Pipa Bill

"I named him"Pipa Bill"--Hannah Peverill (granddaughter)

Stories from Pipa Bill

Introduction

Litho Carbon de Centro America, Guatemala, 1962

Exhibits

Computer Papers, Incorporated (COPI)

Louis Armstrong

Stories from Pipa Bill: Louis 'Satchmo' Armstrong

Audio recordings

Louis Armstrong Birthday Bash: August 4, 2009

Louis replaces the Beatles (from AETV.com)

Two legends on the road: Murrow and Armstrong - 60 Minutes Overtime

The Music

This segment of the Louis Armstrong website entry first included uploads from my own Armstrong CD library. These were free,accessible,and provided quality listening. The problem was that they posed copyright issues of special concern to Amherst College. We then replaced them with links to the internet. That music had only one merit: it was free.

I came to this conclusion: we would make use of easily accessed and competitively priced commercial music that would replace almost all of the music found in the two music segments found on the website: 1) The list called "Listen to Louis I" which are the recordings described in the LA memoir and 2) Music found in the liner notes entitled "Listen to Louis II" (Note-the liner notes remain and review the history as well as the performing personnel on each of the recordings).

1) Music from the LA memoir.

Ken Burns's Jazz CD--the Definitive Louis Armstrong--contains all but one of those recordings listed in the memoir. Burns's ten part documentary series JAZZ moves through several decades of jazz but the one artist who dominates the entire sonic/cultural landscape is Louis Armstrong.The Burns CD can be purchased for less than $10.00 and will be shipped in two days. Individual recordings can be purchased for a dollar and can be loaded on your computer or MP3.

We have retained one recording from the list- "The Night Before Christmas." It is viable and is the last recording he ever made.

2) Music listed in the Listen to Louis II Liner Notes

During the 1950s jazz musicians emerged as spectacular cultural ambassadors and Armstrong stood out as foremost among them. (A cartoon in the New Yorker magazine raised the question in a State  Department meeting, "Well, should we send John Foster Dulles  or Satchmo?" The CD "Ambassador Satch" includes live recordings of all but three of those listed in the notes:

  • I'm Confessin'
  • Struttin' with Some Barbeque
  • When You're Smiling

These are important omissions for reasons explained.

The CD can be purchased for less than $10.00 and will be shipped in two days. Individual recordings can be loaded on your computer or MP3 for about a dollar.

I need to add here that a substantial portion of this music can be found in the interviews listed above both of which are extensively punctuated by Louis's music.

Sorry to reach into your pocket but feel you will be rewarded by adding  permanently to your music collection the outstanding contributions of the most important musician of the twentieth century.