Louis Armstrong

by Jon B
(New Orleans)

Technically, "Brownie" (Clifford Brown) is probably the greatest-- he puts down the rhythmic and the harmonic and the melodic together better than anyone. As far as manipulating the trumpet-- of course there is Freddie Hubbard. But as Miles (who brought the heroin that Clifford brown took out of jazz trumpet-- from Bird, back to the instrument) says, "we all follow Louis Armstrong."


I think its hard now to see how Satchmo changed everything. Like Shakespeare he has become kind of like the vernacular, which makes him almost invisible. It really takes going back and re-listening to Louis Armstrong to really appreciate how great he was...