The Great Ambassador

Louis Armstrong's All Time Greatest Hits; Louis Armstrong, trumpet and vocals

Our family didn’t take many vacations. One hundred and fifty cows depended on Dad for daily food and water. Every now and then, we would decide to take a day off to visit Ft. Sisseton, Sica Hollow, Newton Hills or Palisades State Parks in South Dakota. Maybe we would meet the Minnesota relatives half way and have a picnic in Redwood Falls or New Ulm, Minnesota.

It was when the kids left the roost and took up residence in places further away than a day trip that Dad became “The Great Ambassador”. Before embarking on an adventure such as the time Mom and Dad came to one of my graduate recitals at CCM in Cincinnati, or when they flew to Philadelphia to see Mom’s sister, Dad would go around in the community to collect hats at the grain elevator, pens from the bank, lapel pins in the shape of South Dakota at the Bruce Market, bottles of honey from Adee’s Honey Farm, all kitchy things that he could give as souvenirs to family members and newly made friends who would probably never get around to coming to South Dakota.

After my recital at CCM, whenever I had a lesson at my teacher’s house, Mr. M. would show up at the door wearing the seed corn cap that Dad gave him. Mr. M., really, you don’t have to wear the cap whenever I come over. “Oh, yes, I do. Your father made me promise that I would.” Once, in Enon, OH, as Dad was lightening his suitcase of South Dakota souvenirs by dressing up the cousins in caps, Mom rhetorically asked, “Oh, Lord, what is he doing now?” To which my sister K. replied, “He’s ambassadating.”

The finest musical ambassador to the world that ever ventured from our shores was none other than the great Satchmo, Louis Armstrong. There was no heart warmer, no good will more genuine, no music richer than what embodied the human spirit – yes, all encompassed in one soul – inside this emissary of jubilation and benevolence. The degree to which Mr. Armstrong contributed to jazz, American music and music universal will forever remain incalculable. Many, rightly so, have declared him the most important musician of the 20^th century. I wouldn’t argue with anyone who made these points. But Mr. Armstrong’s greatness came further down the road than his musical accomplishments.

Music served only as a podium for Pops. The gravelly voice and the innovative trumpet sound only provided a means for something bigger. The music furnished a conduit through which he could express the natural exuberance and magnanimity of his charitable persona. When it comes right down to it, the songs and trumpet solos were immaterial; remove all else about the man and we’re left with pure and absolute joy.

Louis Armstrong has been gone for almost thirty-nine years and, to this day, he still “ambassadates”. My sister D. picked up one of his CD’s to play in their SUV when they go on long trips. When he was seven or eight years old, my nephew N. took a particularly bright shine to the song “It Takes Two To Tango”. Every time that tune came up on the playlist, they had to play it twice because N. grooved on it in a big way. For that reason, I made sure that I had my own copy of that same CD so that I could listen to ol’ Satch, sing a catchy little tune, think about my nephew, and know profound bliss.

Credits: To Mr. Louis Armstrong, for rising above race to share the best part of who he was with anyone who wanted to have it.