The Not-So-Sunny Side of Louis Armstrong’s Legacy

Notes from America with Kai Wright

WNYC Studios

News Commentary, Politics, History, News

4.4 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 19 January 2023

⏱️ 19 minutes

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Summary

What made Louis Armstrong’s music so groundbreaking? And after he broke that ground, why were later generations of Black people reluctant to embrace him?

From his renditions of “On The Sunny Side Of The Street” to “What A Wonderful World,” trumpeter and vocalist Louis Armstrong is cemented in history as a jazz icon. But for many Black people – especially those in the mid-twentieth century – his presentation was degrading and received as minstrelsy for white audiences. Filmmaker Sacha Jenkins traces Amstrong’s complicated history as a Black artist in his most recent project and documentary, “Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues.” He joins host Kai Wright to discuss Armstrong’s relationship with music and the fans that struggled to embrace him.

Companion listening for this episode:

What Does Black Ambition Sound Like? (12/27/2021)

James Reese Europe was already famous when he enlisted to fight in World War I. But the band he took to the frontlines – as part of the famous 369th Infantry Regiment – thrust him and Black American music onto the global stage. Jazz pianist Jason Moran sits down at the piano to show Kai how Europe’s band changed music, and how jazz carries the resilient sound of Black history and ambition in America.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	It's Notes from America, I'm Kai Wright.
0:07.4	I remember when I first really heard Louis Armstrong, like really caught the feeling in
0:13.2	his trumpet.
0:14.2	I was in high school and for some reason I had a cassette of his maybe his greatest hits
0:18.7	I don't know, but it of course included his famous version of Sunny Side of the Street
0:24.2	with that crazy trumpet solo that just gripped me.
0:29.2	I also remember something about Louis Armstrong didn't quite sit right with me.
0:35.0	There was, you know, the big smile and the kind of bug-eyed look and just an overall style
0:40.7	and presentation that felt degrading, like minstrelsy aimed at white people.
0:46.9	I didn't know it at the time, but it turns out a lot of black people felt that way about
0:50.9	Armstrong and particular the generation that came of age right after him in the mid-20th
0:55.9	century alongside a new era of black politics and culture with just a very different vibe.
1:03.2	A conventional wisdom about him set in, but it's one that filmmaker Sasha Jenkins wants
1:08.5	to challenge.
1:10.2	Jenkins has spent decades chronicling black music in particular hip-hop as a writer and
1:15.1	as a filmmaker and his latest project is a documentary called Louis Armstrong's Black
1:20.3	and Blues.
1:21.8	The film aims to reveal a side of Armstrong that we haven't really seen and often using
1:27.3	Armstrong's own voice.
1:29.6	I spoke recently with Sasha Jenkins about the project and about how a guy who spent his
1:33.9	life focused on hip-hop started thinking about Louis Armstrong.
1:37.6	Well, the nice people that imagined Entertainment gave me a call and asked me if I'd be interested.
	...

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