Louis Armstrong on Independence Day

Ricky Riccardi, one of our leading Armstrong scholars, is hesitant to celebrate August 4th as Louis’s birthday. Riccardi gives reasons to doubt the accuracy of August 4th¹, but greater weight to the views of Louis’s mother and sister. For them, as it was for Louis, Armstrong’s birthday was July 4th.

On this Independence Day the world of politics and power games gives ample reason to fear, to despair, to hang our head and glumly do whatever it is we think we’re doing. Celebrating can feel deeply wrong. In fact, enjoying anything can feel wildly inappropriate.

In NYC, Zohran Mamdani is poised to become mayor. Wariness pervades— many sensible and smart people are unsure, hesitant about what this portends. Some think that a vote for Mamdani was an emotional choice, not based in practicality. But surely there’s some wisdom in voting for the person who isn’t a scandal-plagued political scion and is authentically charismatic, popular, and a leftist! There is more to governing than pragmatism.

I was in Pittsburgh, on tour with Caleb Wheeler Curtis and Noah Garabedian in Ember, when Mamdani clinched the nomination. Of course we were thrilled. The whole tour, I had Louis Armstrong on my mind. As Riccardi shows, from the late Thirties, until his death in 1971, Louis was on tour quite literally year-round, with over 200 dates a year— as spreads the word, round the world and coast to coast, Armstrong is a figure of joy and resilience. We were, in our small way, walking in his footsteps.

Riccardi’s monumental three volumes—What A Wonderful World² Heart Full Of Rhythm, and Stomp Off Let’s Go— beyond being informative and wonderful, paint a picture of a fierce, uncompromising, joyful, and hopeful musician. Nothing could keep Armstrong down— personal troubles, changing trends, gangsters, deep-boned, violent, society-wide racism, and the typical vagaries that come with being a popular entertainer. Nothing. Armstrong was going to sing his songs, play his horn, and put a smile on your face no matter what. He believed in what he was doing. He needed to give us his music.

So, on this birthday of our deeply troubled political organization, I’m also celebrating the birth of Louis Armstrong. Armstrong is as purely American as anything could be, and his music is what we need. There is poetry in this date.

The day is beautiful and I’m headed to a party. I’m in Louis’s world.

1. According to Riccardi, whoever entered August 4th on the parish baptism registry noting Armstrong’s birth was known to have gotten several of birthdays wrong, including listing an August date for a man we know was born in June!

2. I’m only about a third of the way through of What A Wonderful World; the other two volumes I finished this spring. I’ll be writing about Armstrong, Sid Catlett, and Riccardi’s great books later this summer.