Author Ricky Riccardi‘s roles as Archivist and as Director of Research Collections at the Louis Armstrong House Museum in Queens, New York afford him unprecedented access to Satchmo’s personal and vast archive, the great man having accumulated a huge quantity of letters, tapes, photos and autobiographical material over his long and spectacular life.
In his role as author, Riccardi has, over the last decade or so, completed a trilogy of biographies of Armstrong each focusing on a particular period. The first of these, What A Wonderful World (2011) represents the most comprehensive analysis of Louis’ later years so often overlooked by biographers. The second, Heart Full Of Rhythm (2020), puts Pops’ middle years under the microscope.
Each has an important role in our understanding of jazz history, both of these periods have been routinely ignored by writers in favour of what they see as Louis’ pioneering years of the 1920’s and early 30’s.
Having completed both books Riccardi was then left with something of a dilemma; how to complete a reverse-trilogy and retell the story of Louis’ childhood and rise to fame through his tenure with King Oliver and his subsequent world-changing recordings with his famed Hot 5 and Hot 7 groups?
These years have been well documented by countless writers including Armstrong himself with his wonderful My Life In New Orleans (originally published in 1954). So, what was left to tell?
Riccardi’s tireless research fuelled by his obvious love of Louis Armstrong has, thankfully, unearthed much that hasn’t been told to date – principally the most complete account of Louis’ family tree and childhood years that we’re ever likely to get.
On top of this, access to Armstrong’s unedited manuscript for My Life In New Orleans fills many holes in the story, some of them unpublishable in the 1950’s but presented here at last.
As a result, Stomp Off, Let’s Go allows us to look into the early life of a genius with fresh eyes.
The story of Louis’ childhood days makes one wonder how he even managed to survive let alone change the face of popular music and jazz by the time he was in his early 20’s.
In the first few chapters we finally get to know something of Louis’ mother Mayann and his sister Beatrice; both tough, troubled women who clearly inspired Louis and, arguably, along with a handful of other colourful characters, taught him to stay grounded and realistic throughout his extraordinary life. He would forever treat a janitor or a member of royalty as equals. As much as is humanly possible, Louis KNEW who he was and what he was worth without the need of an over-inflated ego.
But, what we’re really here for is the music. How did a child growing up in abject poverty manage to find ANY time or headspace to realise his talent let alone exercise it? This, after all, was a boy who was working to help support his family from the age of five!
Riccardi’s book gives one the impression that the young Louis was a musical sponge who would hear melody in every chaotic noise that New Orleans could offer, and still offers, as he roamed the streets.
Armstrong’s love of Italian opera and Jewish folk melodies particularly leap out as something of a ‘missing link’ in his musical DNA. Historians have always attempted to place Louis in the lineage of early jazz trumpeters without being able to answer the obvious question of how he ended up sounding completely different to them. These external musical influences finally give us the answer. For example, now we know why Armstrong is still the only jazz musician that truly exploited the cadenza; an operatic device unheard in jazz until Louis came along and made it one of his lifelong trademarks.
To use one of Louis’ onstage remarks Stomp Off, Let’s Go “keeps it rolling” as he travels to Chicago in 1922 to join King Oliver’s band. It’s here that his extraordinarily mature playing is first heard by northern musicians who react as though an alien has arrived from outer space. It’s also here that he meets Lillian Hardin, Oliver’s pianist, who soon becomes Mrs Armstrong and it’s here that Louis trumpet is heard on record for the first time.
Lillian emerges as the unsung hero of Louis’ creative life. She’s the one that helps him with his harmonic knowledge, writes songs with him and ultimately makes him realise that he should become the frontman that he became – “I don’t want to be married to a second trumpet player, I want you to play first!”
From there we travel to New York where the great Fletcher Henderson awaits along with Don Redman and Coleman Hawkins; a trip Louis wouldn’t have taken had Lillian not forced him! For the next year or so, Armstrong owns the New York jazz scene as he had in Chicago.
Then it’s back to Chicago for the famed Hot 5 and Hot 7 recordings that literally changed the face of music; jazz’s ‘Rosetta Stone’ moment.
Between 1926 and 1929 Louis Armstrong changed the lives of every jazz and popular instrumentalist, vocalist and performer in both the USA and across Europe.
Riccardi tells this tale of a musical tsunami as a historian and a fan equally. He brings the trials, tribulations and triumphs of a young genius back to life in a way never quite told before.
Stomp Off, Let’s Go takes its place alongside Riccardi’s previous two Armstrong biographies as the definitive telling of an incredible story.
And, if that wasn’t enough, Ricky has also created a Spotify playlist of important Armstrong recordings, in chronological order; the perfect soundtrack to all three of his wonderful books on the great Satchmo!
