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Louis Armstrong


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That's nice music Rattler, I like it.  .... but it ain't Satchmo!  biggrin.gif

..Most welcome Pete. It's amazing what can be found laying about in YouTube.

Hey Mitch ...

Since you appreciate Louis you might get a kick out of this story.

A couple weeks back I had the pleasure of seeing Lou Donaldson perform live at The Cellar here in Vancouver. If you're not familiar with Lou, he's one of the great alto sax players from the bebop and hard bop eras. He's 82 now but still going strong and it was amazing to watch him blowing on his hits like Gravy Train and Alligator Boogaloo as if it was still 1960. He also sang some pretty mean blues and a great version of "What a Wonderful World"

Even more amazing for me was that after the show he decided to come over and sit at my table. So, there I am chatting with a guy who's a jazz great himself and who can tell you stories about playing with Louis and being a member of the edition of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers that recorded "Live at the Cafe Bohemia". Cool.

Pete

PS - Lou was wearing a diamond studded Breitling watch with a picture of Obama on the face. He was pretty proud of both Obama and the watch and it revealed a bit of the depth of meaning that Obama's presidency has, especially for Lou's generation.

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A couple weeks back I had the pleasure of seeing Lou Donaldson perform live at The Cellar here in Vancouver. If you're not familiar with Lou, he's one of the great alto sax players from the bebop and hard bop eras. He's 82 now but still going strong and it was amazing to watch him blowing on his hits like Gravy Train and Alligator Boogaloo as if it was still 1960. He also sang some pretty mean blues and a great version of "What a Wonderful World"

Even more amazing for me was that after the show he decided to come over and sit at my table. So, there I am chatting with a guy who's a jazz great himself and who can tell you stories about playing with Louis and being a member of the edition of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers that recorded "Live at the Cafe Bohemia". Cool.

Pete

PS - Lou was wearing a diamond studded Breitling watch with a picture of Obama on the face. He was pretty proud of both Obama and the watch and it revealed a bit of the depth of meaning that Obama's presidency has, especially for Lou's generation.

Very cool! I wasn't at all familiar with Lou, but I sure can appreciate anybody who can play like that at any age, let alone in his 80's and is still keeping up. Wow!

Thanks Pete!

Re. the meaning of Obama's presidency... No kidding! And yep, I'd imagine there must be an intensity to that meaning especially to those who grew up in such a different world!

From the back of the bus to the Top of the food chain in The White House! Awesome! Absolutely flippin' awesome!

From freakin' slavery and incredible oppression, ... from so much a different world that I can only begin to understand how hurtful... through a time when a man made a huge impact by saying he had a dream that all of us would be equal -- think about that for a second... it was not just noteworthy, it was huge, and all it was, was a hope for equality -- ...to The President's chair!

Holy rightness batman! biggrin.gif

I share his pride.

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