Satchmo Summerfest 2015: The Big Skinny
Music is oxygen for New Orleans. Life simply could not go on without it. Or if it did, New Orleans would only be a port city with a penchant for fried food. The respiratory rhythm of the city’s breath reflects the influence of its favorite son, Louis Armstrong. By the mid 1920s, when he was in his mid twenties, Armstrong had done apprenticeships with the top-flight bands of King Oliver in Chicago and Fletcher Henderson in New York. He returned to Chicago in 1928 and lit the popular music world on fire.
You can thank him for turning jazz from a group presentation to one that featured solo work, a dance style that propelled swing, imaginative trumpet and vocal phrasing that you can hear in singers from Ella Fitzgerald to Bing Crosby and Billie Holiday.
Last but not least, there was his wordless ‘scat singing’ and his incomparable renditions of “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love,” “Stardust,” “Body and Soul” and a bunch of others you know by heart. Once you hear Louis sing a song, it’ll change the way you think about it forever. He’s the most original singer in the American Songbook, hands down.
The Satchmo Summerfest is New Orleans’ 15th annual birthday card to Armstrong born on August 4, 1901 (died July 6, 1971). Three dozen traditional jazz, contemporary jazz and brass band performances are on the festival’s schedule this year. From noon till 9 PM Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, they pay homage by including several Armstrong numbers, with variations galore, in their sets.
To get a deep into Armstrong history, there are three afternoons of symposiums covering everything from “The Morality and Righteous Heart of Louis Armstrong” to “Louis Armstrong and Kids” in the air-conditioned third floor of the US Mint.
It’s also a love fest infused with a generosity of spirit straight out of Armstrong’s image. Local musicians and singers were probably imprinted with Armstrong’s music in vitro.
Heat? What heat? Every day was clear blue skied sun soaked 96 degrees but about 36,000 people showed up. This is New Orleans, where people have perfected the art of outdoor concert protocol. Thousands toted their camp chairs and plopped down for the long haul. Boomers, millennial and toddlers were sprawled all over the place.
This is one of the smaller festivals on the New Orleans calendar. There are music lovers from across the country but a huge chunk is from New Orleans and environs all the way to Covington and Mandeville on the north shore of Lake Ponchartrain.
People have heard these bands before, know their songs, and can hear them playing somewhere any day of the week. To see such a variety over the period of eight hours is more than they can resist.
New Orleanians know their music. When it’s time to fill in a chorus, all a musician has to do is point a finger, and they sing/shout it right back. They’ve heard the songs played for years and don’t get tired of hearing them again. One reason is that they’re hardly ever played the same way. The ensemble might play it straight, but when it’s turn for a solo, hang onto your hat. In front of the hometown crowd, trumpets, saxophones, trombones, pianos, banjo, upright bass, drums, and clarinets, they lay it on thick.
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Louis captured my heart as a teenager which began my love affair with jazz and the blues. His music lives on long after he was gone. What a soulful rendition you write, Paul, of Satchmo Summerfest 2015: The Big Skinny!
Posted by: carole blossom | October 08, 2015 at 01:13 AM