[78-L] Louis Armstrong

[Cary Ginell]

One more point I should make regarding Louis Armstrong. In looking at copies of old jazz magazines from the '30s and '40s such as "Down Beat" and "The Record Changer," it came to me that unlike Robert Johnson, Armstrong was a legend during most of his lifetime. He was revered by musicians and record collectors even back then. Johnson didn't become famous until a quarter century after his death, when the Columbia reissue LPs came out and British rock guitarists started listening to him. Armstrong didn't need to die first to become a legend; he was living legend for most of his career. Even Bessie Smith was washed up in the early '30s - it took her tragic death for people to realize that she was more than just a big record seller in the 1920s.

Cary Ginell
 		 	   		  
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