Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Winter 2005-2006 - (Page 9)

Marable’s band deserves credit for breaking down barriers on the Mississippi — barriers set up by Jim Crow,” because it was “the first colored band to play most of the towns at which we stopped, particularly the smaller ones.” According to Armstrong, “The ofays [white people] were not used to seeing colored boys blowing their horns and making fine music for them to dance by.” While the band “ran into some ugly experiences” on the bandstand and “had to listen to plenty of nasty remarks,” they kept “on swinging as though nothing had happened.” As Armstrong concluded triumphantly, “Before the evening was over they LOVED us. We couldn’t turn for them singing our praises and begging us to hurry back.” As early as 1919 along northern Mississippi River towns in Iowa, Illinois, and Minnesota, Armstrong served as an ambassador for jazz. Using music, this special band of emerging New Orleans all-star jazz musicians could disarm people emotionally on the stage and dance floor. Although they plied the waters on the northern Mississippi River — and out of the de jure Jim Crow South — the boats were still segregated. As such, the musicians were expected to adhere to the de facto rules of segregation, which meant that they were essentially part of the crew and not allowed to mingle with white passengers. While Armstrong never dwelled on this fact in Satchmo, his proud claim about the Marable band breaking racial barriers reveals his deep and personal concern with creating social harmony in times of tension. Armstrong and Jim Crow in New Orleans Armstrong left New Orleans for good in 1922 when he moved to Chicago to join King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band. But over the years he maintained an ambivalent relation- opposite page top: Louis Armstrong and His All Stars with the Basin Street Six, 1952. After city officials prohibited Jack Teagarden from performing with the All Stars following Armstrong’s reign as King Zulu in 1949, they declined to enforce segregation laws in his 1952 visit. Note that a young Pete Fountain (third from left) has his arm around All Star clarinetist and New Orleans native Barney Bigard. below: Louis Armstrong’s All Stars playing at the New Orleans Municipal Auditorium, 1947. Despite laws banning interracial music performances, city leaders looked the other way when Armstrong’s All Stars — featuring white trombonist Jack Teagarden — performed in 1947. photograph by Don Perry above: Louis Armstrong in New Orleans with his mother, Mayann (seated) and sister Beatrice, c. 1920 opposite page lower: Louis Armstrong’s cornet, c. 19131914. Winter 2005-06/LOUISIANA CULTURAL VISTAS 9

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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