[HN Gopher] Louis Armstrong's Last Word
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Louis Armstrong's Last Word
Author : tintinnabula
Score : 114 points
Date : 2023-11-02 20:16 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.thenation.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.thenation.com)
| ethbr1 wrote:
| Because an article about Louis Armstrong shouldn't be read
| without music playing...
|
| Azalea (1961) https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SA_f0BYqavA
| 3seashells wrote:
| Thank you.
| Aloha wrote:
| Two musicians of this era I do love are Louis Armstrong and Nat
| Cole - both virtuosos in their own right. Everyone I think knows
| how important Armstrong is - Nat Cole kinda gets a short shrift -
| he was probably the best jazz pianist of his generation, but is
| remembered today for his vocals (which are good in their own
| right) - but not where he sparkled -
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RcoUfSAUWs
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbwPKIPVcPw
|
| Nat Cole died at only 45(!), his brothers each lived another
| 30-40 years - I wonder what we would have gotten from him had he
| not died so young. He had many of the same political issues Louis
| Armstrong did, was seen as an appeaser on racial issues.
| epiccoleman wrote:
| Nat just had such a distinctive and beautiful voice, it's so
| warm. I love his recording of "Almost Like Being In Love,"
| which plays at the end of Groundhog Day. If you listen to
| another version, like for example Sinatra's... it's just not
| the same! Ella's is pretty nice though.
| Aloha wrote:
| Part of how he got that sound was hotboxing several
| cigarettes in a row before going into record - the the depth,
| harmonics and warmth of his voice is in part from smoking.
|
| You can really hear the difference between say his late 40's
| recordings and his late 50's ones.
|
| As a note, he was killed by Lung Cancer...
| slfnflctd wrote:
| I've heard and read of several vocalists whose sounds were
| credited (by them or others) to smoking. I think those
| effects vary quite a bit between singers.
|
| For me, anything I smoked always affected my singing worse
| overall in the long run. I may have gotten a temporary
| effect I liked, but it reduced the total amount of time I
| could sing without losing strength in at least part of my
| range.
|
| I almost feel worse for those it doesn't affect so badly,
| because it was a key reason I decided to quit.
| jimmySixDOF wrote:
| He also carries the soundtrack for the semi musical western
| Cat Ballou, released the year he died (1965), and, to me,
| without his role the movie doesn't win any awards.
| cylinder714 wrote:
| Ugh! That may be _the_ most desperately stupid movie I 've
| ever seen.
| deprecative wrote:
| Then you get to me going "Who the fuck is Nat Cole?" only to
| realize you meant Nat King Cole. Now I know exactly who it is.
| crawsome wrote:
| That's a lot of popups and words just to get to one word
| p_j_w wrote:
| This seems to me like a sad way to go about life.
| jbeninger wrote:
| When you click a link labelled "world's fluffiest pancakes",
| do you want to read 16 boring pages of stories about
| someone's grandma before you get to, you know, the thing you
| actually clicked on?
| klyrs wrote:
| Whip ordinary pancake batter.
| kevindamm wrote:
| If you separate the egg whites and whip separately before
| folding into batter, you'll get even fluffier, ...I don't
| have proof these are the fluffiest, though.
| whartung wrote:
| Now that's interesting because every set of instructions
| I've seen is to not over mix the batter. That it should
| be even a bit lumpy. I guess it builds up the gluten. I
| do suggest letting the batter sit for some time (10-15
| minutes). That helps.
|
| My favorite buttermilk style pancakes are from Corner
| Bakery. Just hit all the right notes for me, but I can't
| seem to make them at home. Hot, fluffy, a little chewy.
| Super yummy.
|
| At home, the Bisquick in a bottle mix is actually quite
| good, it's just so much batter in one bottle we rarely
| make it. We have another mix we use that's decent. It
| even better with buttermilk. My home experiments haven't
| been amazing enough to make them worth the bother over a
| pre-made mix.
|
| ...and I should shut up, this is about Louis Armstrong. I
| don't even know if he liked pancakes.
| klyrs wrote:
| My brother always made inch-thick pancakes with the
| texture of a cloud. Dad spoiled the mystery, "you're
| over-mixing the batter," but we disagreed: they're lovely
| that way.
|
| But back to Louis Armstrong, still on the topic of
| pancakes: https://greatchefs.com/recipes/tournedos-louis-
| armstrong/
| CoastalCoder wrote:
| Doesn't whipping it cause glutens to form, making the
| pancakes tough?
|
| The trick I've been using is to wait a little while after
| mixing the batter, so that the leavening agents have time
| to work.
| dang wrote:
| Please don't respond to a bad comment by breaking the site
| guidelines yourself. That only makes things worse.
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
| dang wrote:
| " _Please don 't complain about tangential annoyances. They're
| too common to be interesting._"
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
| CoastalCoder wrote:
| Can you recommend an appropriate forum for discussing HN's
| guidelines?
|
| In this particular case, I thought the GP comment raised a
| point worth discussing _somewhere_. I.e.:
|
| At least on mobile, there's a point where the signal-to-noise
| ratio (from ads and/or wordy writing) is so low that I'd
| rather just read a summary here on HN.
|
| So I'm actually grateful for comments that warn me before I
| visit such articles, especially on mobile.
| dang wrote:
| It's not that such comments have no benefit--but they cost
| more than they benefit. That's why we have that rule. The
| site would be worse, on the whole, without it.
|
| And of course the annoyances are genuine. We all find them
| annoying. It's just that complaints about them don't make
| for curious conversation, and that's what we're optimizing
| for.
| peter_retief wrote:
| What was his last word?
| finnjohnsen2 wrote:
| "See you in the morning"
| hotnfresh wrote:
| > 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.
|
| Anyone got a pointer to something (a Youtube video, probably?)
| that illustrates this? Specifically, the transformation of
| popular playing and singing in response to Armstrong. Like a
| before/after thing that demonstrates what Riccardi means here.
| bgm1975 wrote:
| I don't remember if it was called out explicitly but there's a
| fantastic documentary out now on AppleTV+ about Louis
| Armstrong. If you have a subscription, I highly recommend
| watching it!
| artimaeis wrote:
| Going to swing at this in the 3 ways I understand Armstrong to
| have impacted music:
|
| Cornet/Trumpet playing:
|
| Here's [Dipper Mouth Blues](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pwp
| riGltf9g&pp=ygUaIkRpcHBlc...) from 1923 by King Oliver. Note
| how how every part is really "interlocked" together.
|
| Here's [West End Blues](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WPCBie
| SESI&pp=ygUVIldlc3QgR...) from 1928 by Armstrong. Each
| instrumentalist is showing a _lot_ more technicality in their
| solos, and the solos are much longer and more isolated. That's
| one of the big keys -- instrumentalists soloing on their own
| while the band backs them.
|
| Jazz singing:
|
| Here's Al Jolson in 1922 doing [Toot, Toot, Tootsie!](https://w
| ww.youtube.com/watch?v=rlv4b9UCk0c&pp=ygUOQWwgSm9sc...). It's
| very vaudeville, very Broadway.
|
| Then here's Armstrong in 1926 doing [Heebie Jeebies](https://ww
| w.youtube.com/watch?v=qEBMXJwQhNU&pp=ygUTSGVlYmllI...). It's
| much more personal, charismatic, and swinging. He's using some
| scatting!
|
| Improv style:
|
| 1917 [Livery Stable Blues](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Woj
| NaU4-kI&pp=ygUYTGl2ZXJ5I...)
|
| 1927 [Potato Head Blues](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeBn_T
| Z4Iak&pp=ygUmcG90YXRvI...)
|
| ---
|
| Now let's go forward 20 years to Dizzy Gillespie [Salt
| Peanuts](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gg1Wl-
| NmzWg&pp=ygUhZGl6enkgZ...). I think it's clear how Louie
| inspired _so much_ of what Gillespie and the orchestra are
| doing here. That would go on to morph so many ways over the
| next 60 years.
|
| Hope that helps. I'm no expert -- just a guy who went to school
| for music and played trumpet, listened to a lot of Armstrong.
| hotnfresh wrote:
| Thanks a bunch for putting this together, that clears things
| up a lot. I figured they meant more than just a more-fluent
| swing, and yeah, it's a lot more than that.
| tomcam wrote:
| > I'm no expert
|
| Liar! That's pretty much the best possible Louis Armstrong
| course possible. Excellent choices+commentary
| felixyz wrote:
| This is a good recent podcast on that very topic:
|
| How Louis Armstrong invented the modern pop star
|
| https://switchedonpop.com/episodes/how-louis-armstrong-inven...
| krumpet wrote:
| "but he's the only person you could find who changed the way
| people played their instruments"
|
| Louis Armstrong yes. But let's not forget Jimi Hendrix.
| bgm1975 wrote:
| You forgot (or missed) the rest of the quote:
|
| > ...and the way people sang.
|
| As the article stated, many great artists changed one or the
| other, but only Louis did both.
| krumpet wrote:
| That's not how I interpreted it, but it's a fair point.
| ska wrote:
| I think it's pretty clear in context.
|
| More importantly though, Armstrong's influence on
| instrumentals alone was far broader than Hendrix (who
| mostly affected how electric guitars were approached in pop
| music, and a little bit beyond) Hendrix is a giant,
| absolutely, but not in the same league.
| rrherr wrote:
| The full quote in context was: "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. "
| geophile wrote:
| This is a good opportunity to tell a family story involving Louis
| Armstrong.
|
| My uncle was the founder of Topper Toys and Deluxe Toys, in the
| 60s and 70s. He was a very interesting, very difficult genius. A
| holocaust survivor, toy inventor, world class poker player,
| decent sculptor, ping pong player and chess player. He made and
| lost several fortunes, and died very wealthy. He is credited with
| turning poker into a mass audience spectator sport, and he was a
| philanthropist.
|
| One of Topper's dolls in the 60s was Suzy Cute. And he got Louis
| Armstrong to do a commerical. You have to see this.
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkConPs9tKQ. The best minute you
| will spend today, guaranteed.
|
| My uncle had a photo hanging on his wall, from the day of the
| shooting of that commercial. My uncle is visible from behind, his
| arms splayed, clearly agitated. He is arguing with Louis
| Armstrong, facing the camera, also agitated. My uncle is telling
| Louis Armstrong how to sing the Suzy Cute song, and Louis
| Armstrong is not having it.
| Pannoniae wrote:
| Wait, isn't it Suzy _Q_? Or is that a different one?
| zuminator wrote:
| Disregard the inaccurate YouTube video title; the logo in the
| commercial shows the name of the doll is "Suzy Cute."
| pstuart wrote:
| That photo would be awesome to share if it could be found --
| the backstory is a hoot.
| jazzprogramming wrote:
| My favourite Louis Armstrong recording is "A kiss to build a
| dream on".
|
| Even today he seems to be larger than life..
|
| I so wish I could have seen him at the height of his career.
|
| Thank you for this.
| pbj1968 wrote:
| "That's...jazz."
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(page generated 2023-11-03 23:00 UTC)