How Would Louis Armstrong Perform Today?
Do you prefer Louis Armstrong singing or playing the trumpet? Cue the "Why not both?" meme, I know. It's just a thought that came to me while playing one of his records this morning.
My wife and I were having breakfast together, which is kind of rare because she usually gets up before I do. I asked if she had any music requests as I fired up my hi-fi corner. "Something with trumpets." Louis, it is. But when I started playing the record, "Singin' N' Playin'," I realized it sounded more like "Singing' Or' Playin'".
Louis is from an era of live performances. Playing covers and standards to please the crowd. I'm no historian, just a fan, but am I right to assume that he gradually became more and more known for his singing as opposed to his horn-blowing? Of course, he has one of the most iconic and pleasing voices in all of popular music history. His trumpet playing was also outstanding, but not as easily apparent? So, later in his career, more singin' and less playin', right? I mean, he couldn't do both at the same time.
But what if he could? I saw the movie 'Ray' once, maybe not all the way through. There's a scene where he's introduced to multi-track recording, so he foregoes the house band and plays all the parts himself. Is that right, or did I fever dream that scene? Whether it's accurate or not, that's just an example of how technology changed the way people performed. What if Louis had access to the same technology (if he didn't) or even more? What if he could decide to sing over his trumpet playing? What kind of music would he have made? Let's take it a step further; what if it changed the way he performed live? He could have had a live looping setup, with a pedal to activate an on-the-fly record-and-playback feature. Where would that have taken him? Would he have gone off the deep end like Miles did (in the best possible way)?
Okay, coffee's done. It's just fun to think about. No need to AI-generate a video of this scenario.