[78-L] Louis Armstrong

[Steven C. Barr]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Cary Ginell" <soundthink at live.com>
> 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.
>
In fact, as a blues fan and sometime blues performer, I have always been 
convinced that Robert Johnson
is vastly over-rated! It just happened that prior to the "British Blues 
Revival" of the sixties, Johnson's
CBS compilation was essentially the only easily-found source for 
acoustically-played blues available.
IMHO, Bill Broonzy's recordings of the same era are much more interesting; 
he was developing the
"small combo" approach to blues, as "Big Bill and his Chicago Five," during 
the same period!

Steven C. Barr