Little Louis Armstrong
Audio 29:00
Louis Armstrong.
© Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images
By: Joe Farmer Follow
33 mins
Fifty years ago, the illustrious Louis Armstrong passed away at the age of 69.
Everything has been said about this essential character in the history of jazz.
Inventor of a new musical vocabulary, he popularized a hybrid culture born from an identity clash between several African and European sources.
What do we know about his childhood, however?
Why and how did he become the beloved trumpeter and singer we knew in the 20th century?
Claire Julliard, author of
Little Louis
(Ed. Le Mot et le Reste), imagines the first steps of a joyful, gifted, intrepid kid, whose prodigious destiny is written on New Year's Eve 1912.
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It took a zealous arrest on December 31, 1912 for little Louis Armstrong to find his way. He's 11 years old and, like any candid kid, doesn't quite know what to expect from life. He lets himself be carried away by events and his childish incivilities lead him to a refuge for young blacks considered turbulent. It is there that he serves his sentence for having naively fired in the street with a revolver by way of fireworks. This home for cheeky children will nevertheless have an unsuspected virtue: musical education! Although not determined to put little Louis back on the right path, the teacher and conductor of this New Orleans prison school, Peter Davis, gradually fell in love with this seed of a thug endowed with charm and charm. 'irresistible enthusiasm.He entrusted him with the mission of playing the cornet in the jazz group of the prison. The rapid progress and the undeniable aptitudes of the young apprentice hit the mark and predict a bright future for him. It will be the start of a hectic adventure in the world of swing.
King Oliver Orchestra with Baby Dodds (drums), Honore Dutrey (trombone), King Oliver (seated, lead trumpet), Bill Johnson (banjo), Louis Armstrong (trumpet), Johnny Dodds (clarinet), and Lil Hardin ( piano). © CORBIS / Corbis via Getty Images
Although he had several chaperones during his youth, one of them will be remembered for a long time to Louis Armstrong. His name was Joe "King" Oliver. Founder of the Creole Jazz Band in the 1920s, this brilliant Louisiana instrumentalist will remember "Little Louis" to whom he had given advice a few years earlier in New Orleans. Upon arriving in Chicago, he invited Armstrong, now an adult, to join him and take a seat in his orchestra. The story was only just beginning. The first twenty years of Louis Armstrong were therefore decisive and nourish the lively story of Claire Julliard. She gave the floor to the trumpeter, then in her sixties, who maliciously recalls his bouncy and restless childhood. The playful tone of "Satchmo" does not, however, hide the trials of yesteryear,the weight of segregation, the schemes to survive, the disappointments, the doubts and the renouncements. Despite everything, the hero's good nature enlightens us on his universalist faith and his indisputable benevolence.
Little Louis
is a well-documented novel that does not betray the beginnings of a future giant of African-American jazz.
Attention to detail and the rigorous restitution of places, protagonists, events, punctuate this thrilling biographical tale.
We see little Louis grow, hesitate, lose himself, assert himself, and finally shine.
Her testimony remains the author's amused proposition but, all in all, finds its relevance in this maze of sketches escaped from another century.
- The
Louis Armstrong House website
-
Little Louis, Le Mot et le Reste editions
The novel by Claire Julliard (Ed. Le Mot and Le Reste).
© Editions The Word and the Rest
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