# Louis Armstrong

Louis Daniel Armstrong (4 August 1901 – 6 July 1971) was an American jazz trumpeter, composer and singer who became one of the pivotal figures in jazz music. His career spanned five decades, from the 1920s to the 1960s.

## Quotes

* The Brick House was one of the toughest joints I ever played in ... Guys would drink and fight one another like circle saws. Bottles would come flying over the bandstand like crazy and there was lots of plain common shooting and cutting. But somehow all that jive didn't faze me at all. I was so happy to have some place to blow my horn.
** Satchmo: My Life in New Orleans (1954)
* Some of you young folks been saying to me, "Hey Pops, what you mean 'What a wonderful world'? How about all them wars all over the place? You call them wonderful? And how about hunger and pollution? That aint so wonderful either." Well how about listening to old Pops for a minute. Seems to me, it ain't the world that's so bad but what we're doin' to it. And all I'm saying is, see, what a wonderful world it would be if only we'd give it a chance. Love baby, love. That's the secret, yeah. If lots more of us loved each other, we'd solve lots more problems. And then this world would be a gasser. That's wha' ol' Pops keeps saying.
** Spoken intro to "What a Wonderful World" (1970 version)
* The way they're treating my people in the South, the government can go to hell.
** As quoted in The New York Times (19 September 1957)]
* Making money ain't nothing exciting to me. ... You might be able to buy a little better booze than some wino on the corner. But you get sick just like the next cat, and when you die you're just as graveyard dead as he is.
** Ebony magazine, November 1964
* If you still have to ask, shame on you
** Armstrong's response to the question what jazz is, cited by Max Jones et. al.: "Salute to Satchmo", I.P.C. Specialist & Professional Press Ltd 1970, page 25
** Often misquoted as "Man, if you gotta ask you'll never know." Oxford Dictionary of Modern Quotations (third edition)

## Quotes about Armstrong

* True revolution in music took place, as far as I can see it, took place only a few times, three times in this century. One was the revolution that took place aided and abetted if not instigated by Louis Armstrong. Louis Armstrong did something with the trumpet that had never been done. Things that have become so casual, so common to our ears now, Louis Armstrong introduced.
** Maya Angelou, 1977 interview in Conversations with Maya Angelou (1989)
* When Louis Armstrong, according to a few of his biographies, came to Chicago he was wearing a suit, the pants of which were about three inches too short, his white socks showed, he had these brogans on and he wore a derby hat. He got up on the stage and all the musicians laughed until he started to play. When he finished playing, the next day all the musicians went out and bought some pants three inches too short, some white socks and some brogan shoes and a derby hat, you understand. Louis Armstrong was on J-and never got off his J-never, never stopped. I mean for all intents and purposes, died with his trumpet in his hand. So did Duke Ellington, all those people who inspire one, who inspire me. Duke was still going on the road right up till the last. Louis Armstrong still on the road till the very last. I appreciate that, I respect it and I am grateful for it. I am grateful, in the name of my grandson I am grateful.
** Maya Angelou, 1977 interview in Conversations with Maya Angelou (1989)
* When you're sick [due to drug withdrawal], music is a great help. Once in Texas, I kicked a [heroin] habit on weed, a pint of paregoric, and a few Louis Armstrong records.
** William S. Burroughs, Junky (1953), Chapter 12
* I once had a drink with Billie Holiday, and I smoked a joint with Louis Armstrong. Those are my real claims to fame.
** John Chamberlain Art Is the Highest Form of Hope & Other Quotes by Artists by Phaidon (2016) p 144
* Louis ... was marvelous to be with. He had tremendous warmth, appeal. And I idolized him, not only for how great he was singing and playing, but for himself. ... I used to get postcards from him [from] all over the world. ... He went to every accessible place in the world.
** Bing Crosby, Pop Chronicles Interviews #133 recorded 1971 July 8.
* He was the only musician who ever lived, who can't be replaced by someone.
** Bing Crosby, as quoted in The Big Band Almanac (1989) by Leo Walker, p. 12
* I like Louis! Anything he does is all right. I don't know about his statements, though. I can do without them.
** Miles Davis, in one of DownBeat's "Blindfold Test" columns, circa 1957; as quoted in The Encyclopedia of Jazz (1960) by Leonard Feather, p. 477
* You know you can't play anything on a horn that Louis hasn't played — I mean even modern. … I love his approach to the trumpet; he never sounds bad. He plays on the beat and you can't miss when you play on the beat — with feeling. That's another phrase for swing.
** Miles Davis, to Nat Hentoff in 1958, as quoted in Milestones : The Music and Times of Miles Davis (1998) by Jack Chambers, p. 209
* I loved and respected Louis Armstrong. He was born poor, died rich, and never hurt anyone along the way.
** Duke Ellington, Music Is My Mistress (1973), p. 236; as quoted in The World of Jazz Trumpet : A Comprehensive History & Practical Philosophy (2005) by Scotty Barnhart, p. 236
* I knew Louis well, he had his crazy little habits. Everyone thinks he was a druggie, but he wasn't. After every concert, he would put on a stocking cap, then he'd have his bottle of Pluto water, orange juice, Serutan and a joint. This was his formula; in fact, he used to post the recipe on bulletin boards, calling it "The Road to Good Health."
** Mitch Miller, in "Mitch Miller Remembers," The Chicago Tribune (November 15, 1987), Sec. 13, p. 17
* My most revered idols as a kid growing up were Louis Armstrong and... Duke Ellington. When I got into the record business... the first recordings I made with him were for Morris Levy's Roulette label. Louis... made my dream come truer: he brought in his little band—five pieces—and agreed to use a friend of mine on piano, Duke Ellington!
** Bob Thiele, What a Wonderful World: A Lifetime of Recordings (1995) Oxford University Press
* [I]n the mid-60s during the deepening national traumas of the Kennedy assassination, Vietnam, racial strife, and turmoil everywhere, my co-writer George David Weiss and I had an idea to write a "different" song specifically for Louis Armstrong... "What a Wonderful World". We wanted this immortal musician and performer to say, as only he could, the world really is great... At the time Louis's "Hello Dolly" was the biggest hit record in the country and... Armstrong was a bigger star than at any previous moment in his career. As he was constantly on tour... I went to Joe Glazer, ...Louis's manager ...With Glazer's permission and a small children's portable phonograph... I went down to Washington D.C. ...Between shows I auditioned our number ...Armstrong said, "Pops, I dig it. Let's do it! (Of course, we called him "Pops," and he called everybody "Pops.") ...Louis agreed to record it for minimum union scale (...$250 at the time)...
** Bob Thiele, What a Wonderful World: A Lifetime of Recordings (1995) Oxford University Press
* The then president of ...ABC Records ...Larry Newton ...showed up at the recording session ...screamed at me that I had to be crazy to record a ballad with strings as the follow-up to "Hello Dolly" ...Finally he wanted to cancel the date and fire the musicians and me. ...[A]ll I could do to convince Newton to momentarily leave the control room... was to tell him he would go down in history as the only man who ever threw Louis Armstrong out of a recording studio. ...[A]lmost immediately ...Newton tried to storm back into the studio. ...Frank Military ...became a human barricade ...The ensuing door-pounding ...caused Frank ...to actually begin crying and plead, "You can't do this to Louis and Bob." Miraculously ...the recording of one of the most optimistic songs ever written was completed. ...[T]he record ...in the United States ...personally sabotaged by ...Newton, was a disaster. ...In England however, it became #1 ...[and] outsold both the Rolling Stones and the Beatles. It also started to become a hit in many ...European countries and ...South Africa. The EMI Corporation ...sent a telegram to ...Newton ...MUST HAVE WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD ALBUM, which meant... eight more songs in the same style... Joe Glazer advised me to forget it unless Newton paid Louis Armstrong a then undreamed-of $25,000, advance... When the pressure ...finally caused Newton to relent... Louis Armstrong completed one of the best-selling albums of his lifetime and again, posthumously, when the original single became the centerpiece of... Good Morning Vietnam...
** Bob Thiele, What a Wonderful World: A Lifetime of Recordings (1995) Oxford University Press
* In jazz, all roads lead back to Louis Armstrong. He is the supreme example of the vitality of the past animating and challenging the present. Trumpeter Art Farmer acknowledged him as ‘still the mark people go after when it comes to sheer emotion speaking through music’, and the contemporary British star Guy Barker declared that any jazz lacking the Armstrong spirit was ‘going to be missing a lot’. [...] Besides his startling playing, Armstrong’s unique scat vocals brought a new dimension to improvisation: a piece like ‘Heebie Jeebies’ seems an outpouring of pure joy, a song that doesn’t need words to convey its rhythmic and melodic gusto. And on the magnificent ‘West End Blues’. his trumpet and vocal powers combine to produce a masterpiece of searing emotion.
** Geoffrey Smith of BBC Music (March 19, 2024)

## External links

* Louis Armstrong Quotes
* Louis Armstrong Quotes and Tributes (Satchmo.com)