THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF LOUIS ARMSTRONG

Louis Armstrong, or Satchmo or Satch or Pops to his fond listeners, would have been 125 years old this month. In the hearts and minds and ears of those who loved his songs, he still lives on larger than life. 

For five decades in mid-1900s, he enthralled listeners of jazz and pop music with his unique style of singing. His voice was gravelly or rasping in a pleasant way. In addition, he would go off tune and written lyrics to scat singing using words with no meaning such as doo-ba-da-boo-dah! All that with facial expressions engaging the listeners and making them feel inclusive. And then he would launch into playing his trumpet producing beautiful music.

He acted in a number of movies mainly as himself or as an orchestra leader which was good as, in the absence of TV those days, that way we got to see the colourful and charismatic way in which he sang and performed. A movie which I shall always remember is "High Society" which had a delightful and unforgettable number, "Now You Has Jazz",  by Satch and his real life friend, Bing Crosby,  The song starts with Bing introducing members of the Louis Armstrong Band each playing solo one by one, on to Satchmo who takes off on his trumpet and then, accompanied by the Band, both Bing and Satch sing with plenty of scat! 

Another famous movie and multiple Oscar winner including Best Musical Score was "Hello, Dolly" in which Pops (that's what Crosby always called him) played an orchestra leader. Its title song performed by Pops hit the top spot in a number of billboards the world over. The movie would be his second last.

Now for his songs. A hard task but I shall choose just a few of my favourites from hundreds he produced. To start with, a tune familiar to Hindi movie fans: "A Kiss to Build a Dream On". This 1951 hit of Pops was copied for an emotive song in "Parineeta" and sung as "Kaisi, Paheli Zindagani" by Sunidhi Chauhan for Vidya Balan. As we all know, it was hugely popular and the lilting tune sounded as good as, Akhila says better than, the original!

From my school days, I remember "Saints Go Marching In", a traditional American gospel song adapted by Pops which to many is the best known version. Then there was "Mack The Knife" which remained on top of Binaca Hit Parade on Radio Ceylon for a long time. The song based on a real life English highwayman tells the story of a deadly criminal Mackie Messer known as Mack The Knife in "The Threepenny Opera". A few lines will sum it up:-

"Oh, the shark has pretty teeth, dear, and he shows them pearly white

Just a jack-knife has Macheath dear, and he keeps it out of sight

When the shark bites with his teeth, dear, scarlet billows start to spread

Fancy gloves though wears Macheath, dear, so there's not a trace, mmm of red.

On the sidewalk, Sunday mornin', baby, lies a body oozin' life

Someone sneakin' 'round the corner, is the someone, Mack The Knife?"

Pops sang some classic French numbers as well. Two of his best were the nostalgic "La Vie En Rose" and the cheery, bouncy "C'est Si Bon."

Pops' favourite duet partner was Ella Fitzgerald and they recorded many albums. Two songs on top of my list are the folksy "Summertime" sung repeatedly, including as a lullaby, in George Gershwin's opera "Porgy and Bess", and the love song, also popular as a lullaby, "Dream a Little Dream of Me."

And now, the two best for me. No matter how many times I listen to them, these songs make me emotional and touch a soft chord in my heart. The first is "What a Wonderful World" which the composers Bob Thiele and George Weiss wrote specifically for Pops as they felt "inspired by Armstrong's ability to bring together people of different races." The song's popularity is worldwide and  it ranks among the 500 best songs of all time in "Rolling Stones" and CBS's 250 essential American songs of the past 250 years. Permit me to quote some lyrics though tough to choose-

"I see trees of green, red roses too, I see them bloom for me and you

And I think to myself, what a wonderful world...

The colours of the rainbow, so pretty in the sky, are also on the faces of people going by

I see friends shaking hands saying, "How do you do?"

They're really saying, "I love you"...

And I think to myself

What a wonderful world, oh, yeah."

Finally, his swan song! The story behind the song is touching by itself.Ace composer, John Barry, who pioneered theme songs and music for the first eleven James Bond movies, composed the song "We Have All The Time In The World" which were the final words spoken by Bond while cradling in his arms the body of his newly wedded wife.The couple was excitedly on the way to their honeymoon when the villain pulled up alongside in his car and shot dead the wife in the 1969 movie, "On Her Majesty's Secret Service." Dazed and stunned, Bond uttered those words. Barry felt that only Pops with his gravelly voice could deliver the song with the intended irony. Pops was seriously ill and had not been recording for more than a year but Barry persuaded him to do so. Pops sang but could not play the trumpet, an essential part of the song. So that was done by another musician!

A real life irony though unintended was that Pops had not much time left in the world himself and passed away shortly after singing the song which turned out to be his last studio recording. The song is now regarded as one of the best love songs ever and a BBC survey in 2005 found it to be the third most popular song played at weddings. 

The song had a revival in the 2021 Bond movie, "No Time To Die" when parts of it were played many times during the movie and the full song played at the end with Bond dying and the credits rolling. Pops' singing, Barry's rich orchestral strings strumming and the brilliant trumpet bars had the audiences leaving the movie hall with eyes filled with tears in both the movies. 

"We have all the time in the world, time enough for life

To unfold all the precious things love has in store...

Every step of the way will find us

With the cares of the world far behind us

We have all the time in the world

Just for love, nothing more, nothing less

Only love."