Um nochmal kurz auf Zappas Nachfrage zurückkzukommen und weil die Scheibe nach gestern Nacht jetzt schon wieder läuft… es ist ein eigenartiges Ding, irgendwo zwischen MOR, Pop, Gospel, ein paar Prisen Jazz dazu… für Decca 1958 aufgenommen, 2001 in der vorbildlichen Verve Master Edition neu auf CD erschienen.
Auf dem Cover steht „Louis Armstrong with the Sy Oliver Choir and The All Stars“. Der Chor ist in der Tat immer präsent, die All Stars dagegen um so weniger. Billy Kyle und Trummy Young sowie die Rhythmusgruppe (Mort Herbert und Barrett Deems) spielen zwar auf allen drei Sessions mit, auf der zweiten ist auch Edmond Hall dabei, aber zu hören sind sie kaum… Dave McRae und Hank d’Amico sind die Klarinettisten der ersten bzw. dritten Session, zudem spielen George Barnes auf der ersten und Everett Barksdale auf den beiden anderen Sessions Rhythmusgitarre und ein gewisser Nickie Tragg spielt auf allen eine altmodische aber zurückhaltende Orgel.
Das ganze ist wohl das perfekte Gospel-Alben für Heiden, Atheisten und andere seltsame Leute wie mich… ein paar Passagen aus Krin Gabbards Liner Notes für den 2001-Reissue:
Although the musical (…) selections all have roots in the uniquely American traditions of spirituals and gospe music, Armstrong does not always approach the material with extreme reverence. This collection may lead you to ask: Just how religious was he?
Late in life, when asked about his religion, Armstrong would say that he was raised a Baptist, always wore a Star of David around his neck, and was friends with the Pope. He could have added that he was baptized a Catholic, but he was probably not aware that he had received this sacrament, just as he was probably not aware that he had been born on August 4, 1901 rather than July 4, 1900. We know the facts now only because jazz researcher Tad Jones found Armstrong’s actual baptismal certificate at the Sacred Heart of Jesus Church on Lopez Street in New Orleans several years after Armstrong’s death. Armstrong’s mother, Mary Albert (better known as Mayann), was umarried and no more than sixteen years old when her only son was born, so she may have had good reason not to recall the exact circumstances of his birth.
It was probably Armstrong’s paternal grandmother, a Catholic, who took him to the Sacred Heart of Jesus Church to be christened. Armstrong was correct, however, when he said that his mother was a Baptist. In spite the fact – or because of the fact – that she was also a prostitute, she took young Louis to church on a few occasions, but it’s also likely that the boy wandered into services on his own a few times, perhaps to hear the music. For all practical purposes, however, Armstrong had little formal instruction in Christianity.
Armstrong wore a Star of David to remember the family of Russian Jews on whose coal wagon he had worked as a child. With the help of six-year-old Armstrong, Morris Karnofsky sold coal on the streets of New Orleanas (…) The Karnofskys even let Armstrong money to buy his first cornet.
(…)
As for popes, Armstrong met at least tow, Pius XII and Paul IV, during his years of world travel. He enjoyed telling friends of his meeting with a pope who asked if he and his wife had any children. „No, but we’re still wailing,“ he claimed to have said. The story may be apocryphal, especially in the light of several photographs that show Armstrong with an awe-struck expression in the company of a pope. But there is also a picture of Armstrong with Paul IV in Gary Giddins’s book Satchmo in which the trumpeter wears a more mischievous expression and seems entirely capable of sharing a bit of his ribald wit with the Pontiff.
Armstrong’s statement about a Baptist mother, the Star of David, and a friendship with the Pope is best understood as a religious disclaimer. But even if he had no serious investment in organized religion, Armstrong was capable of real spirituality, as many of the selections here make clear.
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"Don't play what the public want. You play what you want and let the public pick up on what you doin' -- even if it take them fifteen, twenty years." (Thelonious Monk) | Meine Sendungen auf Radio StoneFM: gypsy goes jazz, #164: Neuheiten aus dem Archiv, 10.6., 22:00 | Slow Drive to South Africa, #8: tba | No Problem Saloon, #30: tba