliver but in 1919 Oliver left Ory's band which gave Louis an opportunity to replace his idol. Working with Ory proved invaluable in helping Louis learn about the music that he would soon re-invent. The job took him all over New Orleans and helped lead him to other jobs specifically on the famous Riverboats that traveled the Mississippi River.

Louis's first trip on the famous river found him working with Fate Marable's band on the paddle boat the St. Paul and an incident that he witnessed would forever help him identify what was important in life, he writes;

"David Jones starved himself the whole summer we worked on the St. Paul. He saved every nickel and sent all his money to a farm down South where employees and relatives were raising cotton for him and getting away with as much of his money as they could, since he was not there to look after his own interests. Every day he would eat an apple instead of a good hot meal. What was the result? The boll weevils ate all of his cotton before the season was over. He did not even have a chance to go down and look his farm over before a telegram came saying everything had been shot to hell. After that David Jones used to stand at the boat rail during every intermission looking down at the water and thinking about all the jack he had lost. I often said to Fate Marable:
"Fate keep an eye on David Jones. He's liable to jump in the water most any minute."
This incident taught me never to deprive my stomach. I'll probably never be rich, but I will be a fat man."

In 1922 Louis received a letter from his mentor Joe Oliver asking him to come to Chicago and join his band. Olivers Creole Jazz Band was at the time considered the best band in the new center of Jazz, Chicago. While in Chicago Louis made his first recordings, even taking some solos but always playing second cornet to Joe Oliver. Some historians claim that the relationship between Louis and Oliver was very one sided and even say that Oliver resented Louis because he knew that he was much better. Armstrong had been making quite a name for himself in other bands and evidence suggests that Joe Oliver invited Louis to join his band simply so he could keep a reign on the young prodigy. Louis strongly disagreed with the critics and made it a point to always state that he was very grateful that Joe Oliver took him under his wing. Barney Bigard shines some light into the special relationship between the two great horn players by saying:

Joe Oliver had sent for Louis to come up from New Orleans to play second trumpet in his band, just like he sent for me, but Louis really won the people where they worked at the Lincoln Gardens. or Royal Gardens as it became later. But Joe had never really let Louis go for himself.
What really started Joe into giving Louis his own chorus, and this is what Joe Oliver told me, was that one night they were playing and this guy Johnny Dunn walked in who was cracked up to be a hell of a trumpet man in those days. Johnny Dunn was with a big show and the people were clamoring to hear what he would play. He walked on to the stand and said to Louis, Boy! Give me that horn. You dont know how to do. That made Joe Oliver real angry and he told Louis, Go get him. Louis blew like the devil. Blew him out of the place. They looked for Johnny Dunn when Louis finished but he had skipped out. They never found him in there again. So that was when Joe started to turn Louis loose by himself.

Joe Oliver saw a lot of himself in Louis according to Richard M. Jones and knew that Louis needed to be heard. He remembers a similar confrontation he witnessed with Oliver back in New Orleans. He writes:

A horn player named Freddie Keppard was playin in a spot across the street and was drawin all the crowds. I was sittin at the piano and Joe Oliver came over to me and commanded in a nervous, harsh voice, Get in B-flat. I did and Joe walked out on the sidewalk, lifted his horn to his lips and blew the most beautiful stuff I have ever heard. People started pouring out of the other spots along the street to see who was blowing all that horn. Before long, our place was full and Joe came in smiling and said Now, that son of a bitch wont bother me no more. From then on our place was full every night.

The genius that was Louis Armstrong amazed all that heard his horn. Here was this roly poly type of a man with a large wide smile blowing the most amazing notes and phrases ever heard. Things that were thought to be impossible on a trumpet were done by Louis just as if he were simply breathing. Some musicians even made claims that the notes were impossible and that Louis played trick horns to produce the sound. While in Norfolk, Virginia all the trumpet players came to his show and Taft Jordan recalls:

One of them asked him, May I see your horn?
Yeah, Pops said and he handed it to him.
Mind if I blow it?
Right, Pops said. Got your mouthpiece?
So the guy put his mouthpiece in and sounded C on Pops horn and then a C on his own horn. He ran the scale on his horn then he ran the scale on Pops. It was all the same. It was no trick horn. It was just the man, the difference of the man.

After playing with Joe Oliver he left the Creole Jazz Band on good terms in 1924. He went on to play with other top bands such as the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra in New York City, then eventually returning to Chicago to record under his own name with his famous Hot Five and Hot Seven groups. The recordings made at this time became the groundwork for what Jazz was to be known as. His recordings with Earl Fatha Hines and his introduction to "West End Blues" remain some of the most famous and influential improvisations in jazz history.For the next 30 years Louis toured constantly all over the planet, playing as many as 300 shows a year. During this time the greatness of his horn continued to develop. His influence on Jazz is immeasurable, practically invented Jazz improvisation and Jazz singing. Louis knew nothing other than the music he produced and he loved everyone around him because he knew that they loved his music saying:

I never tried to prove nothing, just wanted to give a good show. My life has always been my music, its always come first, but the music aint worth nothing if you cant lay it on the public. The main thing is to live for that audience, cause what youre there for is to please the people.

A few months before Louis died his doctor urged him to cancel a show in New York telling him he needed to conserve his energy and that he was to sick to perform. Louis told him:

My whole life, my whole soul, my whole spirit is to B-L-O-W that H-O-R-N, The people are waiting for me, I got to do it Doc, I got to do it."

Louis Armstrong died quietly in his sleep at his home in Corona, Queens, New York on July 6, 1971. He was 69 years old. As a tribute to him Ill leave you with several quotes by people from all over the world.

"What he does is real, and true, and honest, and simple, and even noble. Every time this man puts his trumpet to his lips, even if only to practice three notes, he does it with his whole soul."
-- Leonard Bernstein on Louis Armstrong

"I think that anybody from the 20th century, up to now, has to be aware that if it wasn't for Louis Armstrong, we'd all be wearing powdered wigs. I think that Louis Armstrong loosened the world, helped people to be able to say "Yeah," and to walk with a little dip in their hip. Before Louis Armstrong, the world was definitely square, just like Christopher Columbus thought."
-- South African trumpet legend Hugh Masekela

"He's the father of us all, regardless of style or how modern we get. His influence is inescapable. Some of the things he was doing in the 20's and 30's, people still haven't dealt with."
-- Armstrong disciple Nicholas Payton

"Louis Armstrong is the master of the jazz solo. He became the beacon, the light in the tower that helped the rest of us navigate the tricky waters of jazz improvisation."
-- Ellis Marsalis

"Armstrong is to music what Einstein is to physics and the Wright Brothers are to travel."
-- "Jazz" documentary producer Ken Burns

"(Armstrong was) the key creator of the mature working language of jazz. Three decades after his death and more than three-quarters of a century since his influence first began to spread, not a single musician who has mastered that language fails to make daily use, knowingly or unknowingly, of something that was invented by Louis Armstrong."
-- Dan Morgenstern - Oxford Companion to Jazz

"It's America's classical music ... this becomes our tradition ... the bottom line of any country in the world is what did we contribute to the world? ... we contributed Louis Armstrong"
-- Tony Bennett

"If anybody was Mr. Jazz it was Louis Armstrong. He was the epitome of jazz and always will be. He is what I call an American standard, an American original."
--Duke Ellington

"In my opinion, Louis Armstrong is the greatest trumpet stylist of all time and has influenced every trumpet player of his time and long after"
-- Al Hirt

"He left an undying testimony to the human condition in the America of his time"
-- Wynton Marsalis

"You can't play anything on a horn that Louis hasn't already played"
-- Miles Davis

"Jazz is not - never has been - a one man show. But if I had to vote for one representative for jazz, that one would have to be Louis Armstrong"
-- Art Hodes

"Louis Armstrong could only happen once - for ever and ever. I, for one, appreciate the ride"
-- Bobby Hackett

"All we can do is be glad we live in the same century as Louis Armstrong"
--Wynton Marsalis

"I'm proud to acknowledge my debt to the 'Reverend Satchelmouth' ... He is the beginning and the end of music in America"
-- Bing Crosby

"Americans, unknowingly, live part of every day in the house that Satch built"
-- noted critic Leonard Feather

"If you don't like Louis Armstrong, you don't know how to love"
-- Mahalia Jackson

"Louis is not dead, for his music is and will remain in the hearts and minds of countless millions of the world's peoples, and in the playing of hundreds of thousands of musicians who have come under his influence."
-- Dizzy Gillespie; July 17, 1971

"He could play a trumpet like nobody else, then put it down and sing a song like no one else could."
--Eddie Condon

Finally in his own words, I leave you this.

"What we play is life."
--Louis Armstrong

Thanks for reading everyone and please go out and discover Louis for yourself.

Greg

Origin Of The Word JAZZ

So here is the first post of my new music blog stuff. I hope everyone enjoys it and please send me your questions and suggestions on the different subjects you'd like to read and learn about.

The word Jazz has a veil of mystery around it. Ask anyone what Jazz is and they can tell you about the music and describe how it's played or some of their favorite musicians but the actual origin of the word itself is a bit of a mystery. Some research has suggested that it traces to African roots in some native language of former slaves or even more evidence says it possibly is related to the French word jaser which means "to chatter."
Some historical evidence suggests that it could trace to slang terms for sexual functions (I'll let you use your imagination as to what.) It is a fact that the term "Jazzing" was used in the past as a term to describe having sex but no one is sure if the term was used before the music came along or vice versa.

The saxophone player Garvin Bushell gives his opinion on the mystery by describing his early life in Louisiana:

"They said that the French had brought the perfume industry with them to New Orleans and the oil of jasmine was a popular ingredient locally. To add it to a perfume was called "jassing it up." The strong scent was popular in the red light district, where a working girl might approach a prospective customer and say "Is jass on your mind tonight young fellow?" The term had become synonymous with erotic activity and came to be applied to the music as well."

It is safe to say that no one will ever know who first used the term as most every early jazz musician has a story about how they were the ones that created it. Jelly Roll Morton even claims he was the one who invented the music itself and everyone else stole it from him! The spelling is another mystery but there is historical evidence that in the early days it was "Jass" not Jazz which would lead one to believe the perfume theory. The fact that the first Jazz record ever recored was by a group that called themselves "The Original Dixieland Jass Band" is proof of that. The trumpeter for the Original Dixieland Jass band, Nick LaRocca talks about how the term was changed from Jass to Jazz saying:

"...the term was changed because children and some adults could not resist the temptation to scratch the letter "J" from the posters."

Duke Ellington apparently did not care for the word at all saying:

"By and large, jazz always has been like the kind of man you wouldn't want your daughter to associate with. The word "jazz" has been part of the problem. The word never lost its association with those New Orleans bordellos. In the 1920s I used to try to convince Fletcher Henderson that we ought to call what we were doing "Negro music." But it's too late for that now. This music has become so integrated you can't tell one part from the other so far as color is concerned."

In the 1930s and 40s there were efforts by some magazines to change the name so that it would not be associated with sex by coming up with silly names like "ragtonia," "Amerimusic," and "crewcut" which of course did not catch on. It seems though that the "stigma" of the sexual references have for the most point disappeared on their own and Jazz is a proud American product that the world has embraced.

Greg