Monday 23 February 2009

Louis Armstrong - Potato Head Blues

Last week saw the 9th anniversary of my father`s death. He wasn`t expecting to die: he went into hospital for a fairly routine op. and things started going wrong. A few months before this happened I`d asked him what his favourite single recording was. His hero was Louis Armstrong and he told me it was his recording of `Potato Head Blues`. Apparently it is the second trumpet chorus after which music was never the same. Although my father played drums in his own band, I could never fathom the attraction of traditional jazz: I just couldn`t stand the banjo or sousaphone. I think you had to be there in the 1950`s to understand the trad jazz revival. His band played at his funeral. We also played this recording.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Excellent - thanks for that.


Wish Dad could have met Vincent and Louis (who is of course, named after Louis Armstrong).



JB

gemoftheocean said...

It's SIMPLE. People like the banjo because it's impossbiel to be depressed after listening to one!