[Tradjazz] Louis Armstrong - Was cornet vs. trumpet

[RICK KNITTEL]

Hello Bruce;

Your tale of not enjoying Louis' recordings earlier and then becoming
appreciative of his playing and singing later echo's my own experience.

My early formative years as a jazz fan and musician were influenced
mostly by the big bands. First by Goodman and Miller and later by Basie,
Herman, Ellington and finally Ferguson and Rich. I thought of myself as
being very hip.

I remember attending and leaving early from a concert by Armstrong and
the All Stars in the mid 1950's at Cornell because I was offended by what
I thought was primitive playing by Trummy Young and blatant commercialism
and demeaning behavior by Louis. I am now not proud of what I did then
but I got over it realizing I had not enough listening experience to
appreciate what I was witnessing (I did not listen to the hot fives and
sevens or Trummy's earlier playing till much later in my own life).

Another listening experience found me disappointed at my first hearing of
Billie Holiday in Carnegie Hall in the early 1950's. She was not well,
had a raspy voice and her intonation was quite flat. I later had the
pleasure of hearing her recordings of 20 years earlier and was an
immediate convert to her singing.

Rick Knittel - The Maine Street Paraders