Louis Armstrong- Pure, Not Simple

I don’t usually cite videos on this blog, but just saw a wonderful clip of Louis Armstrong from 1933, playing “Dinah” on a Danish sound stage:  http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/23/louis-armstrong-in-2-minutes-53-seconds/

I’ve always loved Louis Armstrong.  He seemed to me, when I was a child and he was an old man, to convey pure eye-popping exuberance.  I marveled then that a voice that was so scratchy could also be so good.   Here he is young, energy sparks inside and around him; the syncopation is perfect; his voice is instrument as well as song;  he’s both beat and melody, dancer, conductor, percussionist, singer, trumpeter.   So musically he’s pretty great.  But once more, it’s the exuberance that carries the moment.  And the listener away.

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