WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.120 Picture this. A little boy is growing up in a 00:00:03.120 --> 00:00:05.860 neighborhood of New Orleans that is so violent 00:00:05.860 --> 00:00:09.279 and like so deeply impoverished that the locals 00:00:09.279 --> 00:00:12.380 literally call it the battlefield. Right. Now 00:00:12.380 --> 00:00:15.380 you fast forward a few decades and that exact 00:00:15.380 --> 00:00:18.800 same boy essentially invents the concept of the 00:00:18.800 --> 00:00:22.449 modern music solo. He completely rewrites the 00:00:22.449 --> 00:00:24.870 DNA of popular culture and this is the crazy 00:00:24.870 --> 00:00:27.769 part Eventually has his literal breath his rhythm 00:00:27.769 --> 00:00:30.570 launched into outer space to represent planet 00:00:30.570 --> 00:00:32.649 Earth Yeah, I mean it sounds like the plot of 00:00:32.649 --> 00:00:35.030 a movie that is severely stretching the truth 00:00:35.030 --> 00:00:38.090 You know told you but reading through this huge 00:00:38.090 --> 00:00:40.450 stack of historical and biographical sources 00:00:40.450 --> 00:00:43.789 We have today the reality is somehow even more 00:00:43.789 --> 00:00:45.850 unbelievable than the fiction. Welcome to today's 00:00:45.850 --> 00:00:48.520 deep dive To understand how a kid from the slums 00:00:48.520 --> 00:00:51.420 of New Orleans ends up on the Voyager space probe, 00:00:51.899 --> 00:00:54.159 we're taking this massive stack of source material 00:00:54.159 --> 00:00:56.560 to really strip away the caricature. Because 00:00:56.560 --> 00:00:58.359 we all know the image, right? Right, the greeting 00:00:58.359 --> 00:01:00.140 man with the trumpet, the white handkerchief, 00:01:00.539 --> 00:01:03.659 that famous gravelly voice. But we are going 00:01:03.659 --> 00:01:08.319 to uncover the complex, rebellious, and fascinatingly 00:01:08.319 --> 00:01:11.599 quirky genius hiding in plain sight. And we're 00:01:11.599 --> 00:01:14.120 doing this for you. the listener, to give you 00:01:14.120 --> 00:01:16.739 the ultimate shortcut to understanding the man 00:01:16.739 --> 00:01:19.620 behind the myth. And that myth is incredibly 00:01:19.620 --> 00:01:22.719 heavy. When someone becomes a global icon of 00:01:22.719 --> 00:01:25.319 that magnitude, the actual human being usually 00:01:25.319 --> 00:01:28.219 gets, well, kind of flattened out. Yeah, into 00:01:28.219 --> 00:01:32.120 a neat easily consumable symbol exactly but the 00:01:32.120 --> 00:01:34.579 human being detailed in these historical documents 00:01:34.579 --> 00:01:36.780 is infinitely more interesting than the symbol 00:01:36.780 --> 00:01:39.140 you see on a t -shirt okay let's unpack this 00:01:39.140 --> 00:01:40.819 starting with the very beginning of that myth 00:01:40.819 --> 00:01:43.799 making because louis armstrong had a real flair 00:01:43.799 --> 00:01:46.579 for legend building right from birth or well 00:01:46.579 --> 00:01:48.359 the date of his birth anyway oh yeah for his 00:01:48.359 --> 00:01:50.340 entire life he told everyone he was born on july 00:01:50.340 --> 00:01:53.659 4th 1900 like an all -american boy born on independence 00:01:53.659 --> 00:01:55.719 day exactly at the turn of the century which 00:01:55.719 --> 00:01:57.959 is just an absolute master class in branding 00:01:57.959 --> 00:02:00.579 for American icon. It really is. But the historical 00:02:00.579 --> 00:02:02.959 baptismal records show he was actually born on 00:02:02.959 --> 00:02:05.640 August 4th 1901. So right out of the gate we 00:02:05.640 --> 00:02:09.039 see this fascinating blending of historical fact 00:02:09.039 --> 00:02:12.340 and self -created legend. He really understood 00:02:12.340 --> 00:02:15.180 the power of good story. But before he could 00:02:15.180 --> 00:02:18.060 spin those stories, or even revolutionize music, 00:02:18.759 --> 00:02:21.860 he simply had to survive the battlefield. He's 00:02:21.860 --> 00:02:24.879 raised mostly by his mother, Mary Albert, in 00:02:24.879 --> 00:02:27.919 extreme poverty. And this brutal environment 00:02:27.919 --> 00:02:30.780 actually leads to a series of highly unlikely 00:02:30.780 --> 00:02:33.629 foundational influences. Specifically, there's 00:02:33.629 --> 00:02:36.430 this really deep, unexpected connection to the 00:02:36.430 --> 00:02:38.650 Karnowskis. Yeah, the Karnowskis were a local 00:02:38.650 --> 00:02:41.550 family of Lithuanian Jewish immigrants. And Armstrong 00:02:41.550 --> 00:02:43.169 goes to work for them when he's just a little 00:02:43.169 --> 00:02:45.550 kid, maybe like seven years old. Wow, that young. 00:02:45.909 --> 00:02:48.030 Yeah, he's helping their sons collect rags and 00:02:48.030 --> 00:02:50.289 bones and deliver coal around town in a wagon. 00:02:50.969 --> 00:02:52.689 But what's crucial to understand here is that 00:02:52.689 --> 00:02:55.330 the Karnowskis saw this fatherless boy, and they 00:02:55.330 --> 00:02:57.370 actively took him in. They fed him at their table. 00:02:57.430 --> 00:02:59.469 They nurtured him. There is a really touching 00:02:59.469 --> 00:03:02.360 detail in the sources where they would sing Russian 00:03:02.360 --> 00:03:05.599 lullaby together when putting the Karnofsky baby 00:03:05.599 --> 00:03:08.159 to sleep. Yeah, Armstrong later credited that 00:03:08.159 --> 00:03:10.800 specific family with teaching him to sing from 00:03:10.800 --> 00:03:13.539 the heart. And, you know, they gave him emotional 00:03:13.539 --> 00:03:15.680 support, but also critical practical support. 00:03:15.780 --> 00:03:18.900 The cornet, right? Exactly. When he saw a little 00:03:18.900 --> 00:03:21.960 tin horn, just a battered cornet and a pawn shop 00:03:21.960 --> 00:03:25.080 window, Morris Karnofsky actually advanced him 00:03:25.080 --> 00:03:27.120 the money to buy it. That is incredible. And 00:03:27.120 --> 00:03:29.319 he clearly never forgot that he wrote a memoir. 00:03:29.580 --> 00:03:32.099 later in life specifically about his time with 00:03:32.099 --> 00:03:35.599 them, noting how he witnessed the intense discrimination 00:03:35.599 --> 00:03:37.699 they faced from other white people in the community. 00:03:37.879 --> 00:03:40.500 Yeah, he felt that deeply. He actually wore a 00:03:40.500 --> 00:03:42.419 star of David around his neck for the rest of 00:03:42.419 --> 00:03:44.680 his life to honor them. It really highlights 00:03:44.680 --> 00:03:47.560 how absorbent he was as a child, taking in different 00:03:47.560 --> 00:03:49.599 cultures, different struggles, and finding this 00:03:49.599 --> 00:03:52.479 profound empathy. But, you know, empathy alone 00:03:52.479 --> 00:03:54.500 doesn't shield you from a volatile environment. 00:03:54.759 --> 00:03:57.520 No, it really doesn't. And that volatility explodes 00:03:57.520 --> 00:04:01.840 on New Year's Eve, 1912. Armstrong is 11 or 12 00:04:01.840 --> 00:04:04.460 years old, and he borrows his stepfather's gun. 00:04:04.659 --> 00:04:07.400 Always a bad idea. Right. He goes out into the 00:04:07.400 --> 00:04:09.919 street, fires a blank into the air to celebrate 00:04:09.919 --> 00:04:13.439 the new year, and promptly gets arrested. He 00:04:13.439 --> 00:04:16.079 spends the night in juvenile court and is sentenced 00:04:16.079 --> 00:04:19.199 to a place called the Colored Waves Home. And 00:04:19.199 --> 00:04:21.879 this facility was incredibly Spartan. We are 00:04:21.879 --> 00:04:24.639 talking no mattresses, meals consisting of just 00:04:24.639 --> 00:04:26.620 bread and molasses. And it was run essentially 00:04:26.620 --> 00:04:30.120 like a military boot camp. Geez. Yeah, with corporal 00:04:30.120 --> 00:04:33.000 punishment administered by a captain, Joseph 00:04:33.000 --> 00:04:36.160 Jones. But here is the massive twist in the story. 00:04:36.620 --> 00:04:39.600 It's also where he gets his first formal music 00:04:39.600 --> 00:04:42.759 training. Yes. A man named Peter Davis teaches 00:04:42.759 --> 00:04:45.360 him to play the cornet properly and eventually 00:04:45.360 --> 00:04:47.680 makes him the bandleader. It makes me think of 00:04:47.680 --> 00:04:50.060 this place as an accidental conservatory. Oh, 00:04:50.060 --> 00:04:52.379 I like that. You have this raw, brilliant street 00:04:52.379 --> 00:04:55.279 kid and suddenly he's locked in a highly disciplined 00:04:55.279 --> 00:04:57.819 space where he has absolutely nothing to do but 00:04:57.819 --> 00:04:59.620 hone a talent that is going to change the world. 00:04:59.800 --> 00:05:02.399 That's a perfect way to look at it. The strict 00:05:02.399 --> 00:05:05.019 discipline of the Wave's home band provided the 00:05:05.019 --> 00:05:07.920 rigid structure his raw talent desperately needed. 00:05:08.660 --> 00:05:10.959 But obviously, once he's released, that talent 00:05:10.959 --> 00:05:13.639 requires a much larger stage. I mean, he couldn't 00:05:13.639 --> 00:05:15.660 stay in New Orleans forever if he was going to 00:05:15.660 --> 00:05:17.879 evolve. So he takes his horn to the water. He 00:05:17.879 --> 00:05:21.079 moves up to the riverboats in the late 1910s, 00:05:21.199 --> 00:05:23.379 playing with a bandleader named Fate Marable 00:05:23.379 --> 00:05:26.709 on the Mississippi River. The source is quote, 00:05:26.850 --> 00:05:29.370 Armstrong calling this going to the university 00:05:29.370 --> 00:05:32.069 because Marable forced him to learn how to sight 00:05:32.069 --> 00:05:35.050 read music. And this represents a massive mechanical 00:05:35.050 --> 00:05:37.829 leap in his playing. He is taking the highly 00:05:37.829 --> 00:05:40.569 intuitive play by ear style of the New Orleans 00:05:40.569 --> 00:05:43.750 streets and being forced to marry it to formal 00:05:43.750 --> 00:05:45.910 written musical arrangements. Like learning the 00:05:45.910 --> 00:05:47.750 grammar of music. Exactly. He's learning the 00:05:47.750 --> 00:05:50.449 underlying math of it. And by 1922, his mentor, 00:05:50.610 --> 00:05:53.290 King Oliver, invites him to Chicago to join his 00:05:53.290 --> 00:05:55.800 Creole jazz band. Chicago was just booming at 00:05:55.800 --> 00:05:58.379 this point. But reading about these legendary 00:05:58.379 --> 00:06:01.879 1923 Genet record sessions, it totally shattered 00:06:01.879 --> 00:06:04.199 my illusion. How so? Well, we always picture 00:06:04.199 --> 00:06:06.920 early jazz recordings as these glamorous smoky 00:06:06.920 --> 00:06:09.879 studio moments. But the technical reality was 00:06:09.879 --> 00:06:12.180 a nightmare of terrible acoustics and really 00:06:12.180 --> 00:06:14.660 crude equipment. Oh, absolutely. We have to remember, 00:06:15.000 --> 00:06:17.459 this was the era of true acoustic recording. 00:06:17.660 --> 00:06:20.500 Electronic microphones didn't even exist yet. 00:06:20.560 --> 00:06:23.420 Right. The band literally stood in a room and 00:06:23.420 --> 00:06:26.399 played as loudly as they could into a giant cone 00:06:26.399 --> 00:06:29.639 -shaped funnel. That funnel concentrated the 00:06:29.639 --> 00:06:32.459 sound waves to physically vibrate a needle which 00:06:32.459 --> 00:06:35.759 carved grooves directly onto a spinning wax master 00:06:35.759 --> 00:06:38.879 disc. And here is where Armstrong's sheer physical 00:06:38.879 --> 00:06:41.959 power becomes a problem. His plane was so incredibly 00:06:41.959 --> 00:06:44.379 loud. He was completely overpowering King Oliver 00:06:44.379 --> 00:06:47.060 on the wax Yeah, the engineers literally had 00:06:47.060 --> 00:06:50.079 to banish Armstrong 15 feet away into the far 00:06:50.079 --> 00:06:52.480 corner of the room. Yes Wait, they literally 00:06:52.480 --> 00:06:54.420 put their star player in the corner. Like he 00:06:54.420 --> 00:06:56.939 was in timeout. How does band even stay in sync 00:06:56.939 --> 00:07:00.069 like that barely? He had to watch the other musicians 00:07:00.069 --> 00:07:02.230 closely to stay on the beat because he was so 00:07:02.230 --> 00:07:04.149 physically removed from the group. But it's such 00:07:04.149 --> 00:07:07.250 a perfect metaphor for his talent. He was fundamentally 00:07:07.250 --> 00:07:09.750 too big, too powerful to be contained in the 00:07:09.750 --> 00:07:12.290 background of an ensemble. And the person who 00:07:12.290 --> 00:07:14.509 really recognized that wasn't Armstrong himself. 00:07:14.889 --> 00:07:18.930 It was his second wife. Yes, Lil Hardin is so 00:07:18.930 --> 00:07:21.129 crucial here. She was the piano player in Oliver's 00:07:21.129 --> 00:07:24.509 band and she realizes her new husband is playing 00:07:24.509 --> 00:07:27.470 second fiddle out of misplaced loyalty when he 00:07:27.470 --> 00:07:29.930 should absolutely be the main attraction. She 00:07:29.930 --> 00:07:32.949 was classically trained, incredibly sharp, and 00:07:32.949 --> 00:07:35.649 she saw the writing on the wall. She pushes him 00:07:35.649 --> 00:07:38.490 to change his wardrobe, forces him to play classical 00:07:38.490 --> 00:07:41.149 music in church concerts to broaden his technical 00:07:41.149 --> 00:07:44.269 chops, and ultimately gives him the push to break 00:07:44.269 --> 00:07:46.430 away from King Oliver entirely. Now, I have to 00:07:46.430 --> 00:07:48.629 push back on something here because we always 00:07:48.629 --> 00:07:51.449 hear this lone genius narrative about Armstrong. 00:07:51.730 --> 00:07:54.149 Like he just walked out of New Orleans and conquered 00:07:54.149 --> 00:07:56.389 the world all by himself. Right. The solo hero. 00:07:56.529 --> 00:07:59.040 Yeah. But based on the evidence in these sources, 00:07:59.540 --> 00:08:01.920 was Lill Hardin actually the primary architect 00:08:01.920 --> 00:08:04.980 of his early solo success? It's a vital question 00:08:04.980 --> 00:08:07.100 that really changes how we view his history. 00:08:07.879 --> 00:08:10.300 Armstrong undeniably possessed the generational 00:08:10.300 --> 00:08:13.569 once -in -a -century raw talent. But Lil Harden 00:08:13.569 --> 00:08:16.110 provided the strategic cutthroat ambition that 00:08:16.110 --> 00:08:18.629 he simply lacked at the time. She was the manager, 00:08:18.810 --> 00:08:21.649 basically. Exactly. She demanded prominent billing 00:08:21.649 --> 00:08:24.470 for him. She organized his early recording sessions. 00:08:24.709 --> 00:08:27.750 She even billed him in publicity as the world's 00:08:27.750 --> 00:08:30.029 greatest trumpet player. Which he hated at first, 00:08:30.170 --> 00:08:32.809 right? Yeah, he was deeply embarrassed by it. 00:08:33.029 --> 00:08:35.470 Without her pushing him out of the nest, he very 00:08:35.470 --> 00:08:38.029 well might have stayed a brilliant but localized 00:08:38.029 --> 00:08:40.769 ensemble player. OK, so she pushes him to the 00:08:40.769 --> 00:08:43.539 front of the stage. But we really need to explain 00:08:43.539 --> 00:08:45.899 why his playing at the front of that stage was 00:08:45.899 --> 00:08:48.879 so revolutionary. Because to a modern listener, 00:08:49.299 --> 00:08:51.039 you know, a jazz solo just sounds like normal 00:08:51.039 --> 00:08:54.340 jazz. What was he doing musically that was so 00:08:54.340 --> 00:08:56.539 different from everyone else? To understand the 00:08:56.539 --> 00:08:58.679 shift, you have to look at what jazz was before 00:08:58.679 --> 00:09:02.120 him. It was heavily focused on collective ensemble 00:09:02.120 --> 00:09:04.799 improvisation. The whole band played together 00:09:04.799 --> 00:09:07.419 at the same time, improvising mostly by playing 00:09:07.419 --> 00:09:10.669 slight variations of the song's melody. So early 00:09:10.669 --> 00:09:12.929 jazz is essentially like a group of people having 00:09:12.929 --> 00:09:15.789 a polite, highly energetic conversation where 00:09:15.789 --> 00:09:17.909 everyone is talking at the exact same time about 00:09:17.909 --> 00:09:21.250 the same topic. Exactly that. But Armstrong steps 00:09:21.250 --> 00:09:23.789 up, effectively silences the rest of the room, 00:09:23.970 --> 00:09:26.470 and delivers an incredible improvised monologue. 00:09:26.830 --> 00:09:30.009 He virtually invents the modern solo. Wow. And 00:09:30.009 --> 00:09:31.789 technically, instead of just tweaking the melody 00:09:31.789 --> 00:09:34.830 line, he starts creating significant brand new 00:09:34.830 --> 00:09:37.529 musical variations based on the underlying chord 00:09:37.529 --> 00:09:40.460 harmonies of the song. Ah, so he's looking at 00:09:40.460 --> 00:09:42.539 the mathematical foundation of the song and building 00:09:42.539 --> 00:09:45.240 a completely new structure on top of it in real 00:09:45.240 --> 00:09:48.039 time. Precisely. He single -handedly turned what 00:09:48.039 --> 00:09:50.480 was essentially a collective folk music tradition 00:09:50.480 --> 00:09:54.419 into a highly individualized virtuosic soloist's 00:09:54.419 --> 00:09:57.259 art form. He extended the physical range of the 00:09:57.259 --> 00:10:00.320 trumpet, the tone, famously in 200 high C's in 00:10:00.320 --> 00:10:02.919 a row during performances. 200, that's insane. 00:10:03.080 --> 00:10:05.299 Professional musicians all over the country were 00:10:05.299 --> 00:10:07.480 buying his records just to slow them down and 00:10:07.480 --> 00:10:10.299 memorize his solos note for note. So he completely 00:10:10.299 --> 00:10:13.100 rebuilds what the trumpet can do. But eventually 00:10:13.100 --> 00:10:15.740 his physical instrument wasn't enough to contain 00:10:15.740 --> 00:10:18.559 his personality. He had to use his actual voice 00:10:18.559 --> 00:10:21.639 to mimic the horn, which leads us to this incredible 00:10:21.639 --> 00:10:24.919 happy accident in 1926. This is the legendary 00:10:24.919 --> 00:10:27.200 recording session for a song called He Be Gee 00:10:27.200 --> 00:10:30.409 Bees with his Hot Five group. The story and the 00:10:30.409 --> 00:10:32.730 source material is amazing. He's in the middle 00:10:32.730 --> 00:10:35.370 of recording the vocal track and he drops his 00:10:35.370 --> 00:10:38.029 sheet music on the floor. And instead of stopping 00:10:38.029 --> 00:10:40.789 the take and ruining the wax disc, he just starts 00:10:40.789 --> 00:10:42.970 singing nonsense syllables like da ba da bop, 00:10:43.090 --> 00:10:46.129 ski bop, making his voice actively mimic a trumpet 00:10:46.129 --> 00:10:49.330 solo. The president of Okie Records is in the 00:10:49.330 --> 00:10:51.590 booth waving frantically at him through the glass 00:10:51.590 --> 00:10:54.610 to keep going. They press it to a disc and it 00:10:54.610 --> 00:10:57.149 becomes a massive cultural phenomenon. Now, he 00:10:57.149 --> 00:10:59.529 didn't invent scat singing out of thin air. He 00:10:59.529 --> 00:11:01.669 actually told Cab Calloway he'd derived some 00:11:01.669 --> 00:11:04.230 of the phrasing from the way Orthodox Jews chanted 00:11:04.230 --> 00:11:06.669 during prayer, tying back to his childhood. Wow. 00:11:06.889 --> 00:11:10.470 but he absolutely popularized it and his relaxed 00:11:10.470 --> 00:11:13.509 behind the beat singing style profoundly influenced 00:11:13.509 --> 00:11:16.389 mainstream pop. The sources specifically note 00:11:16.389 --> 00:11:18.990 that Bing Crosby closely emulated Armstrong's 00:11:18.990 --> 00:11:21.049 method of making a song feel like a lyrical, 00:11:21.250 --> 00:11:23.789 intimate extension of normal speech. So the biggest 00:11:23.789 --> 00:11:26.029 white pop star of the first half of the century 00:11:26.029 --> 00:11:29.190 is basically copying Armstrong's vocal homework. 00:11:30.029 --> 00:11:32.789 And alongside this unique voice, you get the 00:11:32.789 --> 00:11:36.480 larger than life persona, the nicknames. Oh, 00:11:36.480 --> 00:11:39.279 yes. We all know Satchmo, which is short for 00:11:39.279 --> 00:11:41.620 satchel mouth. The sources debate if that came 00:11:41.620 --> 00:11:43.779 from him hiding pennies in his mouth as a dancing 00:11:43.779 --> 00:11:47.159 street kid or just having a wide smile. But what 00:11:47.159 --> 00:11:50.580 about the nickname Pops? That nickname is classic 00:11:50.580 --> 00:11:53.480 Armstrong. He was notoriously terrible at remembering 00:11:53.480 --> 00:11:55.340 people's names. So to cover it up, he just called 00:11:55.340 --> 00:11:57.899 everyone else Pops. That's hilarious. Right. 00:11:58.299 --> 00:12:00.320 Eventually his friends and colleagues just turned 00:12:00.320 --> 00:12:02.220 it around and started calling him Pops. And if 00:12:02.220 --> 00:12:03.679 you're yelling at your steering wheel right now 00:12:03.679 --> 00:12:06.000 about how to pronounce his actual name. Is it 00:12:06.000 --> 00:12:08.539 Louis or Louis? We actually have the definitive 00:12:08.539 --> 00:12:10.899 answer for you. Based on his own private home 00:12:10.899 --> 00:12:14.600 recordings and his 1964 song, Hello Dolly, where 00:12:14.600 --> 00:12:17.940 he clearly sings, this is Louis Dolly, he vastly 00:12:17.940 --> 00:12:20.600 preferred Louis. Good to know. He knew the broader 00:12:20.600 --> 00:12:23.100 white public called him Louis and he was too 00:12:23.100 --> 00:12:24.879 easy going to put up much of a fuss about it, 00:12:24.899 --> 00:12:27.980 but he saw himself. as Lewis. He didn't put on 00:12:27.980 --> 00:12:30.340 airs about much of anything, which is a perfect 00:12:30.340 --> 00:12:33.899 segue into his personal habits, which were surprisingly 00:12:33.899 --> 00:12:35.940 wild for a guy your grandparents listened to. 00:12:36.120 --> 00:12:39.320 It's extremely wild. He was a heavy daily marijuana 00:12:39.320 --> 00:12:42.519 user. He called it a thousand times better than 00:12:42.519 --> 00:12:45.000 whiskey, and he even spent nine days in jail 00:12:45.000 --> 00:12:47.899 for possession in Los Angeles in 1930. Yeah. 00:12:48.559 --> 00:12:51.340 And then there's his absolute cult -like devotion 00:12:51.340 --> 00:12:54.799 to an herbal laxative called Swisscress. He was 00:12:54.799 --> 00:12:57.460 deeply obsessed with digestion and weight control, 00:12:57.899 --> 00:13:00.120 a habit stemming back to his mother feeding him 00:13:00.120 --> 00:13:01.899 dandelions to clear out his system when they 00:13:01.899 --> 00:13:04.519 couldn't afford a doctor. He genuinely thought 00:13:04.519 --> 00:13:07.279 Swiss Chris was a miracle cure for human ailments. 00:13:07.779 --> 00:13:10.320 He handed it out to literally everyone he met. 00:13:10.440 --> 00:13:13.299 The source material notes he even enthusiastically 00:13:13.299 --> 00:13:15.620 gave some to members of the British royal family. 00:13:16.019 --> 00:13:18.299 He had personalized gag cards printed out to 00:13:18.299 --> 00:13:20.440 hand to fans. They showed a picture of him sitting 00:13:20.440 --> 00:13:23.059 on a toilet, viewed through a keyhole, with his 00:13:23.059 --> 00:13:25.320 face beaming and the catchphrase, Satch says, 00:13:25.600 --> 00:13:27.769 leave it all behind ya. What's fascinating here 00:13:27.769 --> 00:13:30.649 is the absolute duality of the man. You have 00:13:30.649 --> 00:13:34.190 a virtuosic high art musical genius who is actively 00:13:34.190 --> 00:13:37.029 shaping the 20th century. And at the exact same 00:13:37.029 --> 00:13:39.289 time, you have this vaudevillian entertainer 00:13:39.289 --> 00:13:42.529 who genuinely loves bathroom humor and completely 00:13:42.529 --> 00:13:45.230 rejects the elitist idea of acting like an artist. 00:13:45.649 --> 00:13:48.250 He saw absolutely zero contradiction between 00:13:48.250 --> 00:13:50.690 playing high art and delivering deep comedy. 00:13:50.970 --> 00:13:53.870 But that exact same easygoing, grinning, crowd 00:13:53.870 --> 00:13:56.710 pleasing entertainer persona eventually caused 00:13:56.710 --> 00:13:59.850 a massive painful rift. Because as we move into 00:13:59.850 --> 00:14:03.610 the post -war era, the 1940s and 50s, a new generation 00:14:03.610 --> 00:14:05.730 of black musicians comes up. Guys like Charlie 00:14:05.730 --> 00:14:08.710 Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis. And they 00:14:08.710 --> 00:14:11.490 are playing a new style called bebop. Bebop was 00:14:11.490 --> 00:14:13.769 intentionally complex, abstract, intellectual 00:14:13.769 --> 00:14:15.710 art music. It was meant to be listened to, not 00:14:15.710 --> 00:14:17.529 danced to. Wait, why would these young black 00:14:17.529 --> 00:14:19.909 musicians hate the guy who essentially paved 00:14:19.909 --> 00:14:21.840 the way for them to even have a career? Because 00:14:21.840 --> 00:14:24.960 of the cultural shift, these younger guys wanted 00:14:24.960 --> 00:14:28.379 to be respected as serious composers like Stravinsky. 00:14:29.039 --> 00:14:31.480 When they looked at Armstrong's stage antics, 00:14:31.720 --> 00:14:33.940 the heavy sweating, the mugging for the audience, 00:14:34.080 --> 00:14:36.980 the wide smiles and the jokes, they cringed. 00:14:37.320 --> 00:14:40.259 To them, it felt like a step backward. They viewed 00:14:40.259 --> 00:14:43.580 his need to entertain white audiences as outdated 00:14:43.580 --> 00:14:46.460 minstrelsy or, as they harshly called it, Uncle 00:14:46.460 --> 00:14:48.940 Tomism. And Armstrong didn't take that quietly. 00:14:49.240 --> 00:14:52.610 He fired back. calling bebop Chinese music and 00:14:52.610 --> 00:14:54.509 dismissing it as just a bunch of arrogant musicians 00:14:54.509 --> 00:14:56.570 walking the streets with their instruments under 00:14:56.570 --> 00:14:58.570 their arms who didn't care about the audience. 00:14:58.830 --> 00:15:01.830 It was a vicious generational divide. Yeah. And 00:15:01.830 --> 00:15:04.590 politically, Armstrong usually stayed neutral. 00:15:05.090 --> 00:15:07.350 He had unique access to the highest echelons 00:15:07.350 --> 00:15:09.870 of white society, which deeply frustrated many 00:15:09.870 --> 00:15:12.409 black Americans who desperately wanted him to 00:15:12.409 --> 00:15:15.070 use his massive platform as a vocal civil rights 00:15:15.070 --> 00:15:17.620 leader. But that perceived neutrality shattered 00:15:17.620 --> 00:15:21.100 in 1957. This is the Little Rock School desegregation 00:15:21.100 --> 00:15:23.840 crisis where Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus deployed 00:15:23.840 --> 00:15:25.919 the National Guard to physically block nine black 00:15:25.919 --> 00:15:28.179 students from entering a white high school. Now, 00:15:28.379 --> 00:15:30.000 reading through these historical sources, I want 00:15:30.000 --> 00:15:33.399 to be clear to you listening. Our job as guides 00:15:33.399 --> 00:15:35.659 isn't to take a political stance or tell you 00:15:35.659 --> 00:15:37.980 what to think about the era. We're strictly impartial 00:15:37.980 --> 00:15:40.580 here. Right. But looking purely at the documents, 00:15:40.980 --> 00:15:43.940 you simply cannot ignore the sheer shock value 00:15:43.940 --> 00:15:47.299 of what Armstrong did next. A young journalism 00:15:47.299 --> 00:15:49.799 student manages to get a candid interview with 00:15:49.799 --> 00:15:52.539 Armstrong in a hotel room in North Dakota right 00:15:52.539 --> 00:15:55.080 after the Little Rock conflict erupts on television. 00:15:55.569 --> 00:15:58.789 And Armstrong, the man who is usually so universally 00:15:58.789 --> 00:16:01.710 jovial and agreeable, just completely unloads. 00:16:01.889 --> 00:16:04.629 He fiercely denounces Governor Faubus, calling 00:16:04.629 --> 00:16:07.049 him an uneducated plow boy. And then he goes 00:16:07.049 --> 00:16:09.450 directly after sitting President Eisenhower, 00:16:09.730 --> 00:16:11.889 saying the president had no guts and was too 00:16:11.889 --> 00:16:13.570 faced for letting it happen. He backed it up 00:16:13.570 --> 00:16:16.370 with action, too. He immediately canceled a highly 00:16:16.370 --> 00:16:18.470 publicized U .S. State Department tour of the 00:16:18.470 --> 00:16:21.299 Soviet Union. He told the press flat out, The 00:16:21.299 --> 00:16:23.000 way they're treating my people in the South, 00:16:23.200 --> 00:16:26.360 the government can go to hell. He stated he could 00:16:26.360 --> 00:16:29.019 not in good conscience represent a government 00:16:29.019 --> 00:16:31.600 abroad that was actively in conflict with its 00:16:31.600 --> 00:16:34.559 own citizens at home. The FBI actually opened 00:16:34.559 --> 00:16:37.259 a file on him solely because of that outburst. 00:16:37.519 --> 00:16:40.340 His road manager panicked and tried to walk the 00:16:40.340 --> 00:16:42.679 comments back to the press the next day, claiming 00:16:42.679 --> 00:16:44.620 Armstrong was misunderstood. Oh, and Armstrong 00:16:44.620 --> 00:16:46.700 hated that. Yeah, he nearly fired the guy on 00:16:46.700 --> 00:16:49.059 the spot, insisting he knew exactly what he said, 00:16:49.220 --> 00:16:51.039 and he spoke only for himself. If we connect 00:16:51.039 --> 00:16:53.419 this to the bigger picture, you begin to understand 00:16:53.419 --> 00:16:56.440 why this shocked white America so deeply. Armstrong 00:16:56.440 --> 00:16:59.460 had spent decades meticulously building this 00:16:59.460 --> 00:17:02.580 unthreatening, joyful, universally loved public 00:17:02.580 --> 00:17:06.099 image. Right. For him to suddenly drop that mask 00:17:06.099 --> 00:17:10.119 and show prof - found righteous anger, it forced 00:17:10.119 --> 00:17:12.339 mainstream America to pay attention in a way 00:17:12.339 --> 00:17:14.759 they simply wouldn't have if a known radical 00:17:14.759 --> 00:17:17.119 had said the exact same words. It's a seismic 00:17:17.119 --> 00:17:20.599 cultural moment. And you'd think maybe that alienating 00:17:20.599 --> 00:17:23.180 the US government or causing a massive political 00:17:23.180 --> 00:17:25.339 firestorm might finally put an end to his career. 00:17:25.960 --> 00:17:28.019 But here's where it gets really interesting. 00:17:28.380 --> 00:17:30.839 It doesn't end him. It actually sets the stage 00:17:30.839 --> 00:17:34.240 for a final act that completely defies all music 00:17:34.240 --> 00:17:37.150 industry logic. By the late 40s and 50s, the 00:17:37.150 --> 00:17:40.910 massive big band era was completely dead financially. 00:17:41.529 --> 00:17:44.130 So his longtime manager, Joe Glaser, pivots him 00:17:44.130 --> 00:17:47.230 to a smaller six piece traditional jazz group 00:17:47.230 --> 00:17:49.970 called the All Stars. And surprisingly, this 00:17:49.970 --> 00:17:52.569 stripped down format revitalizes his energy. 00:17:53.069 --> 00:17:55.750 He begins touring the globe relentlessly. We're 00:17:55.750 --> 00:17:58.569 talking over 300 performances a year, grinding 00:17:58.569 --> 00:18:02.589 it out on the road. Fast forward to 1964. Armstrong 00:18:02.589 --> 00:18:04.930 hasn't had a hit in years. He hasn't even been 00:18:04.930 --> 00:18:07.349 in a recording studio for two years. He goes 00:18:07.349 --> 00:18:09.970 in and casually records a promo track for a new 00:18:09.970 --> 00:18:12.430 Broadway show tune called Hello Dolly. Now keep 00:18:12.430 --> 00:18:15.269 the cultural context in mind for a second. 1964 00:18:15.269 --> 00:18:18.289 is the absolute blazing peak of the British invasion. 00:18:18.809 --> 00:18:21.009 The Beatles have had a total stranglehold on 00:18:21.009 --> 00:18:23.009 the number one spot on the Billboard Hot 100 00:18:23.009 --> 00:18:25.950 for 14 straight weeks with three different songs. 00:18:25.970 --> 00:18:28.009 They are completely dominant. They are untouchable. 00:18:28.049 --> 00:18:29.650 And who finally knocks them off the pedestal. 00:18:29.789 --> 00:18:32.809 A 62 -year -old jazz trumpeter from New Orleans, 00:18:33.190 --> 00:18:36.089 Armstrong's Hello Dolly hits number one, making 00:18:36.089 --> 00:18:38.029 him the oldest artist to ever achieve that feat 00:18:38.029 --> 00:18:41.210 at the time. It's incredible. It is pure, hilarious 00:18:41.210 --> 00:18:43.710 irony. The kids are screaming and fainting for 00:18:43.710 --> 00:18:47.109 John, Paul, George, and Ringo, and yet the mathematically 00:18:47.109 --> 00:18:49.309 biggest pop star in America for that week is 00:18:49.309 --> 00:18:52.750 Pops. It speaks volumes to his deeply ingrained 00:18:52.750 --> 00:18:55.490 universal appeal, but that relentless touring 00:18:55.490 --> 00:18:58.369 schedule took a massive hidden toll on his body. 00:18:58.670 --> 00:19:01.130 Playing the trumpet at that level of volume and 00:19:01.130 --> 00:19:03.509 pressure is brutally hard on the human anatomy. 00:19:04.009 --> 00:19:06.049 He suffered severe lip damage throughout his 00:19:06.049 --> 00:19:08.549 entire life. The details and the sources about 00:19:08.549 --> 00:19:11.430 his lips are visceral. Because of his incredibly 00:19:11.430 --> 00:19:13.990 aggressive playing style and his preference for 00:19:13.990 --> 00:19:16.730 narrow mouthpieces to hit those high notes, he 00:19:16.730 --> 00:19:19.529 developed terrible calluses. It was so bad that 00:19:19.529 --> 00:19:21.630 he literally had to cut the thick scar tissue 00:19:21.630 --> 00:19:24.029 off his own lips with a razor blade in hotel 00:19:24.029 --> 00:19:26.289 bathrooms just to be able to play the next night. 00:19:26.440 --> 00:19:28.980 Yes, and he stubbornly resisted getting proper 00:19:28.980 --> 00:19:31.079 surgery for it until it was far too late to heal 00:19:31.079 --> 00:19:33.720 correctly. The strain also ruined his heart. 00:19:33.980 --> 00:19:36.359 He suffered a major heart attack in 1959 while 00:19:36.359 --> 00:19:38.460 touring in Italy, and then suffered several more 00:19:38.460 --> 00:19:41.180 as he approached his 70th birthday. But his absolute 00:19:41.180 --> 00:19:44.430 dedication to his craft never wavered. Never. 00:19:44.910 --> 00:19:47.789 He was a massive audiophile. He traveled everywhere 00:19:47.789 --> 00:19:50.609 with heavy trunks full of reel -to -reel audio 00:19:50.609 --> 00:19:53.369 tapes. He would sit alone in his den or in random 00:19:53.369 --> 00:19:56.329 hotel rooms across the world, just obsessively 00:19:56.329 --> 00:19:58.690 listening to his old recordings, cataloging them, 00:19:58.849 --> 00:20:01.009 critiquing his own phrasing, even playing his 00:20:01.009 --> 00:20:03.309 trumpet along with whatever was on the radio. 00:20:04.170 --> 00:20:06.049 He remained a dedicated student of his own art 00:20:06.049 --> 00:20:08.750 right up until the end. He died in his sleep 00:20:08.750 --> 00:20:12.009 in July 1971 at his home in Queens, New York. 00:20:13.079 --> 00:20:15.339 So when we step back and look at this complete 00:20:15.339 --> 00:20:17.220 timeline, what does this all mean for us today? 00:20:17.480 --> 00:20:20.059 It means we're looking at a man who successfully 00:20:20.059 --> 00:20:21.940 navigated an obstacle course that would have 00:20:21.940 --> 00:20:25.160 broken almost anyone else. He navigated the extreme 00:20:25.160 --> 00:20:27.480 poverty and violence of the battlefield, the 00:20:27.480 --> 00:20:30.059 dangerous mobsters who control the clubs in Chicago 00:20:30.059 --> 00:20:33.039 and New York, the deeply entrenched racial segregation 00:20:33.039 --> 00:20:35.140 of the mid -century, and the wildly shifting 00:20:35.140 --> 00:20:37.779 musical tastes from the roaring 20s all the way 00:20:37.779 --> 00:20:40.019 to the psychedelic 60s. Right. And through it 00:20:40.019 --> 00:20:42.559 all, he shaped the very DNA of popular music. 00:20:43.049 --> 00:20:45.269 Bing Crosby wasn't exaggerating in the slightest 00:20:45.269 --> 00:20:47.710 when he said Louis Armstrong was the beginning 00:20:47.710 --> 00:20:50.789 and the end of music in America. But there is 00:20:50.789 --> 00:20:53.569 one final detail from the legacy section of these 00:20:53.569 --> 00:20:56.150 historical sources that I think truly encapsulates 00:20:56.150 --> 00:20:59.829 the breathtaking scale of his impact. In 1977, 00:21:00.509 --> 00:21:02.950 NASA launched the Voyager spacecraft to explore 00:21:02.950 --> 00:21:06.160 the outer solar system and beyond. Yeah. Attached 00:21:06.160 --> 00:21:08.480 to the side of that probe is the Golden Record, 00:21:08.859 --> 00:21:11.019 designed specifically to represent humanity to 00:21:11.019 --> 00:21:13.559 the universe, containing the most important sights 00:21:13.559 --> 00:21:15.819 and sounds of planet Earth. Right, a time capsule 00:21:15.819 --> 00:21:18.359 just in case it's ever intercepted by extraterrestrial 00:21:18.359 --> 00:21:20.839 life millions of years from now. Exactly, and 00:21:20.839 --> 00:21:22.900 carefully selected to be included on that record 00:21:22.900 --> 00:21:26.420 is Louis Armstrong's 1927 recording of Melancholy 00:21:26.420 --> 00:21:28.359 Blues. I want you to just sit with that for a 00:21:28.359 --> 00:21:30.700 moment. It's wild to think about. The young boy 00:21:30.700 --> 00:21:32.980 who was locked up in a waif's home for firing 00:21:32.980 --> 00:21:35.720 a blank gun into the New Orleans sky. The boy 00:21:35.720 --> 00:21:37.640 who wore a star of David to remember the only 00:21:37.640 --> 00:21:39.539 family that showed him kindness and bought his 00:21:39.539 --> 00:21:42.339 first tin horn, his literal breath, his rhythm, 00:21:42.539 --> 00:21:45.799 his sorrow, and his joy were fired into the infinite 00:21:45.799 --> 00:21:48.440 cosmos to represent what it means to be human. 00:21:48.720 --> 00:21:51.640 It really makes you wonder, did the extreme constraints 00:21:51.640 --> 00:21:54.440 of his life? being forced to play into a crude 00:21:54.440 --> 00:21:57.539 acoustic funnel from 15 feet away, having to 00:21:57.539 --> 00:22:00.319 constantly navigate segregated venues, surviving 00:22:00.319 --> 00:22:03.319 the deep poverty of his youth, did all of that 00:22:03.319 --> 00:22:05.740 act as the intense pressure cooker required to 00:22:05.740 --> 00:22:08.059 forge the most enduring sound of the 20th century. 00:22:08.940 --> 00:22:10.599 It is something profoundly beautiful for you 00:22:10.599 --> 00:22:12.359 to think about the next time you hear that famous 00:22:12.359 --> 00:22:14.440 gravelly voice. Thanks for taking this deep dive 00:22:14.440 --> 00:22:14.980 with us today.