Archive Record
Images
Metadata
Catalog Number |
1987.3.0392 |
Title |
[Reel-to-reel tape recorded by Louis Armstrong] |
Object Type |
Tape |
Collection |
Louis Armstrong Collection |
Description |
Scope: Louis talks with Velma Middleton and friends backstage at the Chicago Theater. Recordings of Sound Recordings. All College conference honoring Louis. Recording of Mary Lou Williams recording, "Music for Peace". "The Miracle Mets" documentary. Recording of Dizzy Gillespie album. Contents (as on compact disc reference copy): Disc 1, Track 1: Louis talks with friends (Velma Middleton, Sheik Pittman, Miss Sterling, Ernest Smith, and others) backstage at the Chicago Theater in 1954 (same conversation can be heard at 2003.197.13): man tells a story about a man and woman fighting; Velma Middleton tells a joke about a piano player; Liberace is mentioned; Track 2: talk about cigarettes; Louis is using a cigarette holder that Velma says is ”cute” and good for him; Louis makes a joke about his doctor telling him to stop smoking for his asthma so he figured the cigarette holder will keep the smoke farther away; Louis says he’s coughing but that was just a joke to get ”a belly laugh”; Louis mentions a ”sonbitch” trying to get him to stop ”smoking reefers”; Velma shouts to let him know that the tape recorder is on; ”What the fuck, it’s my tape!” Louis responds and says they might as well throw the tape out the window if he can’t say what he wants; says the tape is for his kicks, to put on in Corona and listen to ”while high as a bitch”; Louis relates a scene in ”Shuffle Along”; Velma tells him how great Louis’s tape of his Yokohama, New Year’s Eve December 31, 1953 broadcast was; Velma says it gave her ”goose pimples”; Track 3: ”Jack” taped it and brought it; Louis complains about how ”Jack” records and how Louis has to use a microphone to pick it up and correct the speed; Velma praises Kenny John’s drum solo and remembers what else was played (”Stompin’ at the Savoy,” ”C’est Si Bon,” ”Margie” and more); Velma says their duet is edited out; calls the whole broadcast ”beautiful”; Velma tells a joke about ”Yokohama”; talk about war and ”what the hell are they fighting about?”; Track 4: Louis talks about Truman saying ”We’re not in war here”; Hiram Myers mentions he was born and raised a democrat; Velma compliments Doc Pugh on his shorts; talk about what they wear in Japan; Myers has to leave because he has to get up early; everyone questions why he’s leaving; Louis tells him he’s ”full of shit”; Myers defends himself but Louis isn’t happy, saying they all stayed there for him; Myers says he’ll be back the next night; Louis says the owner of the Chicago Theater took the key out of the door and told them to stay as long as they wanted; Myers says, ”Don’t make me cry”; Velma says she would have left but stayed because she heard Hi was going to be there; they talk about the deal Myers has to close the following day at work; Velma mentions a joke about bells that she has to tell Myers the following night; Louis tells a joke about a guy smuggling a dog on an airplane; Myers tells a joke about an unmarried woman upset with her job; Myers’s joke gets silence, followed by laughter and Myers saying good night; keep saying ”one nine,” in reference to the deal Myers is trying to close; Velma mentions they went on early that night; Louis says he’s wide awake; a glass breaks; [tape starts sounding a little warped from the middle of this track through track 9]; Track 5: Louis talks about a woman there playing ”hard to get” for Louis; Louis complains and says that married life is ”nicer”; a friend asks what round Louis won in; Louis quotes her as saying ”American men don’t know how to make love”; Pittman tells a joke about a man and woman having sex and the woman saying, ”enough with the preliminaries, let’s get on with the main bout”; Louis mentions the Irish Channel; talk about sex; Louis talks about how some ”ignorant” black men beat their women; Louis mentions ”Timmie” with a woman three or four times a day; Velma mentions asking sexual questions to Timmie and impersonates his laugh, calling him a ”square”; Louis mentions a time in Canada when a woman ”buried her face in snow” to keep Louis from leaving; Timmie asked, ”What did you do to that gal, Pops?”; Velma quotes her watching Louis playing the trumpet, saying, ”That’s my darling, oh, my Daddy”; Velma again calls him such a square; friend tells a joke about a black man getting arrested; Velma says she has to go; Louis’s friend says they got a lot on this reel and he can’t wait to play it back; Track 6: Velma talks about the schedule of shows; Velma talks about someone (Louis?) buying a ”Ben Hogan” cap in Canada; Velma talks about someone named ”Youngblood” who puts black makeup on even though he’s light-skinned; Pittman relays the request of someone who invited Louis and Lucille to dinner for a Creole dinner; Louis says he can’t because by the time he gets back home, it’s 7 or 8:00 in the morning; mentions at the Blue Note, they don’t start until 9:30; friend says the Blue Note closed but Middleton and Louis says they found a new place and are reopening; Velma shows Louis a picture of someone; Louis admires it; Velma quotes someone [Tommy Jones?] saying they like their tape recorder better than their Cadillac; Louis says you have to brush up on your diction and learn to say big words; Pittman says he’s going to buy one; Louis says to put it behind his bed so he can hear ”that chick grunt”; Pittman lost his two front teeth but won’t get temporaries, as requested by Velma; Louis says he has a temporary bridge and when he gets a real one from Dr. Gottlieb, you can hit it with a hammer and it won’t move; [last 30 seconds stars warping badly and track ends in mid-conversation]; Track 7: Recordings of Louis Armstrong sound recordings: ”Chinatown, My Chinatown”; Track 8: ”Stardust”; Track 9: ”You Can Depend on Me”; Track 10: ”Georgia on My Mind”; Track 11: ”Lonesome Blues”. Track 12: Live recording from Storyville Club in Boston (1953); All-College Conference on the arts in America dinner honoring Louis: ”When it’s Sleepy Time Down South”; Louis introduces the tape; Track 13: microphone is given to George Wein; George make opening remarks; introduces Nat Hentoff; Track 14: Nat makes opening remarks; talks about Downbeat Hall of Fame award to Louis; thanks Louis for ”All the kicks”; Track 15: Louis thanks everyone; mentions Myra Menville and a picture of Leon Rappollo; Louis tells a dirty joke about a hamburger; Track 16: George Wein introduces the Chairman of the New England All College Conference, Richard T. Watson of Harvard University; Track 17: Watson makes a speech about the conference and introduces Jim Randall of Boston University; Randall acknowledges Father O’Conner of Boston University and others on the committee; Track 18: audio recording of Tallulah Bankhead congratulating Louis, and reads a quote from an article she wrote for Ebony Magazine; Track 19: Watson presents a scroll to Louis; Track 20: Louis makes an acceptance speech, thanks everyone; ”Struttin’ with Some Barbecue.” Disc 2, Tracks 1-10: Recording of Mary Lou Williams recording, ”Music for Peace”: ”Prologue”; Track 2: ”Entrance Hymn - The Lord Says”; Track 3: ”Kyrie”; Track 4: ”Gloria”; Track 5: ”Responsorial (In His Day, Peace I Leave With You, Alleluia)"; "Creed"; "Turn Away from Evil, Holy, Holy, Holy"; Track 6: ”Our Father/Communion Psalm”; Track 7: ”People in Trouble"; Track 8: ”Lazarus”; Track 9: ”The World" Track 10: ”Praise the Lord”. Track 11: Documentary, ”The Miracle Mets”. Tracks 12-16: Recording of Dizzy Gillespie recording, ”The Real Thing”: ”N’Bani”; Track 13: ”Matrix”; Track 14: ”Alligator”; Track 15: ”Closer” (vocal); Track 16: "Closer" (instrumental) (incomplete). |
Tape Information |
Reel 92 according to ”Tape Catalog #2, Part 1” (see Manuscripts, 1987.2.23) |
People |
Bankhead, Tallulah Gillespie, Dizzy Hentoff, Nat Menville, Myra Middleton, Velma Pittman, Shiek Randall, Jim Roppolo, Leon Smith, Ernest Wein, George Williams, Mary Lou |
Search Terms |
Blue Note (nightclub) Boston Chicago Ebony (magazine) Japan Jokes New Orleans Tape recordings, Audio |
Year Range from |
1970 |
Year Range to |
1971 |
Creator |
Louis Armstrong |
Caption |
1987.3.392 Front |
Accession number |
1987.3 |