Stephen Beck's Autograph Page
How I Got This Autograph:
Louis Armstrong
(Click on images for larger version)
Photograph signed by Louis Armstrong
I lived in New Orleans.
It's hard to explain to someone who hasn't lived in New Orleans just what that means. New Orleans is a special place, with a unique culture and unique way of life. There are terms there that few others understand: King Cake, Lundi Gras, neutral ground, Monday red beans, Second Line, making groceries, Yats, just to name a few. You know to trust Nash Roberts instead of the hurricane center, how to get on a streetcar, what to do when you get the plastic baby in your slice of cake. And if you have any taste at all you learn to like jazz.
Jazz permeates New Orleans, even decades after it died in other places. It's not just played for the tourists in the French Quarter. People actually still love to listen to jazz everywhere in the city. Not modern jazz, but all types, including Dixieland, Bop, Swing, Big Band, and everything in between.
There are radio stations in New Orleans devoted to jazz. (For RealAudio players, click here to listen to WWOZ, my favorite station.) The barber who cut my hair for years played in a jazz band. When I graduated from college they hired him to play, and he really knew how to play clarinet. My best friend in college was a jazz musician on the side. I saw patients in medical school who played for Preservation Hall. I grew up with Harry Connick, Jr. Almost everybody likes jazz in New Orleans.
The first jazz musicians were from New Orleans. Jazz started around 1895 in New Orleans and was a blend of many musical styles, including African, Ragtime, marching band, and blues. Many people agree that Buddy Bolden was the first significant jazz musician, then came "Kid" Ory, and "King" Oliver. The first jazz superstar was Jelly Roll Morton. But it took one man, Louis Armstrong, to take jazz to a higher level and he created a revolution in music that is still being felt today.
Louis Daniel Armstrong was born on August 4, 1901, although he later claimed to have been born on July 4, 1900. Raised by his mother in extreme poverty, Armstrong learned to play the coronet at an early age in order to sell rags on the street as a rag picker. At age 12 he served a term for delinquency at the Coloured Waifs Home at age 12, for shooting a gun in celebration on New Year's Eve (a famous, if dangerous, tradition in New Orleans.) In the Waif's home he learned to play the cornet. Early in his life he earned the nickname "Satchmo," which was a contraction of the words "Satchel Mouth."
By 1919, he was playing with Kid Ory's band in New Orleans, and also with Fate Marable on Mississippi riverboats. In 1922, he joined his mentor Joe “King” Oliver and his trailblazing Creole Jazz Band in Chicago. Soon afterward he switched from coronet to trumpet.
In 1924 Armstrong married pianist Lillian Hardin and went to New York to join Fletcher Henderson's orchestra. With this ensemble he established himself as a brilliant soloist whose virtuosity and rhythmic dynamism set new standards for instrumental jazz performance. His reputation increased through a series of recordings made in Chicago between 1925 and 1928 with groups of New Orleans musicians variously titled Louis Armstrong's Hot Five or Hot Seven. On such records as Struttin' with Some Barbecue, Potato Head Blues (both 1927), and West End Blues (1928), Louis displayed the hallmarks of a fully formed trumpet style and a mature musical conception; his purity of tone, dazzling speed, daring breaks, rhythmic drive, and startling imagination were unprecedented and, to some extent, remain unequaled.
In 1930, his recording of the pop song "Ain't Misbehavin’” became his first show business hit, and for the next 17 years he appeared as a star soloist with various big bands in an increasingly commercial context. In 1947, he formed his All Stars, a Dixieland-style sextet with which he maintained a constant international touring schedule until his death. He even managed to unseat the Beatles from the top of the charts with his rendition of “Hello Dolly!” in 1964, making him the oldest musician in Billboard history to have a No. 1 song. In 1968 he recorded another number one hit with the touchly optimistic "What A Wonderful World".
Armstrong never forgot his roots. He often visited New Orleans to play. My former landlord for instance remembered that Louis once performed in a stadium downtown, and he took a ride on the streetcar to hear him play. In 1949 Louis was King Zulu, the king of the famous Zulu parade during Mardi Gras, which is a very special honor in New Orleans. He was widely criticized by outsiders for the racial implications of the parade, in which participants often dress in black face, but native New Orleanians know that there were no racial slurs involved and that the parade was the first fully integrated parade in Mardi Gras's history and all in good fun. If I had a time machine I would love to see this special event in New Orleans history.
Armstrong died of congestive heart failure on July 6, 1971. He was mourned in New Orleans with a traditional jazz funeral procession that wound its way through the French Quarter. Even to this day he is regarded as the finest hometown hero ever from New Orleans.
Duke Ellington, upon hearing of Armstrong's death, said "He was born poor, died rich, and never hurt anyone along the way." Isn't that a wonderful epitaph?
I have always wanted an autograph of Louis Armstrong. Around 1996 I began a serious search to locate the perfect one. Good material of Armstrong's is hard to find. He often would scribble his name across programs or blank sheets of paper, (or even on Swiss Kriss laxative ads, as he was their spokesman!) usually in his characteristic green ink. His autograph is also in high demand and much of his material is locked away in collections. I was determined to find the perfect, uninscribed signature for my own collection.
After several "duds" I found this gorgeous photograph of Louis for sale by Walter Burks. He charged $350, which is pretty steep even for a signed photo, but once I saw it I knew it was perfect for me and I had to have it. I bought the autograph in mid-1997, and it remains one of my favorite autographs.
RealAudio links provided above are from the Red Hot Jazz Archive, which I believe is one of the finest sites on the Internet. Please visit this page and learn more about the history of jazz!