Armstrong’s Fan Club – Part II

In 1957, Armstrong and the All Stars went on a goodwill tour of several South American countries including Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Chile, and Venezuela. After landing at Buenos Aires’ airport known as Aeropuerto Internacional de Ezeiza, a welcome party consisting of some 5,000 ecstatic Argentines, greeted Armstrong and the All Stars on the tarmac. Two...

“Accurate but Incomplete”

“It’s sadly easy to reverse meaning, in fact, to tell a lie, by offering an accurate but incomplete quote,”1 said author Octavia Butler in an Essence article in 2000. After reading this article, I began to think about Louis’ life; how his collections have humanized the man from the legend the world thought they knew...

Armstrong’s Fan Club – Part I

I would like to think that if I had lived during Louis Armstrong’s time and had the opportunity to meet him, I would know how to act and what to say. However, based on my previous interactions with certain contemporary musicians during official and unofficial “meet and greets,” I am not certain I would be...

Tutti i passi che ho fatto, nella mia vita, mi hanno portato qui, ora

Photograph of Louis Armstrong, Velma Middleton, and Ray Martino backstage in Italy, 1949. A professor I had during my graduate program in Italy had my cohort and I report to Piazza Santa Maria Novella for class one day. She instructed us to find the place that was engraved with the following saying: “tutti i passi...