Scat Speaks Louder Than Words

Not only did he popularize the world's first truly American art form, not only was he the only 20th century musician regarded as an innovator in both instrumentals and vocals, but the man could stop wars. Seriously. Bob Hope may have entertained the troops but you never saw the Viet Cong sitting side by side with American soldiers laughing at his one-liners. Louis Armstrong's arrival in what was then known as the Belgian Congo brought truce to a civil war so that both sides could greet the world's most beloved musician and attend his concert together.

Twenty Six years after being declared a national historic landmark, the modest home where the man known as Satchmo lived the last three decades of his life with his former Cotton Club dancer wife Lucille was restored and opened to the public last week at a ribbon-cutting ceremony witnessed by business-suited dignitaries, funky jazzers in shades, public school children proudly sporting inflatable cornets and t-shirted neighbors who just happened to live on the same block as the most revolutionary figure in American music. The damp chill that greeted most waking New Yorkers that morning swiftly gave way to a bright blue sky dotted with clouds that appeared to be racing to their next destination, as if a higher authority demanded there be sunshine by the time the gold ribbon surrounding 34-56 107th Street in Corona, Queens was cut and Jon Faddis carried one of Armstrong's gold-plated trumpets up to the balcony to play the famous a capella intro to "West End Blues" out into the thick October air.

It may seem out of place on a theatre web site to write of a jazz musician who, regardless of his greatness, only appeared on Broadway twice (In the revue Hot Chocolates and as Puck in the short lived Swingin' the Dream, based on Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream), but as jazz authority Stanley Crouch reminded the smiling crowd, Louis Armstrong was "the genius of feeling in American Art". Like Charlie Chaplin before him, Armstrong was the beneficiary of a new technology which gave his artistry nationwide recognition faster than anyone could have imagined at the century's dawn. His recordings with The Hot Five and The Hot Seven, waxed from 1925-29, have been called the Rosetta Stone of American Music, not only introducing scat to the world, but popularizing a style of singing that emphasized personality and story-telling over traditional vocal beauty. And as the operetta style musicals of the early 20th century faded in popularity, story and characters gradually gained more importance in musical theatre throughout the late 20's and 30's, transforming Broadway musicals into a showcase for stars such as Mary Martin, Carol Channing, Zero Mostel and Robert Preston who, like Armstrong, could act within a song despite vocal limitations.

His influence as an instrumental soloist was also felt on Broadway. When Ethel Merman stunned theatre audiences in the 1930's, her vocal technique of sharpening and flatting notes for comic and dramatic effect seemed to echo a typical Armstrong cornet improvisation. And what musical theatre aficionado can listen to an Armstrong fanfare without thinking of what would soon be called the "Broadway sound", most typified by a Jule Styne overture?

But the Louis Armstrong home has not been preserved as a shrine to his greatness. The 40 minute guided tour emphasizes the simple, cozy lifestyle he and Lucille preferred. With her husband on the road most of the time Lucille took great pride in meticulously decorating every inch in the most stylish contemporary fashion. With everything restored as it was at the time of her death in 1983, we now have one of the few historical homes preserving late 1970's interior design, complete with an aqua marine paneled kitchen and a bathroom completely walled by mirrors. (An "artifact" I especially enjoyed seeing was a half empty bottle of Satchmo's Canoe cologne.) You might get a little dizzy from the guest room's orange and white abstract designed wall paper (with matching sheets) but nearby is the more conservative study, where Armstrong sat at his oak desk and plotted out musical arrangements on a reel-to-reel tape recorder.

He could afford to live in a much grander home anywhere in the world, but Louis Armstrong chose this rather unremarkable block where he could sit on his stoop and lick ice cream cones with the neighborhood kids in between television appearances and audiences with The Pope. A walk through this landmark connects us with a man whose greatness was an ability to communicate joy and optimism in a manner that was never heard before. In the words of Duke Ellington, "He was born poor, died rich, and didn't hurt anyone along the way."

For more information on the Louis Armstrong House visit http://www.satchmo.net.

For Michael Dale's "mad adventures of a straight boy living in a gay world" visit dry2olives.com.