Mel on Louis

So I'm on a Mel Torme jag. Sue me.

I'm reading his book My Singing Teachers: Reflections on Singing Popular Music (Oxford University Press, no less, 1994), which includes this anecdote about Louis Armstrong:

I got to know Louis over the years and found him to be a warmhearted, loving man. He had a great pride in himself and his accomplishments, particularly his role as unofficial goodwill ambassador from America to the world.

He had a great sense of humor, sometimes biting, sometimes self-deprecating. I remember once, when I was playing the Paramount theater in New York, he came bounding up the stairs to say hello to some musicians on the floor above my dressing room. I yelled at him: “Hey Louis, what's happening?”

He bounced back into my doorway, grinned that Chinese grin of his, and said: “White folks still in the lead.”

Next book in the stack: Terry Teachout's Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong.

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[Photo of Armstrong from 1946 by William P. Gottlieb from the Gottlieb Collection at the Library of Congress Flickr Feed.]

The Gottlieb Jazz Photo Collection on Flickr

Stumbled upon a treasure trove the other day. According to the Library of Congress Flickr stream, "In accordance with the wishes of William Gottlieb, the photographs in this collection entered into the public domain on February 16, 2010." Well, hallelujah.

Gottlieb covered the jazz scene in New York for Downbeat from 1938-48, when jazz was king. Many of his subjects have since become icons of American culture: Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, and that skinny Sinatra kid. One of my favorites of this first batch is a shot of a very young Miles Davis brooding in the background while Coleman Hawkins takes a solo.

The first 200 or so are now up, with more to come every month until all 1600 are online. Here's a slide show link to the collection:



Or you can go here to see for yourself. Either way, it will be time well spent.