Louis Armstrong's Last Word | Hacker News Reader

Louis Armstrong's Last Word

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142 pointstintinnabula53 comments

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.

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.

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...

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.

Don Williams was one who was 100% shaped by smoking, but it made his voice rich and full, and enhanced the harmonics and depth of it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Williams

You can see the difference of the progression of time here.

~1975 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzGx_XzxDeM 2014 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyoAoXB_xUU

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.

Ugh! That may be the most desperately stupid movie I've ever seen.

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.

But for me, it is Louis Armstrong and Nina Simone that titillate. Music that resonates with the spine. No disrespect for Nat King Cole.

Such an underrated pianist!

Ray Charles often said that Nat Cole was his biggest influence -- even though Charles' own repertoire and vocal style do not resemble Cole's.

Ray Charles Inducts Nat "King" Cole at the 2000 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyIYD294AQE

Eubie Blake had a good run. Broadway musicals, record contracts, "I wrote this in 1899; I'm gonna play it for you in 1974." #CharlestonRag

The first time I heard Nat King Cole was in Fallout 4's Diamond City Radio, from the famous song Orange Coloured Sky.

Because an article about Louis Armstrong shouldn't be read without music playing...

Azalea (1961) https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SA_f0BYqavA

Thank you.

> 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.

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!

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=PwpriGltf9g&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=4WPCBieSESI&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://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlv4b9UCk0c&pp=ygUOQWwgSm9sc...). It's very vaudeville, very Broadway.

Then here's Armstrong in 1926 doing [Heebie Jeebies](https://www.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=5WojNaU4-kI&pp=ygUYTGl2ZXJ5I...)

1927 [Potato Head Blues](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeBn_TZ4Iak&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.

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.

> I'm no expert

Liar! That’s pretty much the best possible Louis Armstrong course possible. Excellent choices+commentary

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...

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.

Wait, isn't it Suzy Q? Or is that a different one?

Disregard the inaccurate YouTube video title; the logo in the commercial shows the name of the doll is "Suzy Cute."

no, not the doll, I saw the "Suzy Cute song" part. The Suzie Q is a dance move from the 1930s (or maybe even older) and quite a few songs have referenced it or included it in the title, the most well-known one is probably Lil Hardin Armstrong's one.

this is why I asked whether it was referring to that or something else

Ah apologies, I missed the thrust of your question but surely the doll's name is just a play on words meant to evoke the nickname "Suzie Q," which was fairly popular once upon a time, back when people commonly named their little girls Susan. As to which came first, the nickname or the dance step, I doubt there's any ironclad attestation for that (although I did find an old book from 1901 where someone had named their cow Susie Q), but anyway since trendy dance steps are most often named after something else, and not just given monikers ex nihilo, my guess is the nickname came first.

The CCR song is all most people remember, I think.

That photo would be awesome to share if it could be found -- the backstory is a hoot.

I don’t currently have access to it, but I hope to get a copy from his widow.

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.

That’s also my favorite song by Louis Armstrong! It was used in Fallout 2, and it started my fascination with Satchmo.

Yes, same here! I was hooked after that, on Louis Armstrong first and then jazz in general.

What was his last word?

"See you in the morning"

Rosebud?

“That’s…jazz.”

That’s a lot of popups and words just to get to one word

This seems to me like a sad way to go about life.

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?

Whip ordinary pancake batter.

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.

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.

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/

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.

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

"Please don't complain about tangential annoyances. They're too common to be interesting."

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

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.

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.

"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.

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.

That's not how I interpreted it, but it's a fair point.

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.

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."

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