Armstrong, Louis 139harmonies and purposeful elitism of bop musicians, who
in turn denounced his stage show and movie appearances
as “Uncle Tomming.” In the same decade, Armstrong ben-
efi ted from a “purist” revival of interest in 1920s jazz. Impa-
tient, though, with such purists’ eff orts to categorize music,
Armstrong continued to record and perform any type of
music that appealed to him. His rendition of “What Did
I Do to Be So Black and Blue,” originally a song about a
dark-skinned woman losing a lover to a lighter rival, be-
came for Armstrong a commentary on race; Ralph Ellison’s
main character in Invisible Man goes into a reverie listening
to Armstrong’s recording. As a trumpet player, and espe-
cially as one formerly known for such superhuman feats as
playing two hundred high Cs in a row, Armstrong struggled
at times to keep his lip in shape for performances, and for
weeks or months, he would rely more on singing than on
trumpet playing. In the 1950s, he recorded three landmark
albums of duets with Ella Fitzgerald. For decades his con-
cert repertoire remained steady, characterized by the inclu-
sion of “When It’s Sleepy Time Down South,” “Indiana,”
and a selection of Armstrong’s biggest hits.
Armstrong developed a lifelong love of writing from
the time he moved to Chicago and acquired a typewriter. He
wrote hundreds of chatty letters to friends, tossed off autobio-
graphical sketches, and contributed occasional pieces to mag-
azines, such as “Why I Like Dark Women” (1954) for Ebony.
A ghostwritten autobiography appeared, but unhappy with
it because it used unbelievable dialect and ignored material
Armstrong had provided, he wrote the widely read Satchmo:
My Life in New Orleans in 1955. He planned a second vol-
ume named Gage, a slang term for the marijuana he smoked
almost every day, but manager Joe Glaser intervened.
Armstrong made another memorable appearance in
his hometown in 1949 when he served as King of the Zulus
for his New Orleans burial society, the Zulu Social Aid and
Pleasure Club. Armstrong was deeply honored to serve in
the position, though many not familiar with Mardi Gras
traditions were shocked to see Armstrong, who had de-
nounced blackface, wearing wildly exaggerated blackface
for the role. Many African Americans were embarrassed
by Armstrong’s antics, not only as King of the Zulus but
also in his onstage act and in occasionally questionable
movie roles. But scat, praised as an art form, had origins
in minstrel shows, and entertainment was a part of jazz
back in New Orleans. When Armstrong toured Britain in
1932, crowds who had fallen in love with his records grewthe New Orleans Creole Jazz Band, which through person-
nel changes became Oliver’s outfi t.
Armstrong recorded 37 performances, including
“Chimes Blues,” with King Oliver. Th e records are in the
polyphonic New Orleans style, which still did not accom-
modate solo work by individual standouts. Over time, Lil
became convinced that Oliver was holding her husband
back. She surprised Oliver by persuading Armstrong to
quit and take work with Fletcher Henderson’s band in New
York City while she stayed with the band. When Armstrong
returned from his stint in New York, Lil arranged for him
to play under the billing “World’s Greatest Trumpet Player,”
embarrassing him greatly. She left the Oliver band to lead
a band featuring Armstrong. During the late 1920s, Arm-
strong solidifi ed his reputation as history’s most infl uential
jazz musician with his recordings with the Hot 5 and Hot
7—bands put together for the sole purpose of recording in
studios—including “Heebie Jeebies,” in which he sang scat.
Legend had it that this was the fi rst recorded scat singing
and that it had come about when Armstrong dropped the
music. However, it is not the fi rst recorded scat singing
and seems too purposeful to have been caused by dropped
music. Th ese sessions also yielded “West End Blues,” which
opened with a nine- measure Armstrong cadenza that is
possibly the most famous solo in jazz.
In 1931, Armstrong made a triumphant return to New
Orleans. Eight jazz bands and a large crowd greeted him at
the train station. He visited the Waifs’ Home, sponsored a
baseball team, and had an honorary cigar named for him.
When a racially charged misunderstanding led to the can-
cellation of a free concert for blacks, Armstrong vowed to
come back to give a secret concert for blacks only, which he
did in 1935.
For years, while still married to Lil, Armstrong lived with
a girlfriend, Alpha Smith. He fi nally obtained a divorce from
Lil in 1938, just in time to marry Alpha as their relationship
began to disintegrate. Shortly aft erward, he met a dancer
named Lucille Wilson, known as “Brown Sugar,” at the re-
constituted Cotton Club in New York. In contrast to Alpha,
who Armstrong later complained had an insatiable thirst for
fi ne things he could barely aff ord, Lucille was a grounding
infl uence. She bought them a home in Corona, Queens, cre-
ating the kind of home base Armstrong had done without
for years. Th ey remained married for the rest of his life.
Many jazz critics saw Armstrong’s 1930s swing period
as inferior. In the 1940s, Armstrong criticized the innovative