Photo: Louis Armstrong | CBS News – Sunday Morning | He answered to “Pops,” “Satchmo,” and “Louie.” But he called himself Louis. Documentary filmmaker Sacha Jenkins and jazz pianist Jason Moran have been immersed in Louis Armstrong’s recordings and artifacts for years. They go with “Louis” as well. “Yeah, man. I have too much respect for that guy,” said Jenkins.
Moran is the curator of the new Louis Armstrong Center in Queens, New York. Among the artifacts on display: Armstrong’s first passport, from 1932, and his last, dated 1967. Moran noted the passport photos: “One very plaintive, but then the one at the end is like, ‘I had a ball!'”
Armstrong liked to say that he was born on the 4th of July, but he was actually born on August 4, 1901. “This idea that many African Americans were still patriotic, in spite of the way America treated them, is something I think that’s really important for people to understand about Louis Armstrong,” said Jenkins.
In his documentary, “Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues,” Jenkins explores how Armstrong, and his trumpet, navigated Prohibition, the Great Depression, world wars, and the civil rights era. “You’re the most famous person in the world, and you’re Black, but there’s still places you can’t go?” he said. “That must have been a real mind trick.”
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https://www.cbsnews.com/news/remembering-louis-armstrong/
CBS News – Remembering Louis Armstrong
