Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Winter 2005-2006 - (Page 10)

LOUISIANA STATE MUSEUM above: Fate Marable’s New Orleans Band poses aboard the S.S. Capitol, c. 1919. Armstrong credited the Marable band with “breaking down barriers on the Mississippi — barriers set up by Jim Crow.” opposite page: Louis Armstrong and Arvell Shaw visit Tony Almerico’s WJMR radio show, 1952. Armstrong (seated, in front) and All Stars bassist Arvell Shaw (standing, third from right) are welcomed warmly by the crowd of musicians and members of the New Orleans Jazz Club at trumpeter/disc jockey Tony Almerico’s WJMR radio broadcast during Armstrong’s 1952 visit to New Orleans. ship with the city as an expatriate and visitor. In his later years Armstrong performed “Do You Know What it Means (to Miss New Orleans)” from the 1947 movie New Orleans, in which he starred. Certainly, he held many fond memories of the city — as expressed in the song’s romantic lyrics — yet he continuously felt shame toward the injustice of racism and Jim Crow in New Orleans. As Armstrong returned to the city numerous times after 1922, his visits often involved the same indignities that he experienced while touring the rest of the American South. During his first return in the summer of 1931, he attempted to give a free concert for the city’s African Americans. After the crowd had assembled, officials canceled the concert, and the National Guard, with bayonets, forced the disappointed fans to retreat. Armstrong allegedly wept bitterly as he drove away from the scene, and the incident was one of many that left him upset about the city’s poor race relations. Louisiana, like all southern states, maintained segregation on the books from the 1890s to the 1960s, and New Orleans officials would often enforce segregation laws despite Armstrong’s growing celebrity after the mid-1920s, when he became a nationally recognized recording artist and entertainer. Yet there were occasions when his presence caused the lines of segregation to be blurred. The Louisiana State Museum’s Jazz Collection photographs document some of these instances. In 1947 Armstrong visited the city with his new band, the All Stars, to play a concert at the Municipal Auditorium. This combo, which he formed at the end of World War II, featured drummer Big Sid Catlett, bassist Arvell Shaw, clarinetist and New Orleans native Barney Bigard, and white trombonist Jack Teagarden. The presence of Teagarden made the All Stars an integrated band and somewhat of an anomaly in those years. During periods of racial 10 LOUISIANA ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES\Winter 2005-06

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Winter 2005-2006

Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Winter 2005 Contents Letters Editor’s Column Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities Louisiana State Museum After Katrina: “It’s time somebody woke us us up.” Missing New Orleans On Perilous Ground The Buildings of Louisiana (Architectural History by Karen Kingsley) Historic New Orleans Collection Louisiana Association of Museums Back to New Orleans Diary of a Displaced Person Jazz Notes (Music History by Bruce Raeburn) Cradle of the Stars The Terrible and the Brave Bookstand (Book Review by Thomas Uskali) Sound Advice (Music Review by Ben Sandmel) Forum (Commentary by James Lee Burke)

Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Winter 2005-2006

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