Duets for One: Louis Armstrong's Vocal Recordings Author(s): Benjamin Givan Source: The Musical Quarterly, Vol.

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American Musics

Duets

for One: Recordings

Louis

Armstrong'sVocal

Givan Benjamin

In 1926, the composerW. C. Handypublisheda book of song arrangements and originaltunes entitled Blues:An Anthology. While contempothe Harlem Renaissance writers idealized rary spiritualas black music's the book was instead art devoted to the spiritual's secular paramount form, Handy'ssheet music selections were prefacedwith an essay counterpart.1 Abbe a white lawyerand music enthusiastwith whom the comNiles, by It gave a historicaloverviewof had recentlybecome acquainted.2 poser the blues'sorigins,development,and popularization-a narrativeprominently featuringHandyhimself-and surveyedthe music'sstylisticcharacteristicsat some length. Niles also addressed the blues'srelationshipto a more recent musicaltrend known as "jazz." Jazz,he claimed,originatedfroma common featureof twelve-bar less blues melodies,in which "eachline of the wordsoccupiesconsiderably four a than its allotted bars,leaving long wait beforethe next sentence and phrasebegin.... It affordsto the improviser... a space in which his next idea may go throughits periodof gestation.... But to us it is of far greaterinterest that... he can utilizethis space, not as a hold, but as a in which his voice or instrumentmaybe allowedto wanderin play-ground such fantasticmusicalpaths as he pleases."Niles explainedthat "the notes which... follow this rest, fill in the followingbreak,and themselves "3 are called 'the break,'or 'the jazz.' The technique of insertingextemporized material betweenlines of a vocal melodyhas not escapedotherwriters on AfricanAmericanmusic.As earlyas 1899, JeannetteRobinsonMurphywrote of "Negromelodies"in which "around everyprominentnote [the singer]mustplace a varietyof smallnotes, called 'trimmings,"' and "mustalso intersperse his singingwith sounds."4 More Albert Murray recently, singledout the peculiarhumming sameprocedure as a characteristic blueseffect,noting that "thereis always twice as much music in a blueschorusas lyricspace-even approximately when it is a vocal chorusand the singeris performing a cappellaand has to hum and/ordrumhis own fills."5 to Such practicesexemplifythe "tendency

doi:10. 1093/musqtl/gdh009 87:188-218 ? Oxford University Press 2005. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals. permissions@oupjournals.org.

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Duets forOne 189

asa cardinal trait identifies thatOilyWilson fillupallof themusical space"6 American music and evoke the of African making, they quintessential of call-and-response, evenwhentheyare trope Afrodiasporic performance outbyjusta single carried performer.7 chronicler ofTinPanAlley,Isaac Niles's readers wastheearly Among article whoin 1928penned anAmerican Mercury assessing jazz's Goldberg, ownjazz babies andtheirshouting on popular "Our styles. singing impact wrote. mothers... no longer "They Goldberg playthem singtheirsongs," in around ungodly upontheirvoices.Theycoo,theyhum,theyskip of the melody withimitations of the various intervals, theyfillin pauses intothe melody of the instruments. suggestions Theythusinterpolate blues-derived vocaltechniques hadbegunto Evidently accompaniment."8 in the 1927filmThe music. mainstream Jazz Indeed, popular permeate Al even a artist like whose roots in were Jolson, long-established Singer, be line could heard vocables between each of vaudeville, inserting Irving Berlin's "Blue Skies."9 vocalinterpolations as a recentdevelopment, Citing didnot acknowledge theirAfrican American musical Goldberg precedents. Likemanyartistic in transformations, changes popular singing during the 1920swereinfluenced anddemographic shifts-the bysocioeconomic of African Americans fromthe southern statesto migration large-scale the urban where the music institutions were North, industry's mainly suchas the growing based-and technological advances of the ubiquity of and the recent invention radio and the broadcasting phonograph Butstylistic no matter howdeeply in tradition rooted changes, microphone. in broader or embedded cultural werealsoactively trends, wrought bycreativeindividuals. no singlemusician And probably morefullyencapsulatedthe era'smostradical vocalinnovations, andthrough the sheer of his originality andpersonal the courseof degree magnitude shaped American than Louis (1901-71). singing, popular Armstrong Melodic werea consistent feature of Armstrong's interpolations hishalf-century career. will But,as the following throughout singing pages he discovered newwaysto createthesebluesshow,in lateryears entirely derived effects.During the 1920sand 1930s,Armstrong a employed vocaldelivery thattemporally a song's speechlike compressed phrases, insertions. As documented on early creating spaceforextemporaneous his of radical melodies the records, refashionings composed exemplified freedom andspontaneity thatcameto be regarded asfundainterpretative mentalelements of jazz. withan album Bythe 1950s,however, beginning An Anthology, of songsfromHandy's Blues: couldalsoproduce Armstrong in effects a studio vocalsthathe equivalent recording byoverdubbing recorded on separate Thisuseof studiotechnology a tapetracks. signaled reorientation of his artistic toward andpreparation, forethought priorities

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190 TheMusical Quarterly

anda greater deference to the composer's sinceinterpolations authority, no longer suchextreme of the original necessitated revisions song.By useof thissinglevocaltechnique, thisarticle traces Armstrong's exploring of an extraordinarily richmusical Yetthisstrand onlyone strand legacy. weavesthrough issuesas varied in jazz, as the roleof improvisation the of vernacular intersection andpopular andrecording idioms, technology's influence the music's history. throughout is perhaps mostwidely knownas a singer, TodayArmstrong espehis laterrecordings. andcriticshave Still,jazzscholars ciallythrough tendedto focusmoreon his early career as a cornetandtrumpet instrueven while as his vocals influential.10 mentalist, acknowledging comparably in the NewGrove writes Leonard Feather ofJazzthat"ithas Dictionary maleor female,...hascomeunderthe beensaidthateverysinger, rightly workin the 1920sand influence of the unique of Armstrong's impact of Armstrong's is lessa the uniqueness 1930s."11 Significantly, singing thanof itsnovelcontext. of itsintrinsic features Whilehisprincipal product in the mainstream cultural innovations werelargely arena, unprecedented in longstanding musical theywerenonetheless grounded Afrodiasporic suchas an instrumentally oriented andheterpractices singing technique vocal timbre. as Gunther Schuller historogeneous Consequently, argues, underlie icalcontinuities mostapparently Armstrong's stylistic original "Tothe listenerorientedto 'classical' Louis's traits: voice,with singing, comesas a complete its raspandtotallyunorthodox technique,usually of hisplaying, shock....Actually, Louis's is buta vocalcounterpart singing In his singing we can hearall the nuances, andas inspired. justas natural andnatural even the easeof his trumpet inflections, including playing, andshakes. Louis's bendsandscoops, vibrato, singing...hasaddeda new schoolof technique to Western the factthatits music,notwithstanding is completely in origin."12 orientation African monolithic WhileSchuller's Africanist beoverstated,13 may perspective he nonetheless callsattention to a range of subtlemelodic inflections and timbral effectsthatareneitherreadily transcribed intoWestern musical noreasilydescribed thesedifficulties notation, verbally; maypartially ofdetailed thedearth studies ofArmstrong's vocalart.More explain general likeArmstrong's of the between musical Africanisms, boundary blurring to further scrutiny.14 songandvernacular speech,yieldmorereadily ofArmstrong's is thathissinging Oneoutcome speech-based approach is strongly as African marked moreunequivocally so American, arguably a thanhis trumpet vocal also has However, playing.15 speechlike delivery morepurely musical At leastfourfeatures-tworhythmic implications. andtwomelodic-differentiate fromthe dominant speechin general vocalstylesof early-twentieth-century America.16 European-oriented

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Duets forOne 191

is notbased orsimple on theregular metric accents First, spoken expression durational Western notation. ordinarily (Most by prescribed proportions forms of American this were based, "legitimate" during period singing on notatedsources, as sheetmusicwasa widespread even if indirectly, aregenerally meansof transmission.) heldfor Second,spoken syllables thanthoseoftenfoundin singing. durations the shorter Third, phonemes of human as opposed to frequencies, speechtendto haveheterogeneous the stable,fixedpitchesof the Western scale,whichis of coursealsogovernedby a twelvefold division of the octave.And fourth, speechtendsto remain withina narrower thanthe moreextended of pitchambitus range andfurthermore is characterized byconjunct singing, primarily pitch in contrast to theabrupt in songs. thatoftenoccur changes, leaps Armstrong's to varying allof thesespeechlike traits. exhibits, singing degrees, He begansinging the mid-1920s, several professionally during years while as into his career. a with cornetist the bands of Previously, working and Fletcher his to in Oliver Henderson, requests sing public Joe"King" "Igathered hadbeendenied.He laterwrote: thatthosetwoBigshotBoys, + was afraid to let me I'dsortof Joe Fletcher, just sing,thinking maybe, ruintheirreputations, withtheirmusical thatI Theynot knowing public. all mylife,in Churches, hadbeensinging, etc.I hadone of the finestAll thateverwalked the streets of New Orleans. So yousee? BoysQuartets was into thanthetrumpet."17 Henderson Singing more myBlood, Eventually, "heaskedme if he couldsinga number....I knowI wondered recalled, do withthatbigfishhornvoiceof his,butfinally whathe couldpossibly I toldhimto tryit."18 In 1924,Armstrong's voicewasfirstheardon record in twoshortspoken breaks on the Henderson Orchestra's "Everybody A yearlater,whenhe led the firstof the classicsmallLovesMyBaby."19 knownas the Hot FivesandHot Sevens,he wasfreeto sessions group hisvocalaspirations andsangon many of thesediscs,whichmainly pursue featured andhis contemporaries. original jazzcompositions byArmstrong On "Gut BucketBlues" introductions for (1925)Armstrong givesspoken eachbandmember, andhissinging is captured forthefirst timeon "Georgia Grind" thansettling that,rather (1926).Theseearly recordings suggest on the of his he the tendedtoward immediately style maturity, occasionally then-fashionable sustained toneswithin "crooning" approach, singing long melodic lines(his1928version "AMonday of Earl Hines's Date" is a good Buttheseperformances stillhavean exceptionally flexible example). rhythmiccharacter, withArmstrong's vocalcontinually around thebeat. shifting he maynot really haveinvented scatsinging, aslegendonce Though in hadit, on "Heebie at least introduced wordJeebies" 1926,Armstrong lessvocalsto a wideraudience withthatHot Fiverecording andothers, "Hotter ThanThat" of thefollowing he made Soonafter, including year.20

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192 TheMusical Quarterly

another decision to adopta newrepertoire: artistic significant comparably the songsof TinPanAlley.As Lawrence Gushee notes,"ageneral hostility to TinPanAlleyandits'commercial' oftenwithstrong ideological product, hasled to a diminished in thisphaseof critical interest overtones,"21 career. it wasonlyafterembracing this"comNevertheless, Armstrong's mercial thatArmstrong's influence product" beganto extendthroughout the popular arena. Tin PanAlleysongshadbeendrawing on vernacular forseveral idioms and of jazzperfordecades,22 Armstrong's promulgation mancetechniques further eroded the vernacular/commercial distinction asjazz became with American music fora largely synonymous popular generation. firstrecorded encounter witha Tin PanAlleytunewas Armstrong's InDecember asaninstrumentalist. 1928he ledanensemble accompanying the singer LillieDelkChristian a song on "IMustHaveThatMan," emblematic of the era'sincreasingly fluidracial andcultural milieu-it wascomposed white Fields and by Dorothy Jimmy songwriters, McHugh, forthe African American revueBlackbirds The Broadway of 1928.23 recorded hisfirstTin PanAlleyvocal,"I March, following Armstrong Can'tGiveYouAnything ButLove," another number Fields-McHugh
fromthe same show.24 Severalmonths later he made his own Broadway

debutin Thomas "Fats" WallerandAndyRazaf's HotChocolates, singing an acclaimed rendition of "Ain't whichhe recorded in July Misbehavin'," of 1929.25 of his from this other records feature Many period songsby African "IfI CouldBe withYou American (ames P.Johnson's composers Blake's One HourTonight" "Memories of You"[1930]), [1930]);Eubie orbyjazz-oriented whitesongwriters likeHoagyCarmichael ("Rockin' Chair" River" Arlen [1929],"Lazy [1931],"Stardust" [1931]),andHarold the Devilandthe DeepBlueSea"[1932],"I've Gotthe World ("Between on a String" andMcHugh, hadwritten forAfrican [1933]),who,likeFields American at Harlem's artists CottonClub.Butby 1930Armstrong was fromMoises material Simon's "ThePeanut already ranging recording Vendor" to suchcuriosities as "Blue YodelNo. 9,"on whichhe andhis Lillian the white(and Hardin wife,pianist Armstrong, accompanied blues-influenced) hillbilly singer Jimmie Rodgers. The record "ICan't thatheralded thisrepertorial diversification, ButLove," GiveYouAnything a features with (small) Armstrong big orchestra. vocalstylehasbegunto band,LuisRussell's Bynowhismature andhis speechlike is especially orientation evidentmidway coalesce, the chorus as he exclaims the line I'd "Gee like to seeyoulooking through swell" of Fields's favored idiom).The pereveryday literary (typical lyricist formance alsoexemplifies ofGoldberg's observations many contemporaneous In Barry on jazz Kernfeld's recentdescription, "While singing. saxophones

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Duets forOne 193

a staid,literal of the melody, offerin the background rendering Armstrong of his newmelody centerslargeparts on repeated introduces fragpitches, between mentsof scatsinging to fillspaces and delivers brief phrases, all theseelements fromthe original line,almost always excerpts placing on it."26 The stylistic wellaheadof orbehindthe beat,rarely noveltyof was illustrated when Ethel rendition Waters recorded vividly Armstrong's a parody of it in 1932.Herself one of the era'smostinfluential singers, wasmoreclosely attuned to mainstream vocalconventions Waters (white) of the day.Accompanied American thanmostotherAfrican singers by she the verse theDukeEllington andopening chorus Orchestra, sings song's in heraccustomed to the published style,remaining original quitefaithful for a alterations and ultrafew subtle rhythmic tongue-in-cheek except mimics correct flourishes. Then,in an abrupt shift,hersecondchorus almost notefornote,replicating its melodic version revisions, Armstrong's is coarser anddeeper Nowhere the between timbre, gulf Armstrong's register. norms andcontemporary castinto sharper relief.27 singing forthe next twodecades of The recordings of 1929set the course an he recorded as instrucareer. these years mainly Through Armstrong's a departure mentalandvocalsoloistfronting SwingErabigbands, typical he hadoften Hot FivesandHot Sevens(though fromthe smaller-scale so than on with ensembles more recordings, large during performed publicly, the 1920s).Not untilafterWorldWarII,withthe formation of the "Allwitha small Tin didhe resume Stars," Meanwhile, regularly playing group. PanAlleysongsremained andmoreover, partof hisrepertoire, partof jazz in general, evenastheirwider receded. Andthough popularity Armstrong's vocalstyleseemed to datelessquickly thanthatof hisearly contemporaries, likeall influential of his uniqueness artists the degree became obscured in hisfootsteps.28 amidthe scores of singers whofollowed the early During whenhisoriginality waslargely 1930s,however, Armstrong's untempered, to completely amounted to a radical newly ability re-imagine published songs of existing notionsof a song's subversion status. Both the writontological ten melody andthe lyrics weretreated as onlyinessential of the elements withsometimes harmonic structure identity, piece's onlyitsbasic remaining intact.Conversely, suchinterpretations wereespecially asseremphatic to a tionsof the performer's text prerogative shape songwriter's according to his ownvision.As the Belgian criticRobert Goffin in 1934, observed "Hotjazzhas... exploded the automatism of musical and composition" ... from the of the execution "dissociat[ed] interpretation 'stenographical' in a finished musical creation whichis asmuchthework of work, resulting
vocals also conveyed a the performer as of the composer."29 Armstrong's sense of free, spontaneousinvention at a time when contemporary critics were increasingly as a attribute of authentic citing improvisation defining

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194 TheMusical Quarterly

And hispersonalized, rein("hot") jazz.30 speechlike singing technique his projection forced of himself as an activecreative rather thana agent, moresubservient interpreter.31 transformative wereat theirzenithon discslike Armstrong's powers "Allof Me," in 1931,theyearof its publication.32 1 juxrecorded Example a transcription of hisvocalagainst Simons andGerald taposes Seymour Marks's The performance shares with"I original melody. manyfeatures Can'tGiveYouAnything ButLove," between including interpolations of the original in the formof scatvocalizations andexclamalyrics phrases tionsalongthe linesof "ohbaby" in the transcrip(thesearebracketed The criticGary Giddins describes it as "asublime demonstration tion).33 of a stylethatgivesthe illusion of self-accompaniment. [Armstrong's] extendandanswer the vocallineencompassed interpolations... by the in an Giddins elaborates interview that resonates with lyrics proper."34 1928article: Goldberg's hadanability which was ofimprovising the [Armstrong] quite spectacular vocal almost asifhe were asfreely aninstrument, andmore than playing ofsinging themelody andthensinging hisown that,he hada way phrase to it. Sohe might andthenhe'd like,'Allofme,' obbligato gosomething andit might ofa guttural bekind like babe],' go'[Oh youknow, thing, orsomething likethat.Butyoucould almost that 'Hmmg,' transpose to a when to another instrument. So hisgreat saxophone obbligato, youhear it almost sounds aretwoorthree likethere allof vocals, people producing
thesephrases.35

To createspacefornewmaterial betweenlinesof the original lyrics, usesrhythmic As written, diminutions. "Allof Me"hasno Armstrong eachfour-bar witha note of at concludes spacebetween phrases; phrase leastfourbeats'duration until the next downbeat. lasting phrase's shortens theseheldnotes,in keeping withhis Armstrong consistently This is in orientation. stylistic speechlike procedure especially pronounced in two full bars the m. 11,wherethe lyric"losethem," original, spanning nowoccupies andlikewise atm. 15,on thewords "use them." justtwobeats, in Example 1 fulfill The interpolations several bracketed structural to fillspaces functions. One is simply betweenthe compressed melodic in as the obbligato-like scattedarpeggio at m. 8, and phrases, descending the exclamations "Ohbaby" at m. 16 and"mmm" at m. 24. A second function relates to another of the transformation. melody's aspect original omits of the intervallic Armstrong many published song's substituting leaps, flatter melodic contours thatremain withina fairly narrow For ambitus. in mm.2-3, spanning thewritten a minor seventh interval melody example, into simply betweenC andD, is transformed a reiterated D-natural.

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Duets forOne 195

0:52
AI

(J = 140)

,--3

Original melody

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Bb

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F7

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of me,

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r rF
I

Armstrong(-

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Why not take Flattenedcontour

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all of me ba - by? mm Echo Oh,

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can't you see? mm I'm_ no good

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with-out you. Diminution

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I want to

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Example 1. Louis Armstrong:vocal chorus on "All of Me" (1931). ALL OF ME. Words and music by SeymourSimons and Gerald Marks.? Copyright 1931 by Bourne Co. and MarlongMusic. Copyright renewed. All rights reserved.Internationalcopyrightsecured.Used by permission.

the original Likewise, phrasein mm. 17-19, a repetitionof the samematerial, is altered to within a range of a perfect fourth (B-flat-E-flat), and again is on the pitch D. These contractionsof the originalpitch based primarily

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196

The MusicalQuarterly

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all, oh babe,

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why not take

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mm- me?

Example1. continued

range enable Armstrongto interject materialthat, owing to disjunct melody registraldisplacements,suggestssubordinateechoes of the primary in mm. at a lower octave, such as the "mm"in m. 4 and "mm-wah-day" 19-20. Interjectionscan also imply an inner harmonicvoice, as in the notes G-G-flat-F on the words "Oh baby"in mm. 11-12 that descend from the root to the seventh of the underlyingG-minorharmony,contonicized status (by the precedingapplied verting it fromits temporarily dominant D-seventh) into a passingharmonywithin the largercycle-offifths progressionthat reestablishesthe home key at m. 17. In a similar in m. 28 creates an anticifashion, the interpolatedF-E-flat on "oh-mm" patoryresolutionof the seventh of a G-seventh harmonyto the third of a

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Duets forOne 197

C -minor-seventh the corresponding (witha flattedfifth)during cycleof fifthsin the chorus's secondhalf. once remarked that"Ifigure is the andplaying singing Armstrong of Schuller's same"36 (a corroboration citedabove),andhis commentary, sometimes containstratified melodies analogous trumpet improvisations to thoseof hisvocals.Thisis a fairly common instrumental jazz practice in 1948linkedto bluesantecedents thatthe writer Finkelstein (as Sidney hadNilestwodecades that"theantiphonal, duetcharbefore), observing acterof the bluesmelodic line... carries overinto the hot solo itself.... [I]fwe examine the manygreatbluessolosof jazz, suchas those of Louis Dodds,andSidney Bechet,we willfindtwo Armstrong, Johnny melodic lines laid down within the same solo,as if the one contrasting both melodic lead and were the the or instrument playing accompaniment Morerecently, the riffandthebreak."37 ScottDeVeaux noted decoration, his solo "If I Be thatasArmstrong on Could with You One begins trumpet is if HourTonight" "it as two levels were simulta(1930), operating in the upper of the diatonic in long the unfolding 'lead' neously: register notevalues andanopen,singing of theunderlying tone,andthearticulation in sixteenth-note asidesthatimply a double-time harmony feeling."38 in an extensiveanalysis of Harker, Alongthe samelines,Brian recorded fivedifferent solos,identifies Armstrong's trumpet typesof a technique melodic the]original including of"play[ing melody, paraphrase, butadd[ing] extensive melodic embellishments andinterpolations as well Thisprocedure asnewrhythms."39 recalls oft-cited Armstrong's description I plays of his ownimprovisational modus "Onthe firstchorus operandi: I playsthe melody on the secondchorus the melody, around the melody, I routines."40 The secondof these,"play[ing] andon the thirdchorus the is around the to vocal melody melody," equally applicable Armstrong's on "Allof Me." "around the melody" are,at the same Armstrong's interpolations of reminiscent Literal time,strongly call-and-response. call-and-response a familiar to him,andon manyrecords he singsor was,of course, practice in duets or an accompanimental melody playseithera primary obbligato In early withothermusicians. with female blues like performances singers cornetobbligato BessieSmith,he intersperses between their figures sung hisclassic of "West EndBlues" a chorus (1928)features recording phrases; his scatvocalizations of call-and-response between andJimmy Strong's and on "Too one his of earliest vocalduets, clarinet; (1928), Busy" scatsan accompaniment to LillieDelkChristian's lead.In Armstrong in similar laterdecades he participated vocaldialogues withartists like andJackTeagarden. EllaFitzgerald Giddins evenpointsout thatin famous duetwithTeagarden on Hoagy Carmichael's Armstrong's

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198 TheMusical Quarterly

"Rockin' Chair,"recordedlive at New York'sTown Hall in 1947, at one is aboutto sing a responseand Armstrongrollsover him point "Teagarden with a scat break."41 the relevantpassagefrom"Rockin' Chair"; Example2b transcribes the upperstaffcontainsthe publishedmelody,the middlestaffTeagarden's In the fourthbarof the excerpt, vocal, and the lowest staffArmstrong's.42 duringthe second chorus'sbridge,Teagarden's(spoken,ratherthan sung) deliveryof the lyricis abruptlytruncatedby the responseto Armstrong's latter'sascendingscatted figure (bracketedin the transcription), with audiblelaughterfromthe audience. Equallyrevealingare Armstrong's vocalizations duringthe firstchorus,excerptedin Example2a. Here the roles are reversed:Teagardensings the originallyric,and Armstrong interjectsresponsesthat, despiteTeagarden's presence,still tend to fulfill roles. Brackets indicate that multiple Armstrongaddsa prolongedscat sylof his vocal range,at the end of almost toward the bottom lable, pitched These generally everysungresponse. overlapwith Teagarden's succeeding phrase (e.g., m. 3, m. 5), functioningas concurrentaccompanimental tones ratherthan as interpolations.In mm. 12-13, he executes threedissuccession: a response tinct rolesin immediate echoingTeagarden's previous line ("Heavenshe be");a scatted figure ("baba ba");and a low-register tone beneath Teagarden's next phrase ("ahhh"). In "Rockin'Chair,"Armstrong's jocularinterruptionof his duet partnersuggeststhat he may have consciouslyconceptualizedsung interpolationsas implyinga second voice, ratherthan as simplya stratified univocal melodic line. Severalother recordings evince a similaractive intent. On his 1931 disc of Carmichael's River," "Lazy Armstrong, reversing the more usualroles of wordsand scat syllables,interjectsthe spoken selfcommentary,"Oh,you dog! Boy, am I riffin'this evening, I hope someAnd even earlier,on thing,"duringa double-timescat improvisation.43 the 1927 Hot Seven recording"GullyLow Blues,"he interpolatesboth spoken and sung responsesbetween lines of each twelve-barblues chorus the blues convention describedby Niles the previousyear).44 (illustrating But Armstrong's propensityfor what were, in effect, one-man vocal duets found its ultimateexpressionin severalnotable recordingsfromhis later career. In 1954, Armstrong's release manager, Joe Glaser,securedthe artist's froma recording contractwith the Decca company,enablinghim to record forproducer The outcomewasa pair Records. GeorgeAvakianat Columbia of discs on which Armstrongused recentlyinvented studio technologyto createmoreliteralillusionsof the duetlikeeffectsdocumentedon his earlier a processthat had been recordings.He did so by means of overdubbing, used occasionally-in filmsas well as in sound recordings-since the early

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Duetsfor One

199

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S'
-et Aunt Har-ri mmm

Example 2a. Amstrong and Teagarden:vocal duet on "Rockin'Chair"(1947). Rockin' Chair. Words and music by Hoagy Carmichael. Copyright( 1929, 1930 by Songs of Peer, Ltd. Copyright renewed.This arrangementcopyright? 2004 by Songs of Peer, Ltd. Internationalcopyrightsecured. All rights reserved.Used by permission.

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200

The MusicalQuarterly

12

Gm7(65)

C7

Fm7

Send me

a sweet char - iot

forthe

p #lpr -

7 3 b ba a ba -

J. ahh Oh Char-i- ot mm -

Hea-ven she be

15

i\ N,\1
Bbm7
3

J
Ab7 D, of the trou-ble I see. of thetrou-ble I see.

Io
DbM7 01' O1'

J-1
rock-in' chair rock-in' chair

end end

j, j
18

I, '
.

r
My

3 --I
sweet che - rie

ahhh

mm

I~,,J~
Abm7

.
Db7

1I .
GbM7

1
Cb9

git's it.

I
judg-ment day's al - most here.

i\\
2a. Example

i ^
continued

mm rock-in' chair git it fath-er mmm-

nrr<^i

jJ

'

1930s, but which only became widespread with the advent of magnetic audio tape in the late 1940s.45 Armstrong had bought a reel-to-reel tape recorder shortly after they became available and privately enjoyed taping himself playing along with his own records.46 His first album for Columbia, recorded in Chicago over three days in of July 1954, was Louis Armstrong Plays W. C. Handy.47 Evidently Handy's

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Duetsfor One 201

Published melody

3:33 I AI
vI

( 0 = 70) (e= bk, " lb bv l

*l

1 I

, 1."

Teagarden-"v

, l 7, GP D I.U. b, U

rI I

3--

Spoken
1, 11 3 3 I I

Yes son

how long in hea-ven she be?

Armstrong-

V\\

oA

l r-r -t
My dear old

M
Aunt

hMm uh - mmm

Har-ri - et

-6,1\
Db,M7

I
*
B

JX

.
Spoken

I
I9 _ l'
get ov-er th-

-fr
6,1h
7
Y'

? II
Yeah

r rr

OW Ba do do do doo zo zoo zuh

Way up

in hea-ven she be.

Gm7(b5)

C7

Fm7

(Audience Laughter)

[""\} ~ q:_
Oh

r f l|-l r l
Char- i oh

J I_woh

l
mmm

cha-ri cha-ri cha-ri

Armstrong and Teagarden: vocal duet on "Rockin' Chair" (1947). Rockin' Chair. Example 2b. Words and music by Hoagy Carmichael. Copyright ? 1929, 1930 by Songs of Peer, Ltd. Copyrights renewed. This arrangement copyright ? 2004 by Songs of Peer, Ltd. International copyright secured. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Blues:An Anthology, which had appearedin a new edition in 1949, was on hand duringthe recordingsessions:all the songs on the albumappearin are loosely based on the the book, severalof the band'sarrangements sheet music (especiallyduringthe opening ensembles), and Avakian's

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202 TheMusical Quarterly

essay.Avakian originallinernotes quote directlyfromNiles's introductory later recalledthat Armstrongand the All-Starshad had little time for in the studio,sometimes so they did a good deal of rehearsing preparation, with the tape rolling.After the sessionswere over, Avakian returnedto New Yorkoffices,where both Armstrongand Handyhimself Columbia's were presentas he edited the final mastertapes,often by splicingtogether separatetakes.48 When the albumwas reissuedin 1997, Avakian wrote new liner for the first notes recountinghow Armstrongcame to use overdubbing time. ApparentlyclarinetistBarneyBigardhad playedan obbligatobehind and even afterseveral vocal on the song "AtlantaBlues,"49 Armstrong's heard. "Wewent out later to be too low level remained takeshis recording "'I know Barneywas fishing for ham and greens,"Avakian remembered. for overtime,'saidLouis.'Youcan't reallypull him up that much, can you?' him I said,'Pops,I wason to him all the way,but I didn'twant to embarrass in frontof the guys.We'll wait till you'rein New York.Come to the studio and I'll overdubyou with earphones,blowingagainstyourown voice.' 50 both a trumpet And so it was. In New York,Armstrongoverdubbed and a scatted vocal obbligatoonto the originaltape of "AtlantaBlues." in Example3, has clear parallels transcribed The releasedperformance, with his earlierrenditionof "All of Me,"except that overdubbing permits and him to conceive and execute the discreteroles of melodic interpreter a of swift than rather by process obbligatist separately, accompanimental alternationin real time. how closelyrelatedArmstrong's Blues"alsodemonstrates "Atlanta A be. and could good dealof accompanimental singing trumpet playing firstsixteen heard on melodicfiguration, duringthe chorus's initially trumpet at the corresponding recursas vocalizations measures, pointsas the same motiveat mm. 3-4 harmonicstructure repeats.Forinstance,the trumpet a as scatted returns(witha slightrhythmic modification) gesturein mm. in mm. in mm. 7-8 appears 23-24;51and the 19-20; a variantof the phrase the scat vocal in mm. 30-31. trumpetfigurein mm. 14-15 resembles Lessthan a year afterrecordingthe W. C. Handy album,Armstrong made a second recordfor Columbia,SatchPlaysFats,featuringcomposiWith Avakian againproducingthe sessions,the tions by Fats Waller.52 artistrevisitedseveralof his earlysuccesses,including"Ain'tMisbehavin'," and followedup on the previousyear's"AtlantaBlues"with two more Out overdubbings-a trumpetobbligatobehind his vocal on "Keepin' of MischiefNow," and a vocal duet on "I'veGot a FeelingI'mFalling," in Example4. transcribed while Here, Armstrongstill interjectsfiguresthat fill space between of the melody,he also often sings simplecountermelodiesthat phrases

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Duetsfor One 203

(J = 188)
1:52
A

Bb7

Vocal 1

btA

Oh

IJ

I J
I know

J
that

1 I
I'd be sat- is -

h hIj$
fled

I
E

Trumpet

| II I 11J

AJ

|^

B,7

Vocall

'_

if I

J
could grab

.
a trainand ride

Trumpet ~'~

~ -J-l |-

I ~

FI

F7

A7

Dm

G7

L Vocall |IJ 1J
If Trumpet

JI J

J
make At -

IjJ
lan- ta with no

place to go just

r'J

IJ

13

F/C

C7

I- l F Vocal

r
a

L ^
pal- let

JI
on

|
the floor.

I
So

make me . Trumpet

ILJ J
F

17

Bb7 t b

5:3

Vocall

LJ_

J 1

J
my

J
re-gards

. I'm .
a - aa a - ua

give ev-ery-bo-dy
Vocal2 2

I |

I
Duuu ul-uccay

Example 3. Louis Armstrong:vocal chorus on "Atlanta Blues"(1954). Atlanta Blues. Written by William C. Handy and Dave Elman. Handy BrothersMusic Co., Inc., New York.Internationalcopyright secured.EMI London, England.Used by permission.

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204

The MusicalQuarterly

21
A

Bb7 -

Vocal 1

L1 i. 7
com-in'

.hJ
if
-

I
I have

n'Il

J
the rods.
.

-I-

I v
I'll

to ride

Vocal 2

+
25

~IA7

r rr?ir
bup de bup dip

bu-dee doo-dum doot mm-ay

.-,
3

~1

3--

Vocal 1

,I ., U7 XJ|U L,J
grab me an arm

Dm

,.
-

._
J
yeah

G7

ful of train

be - fore you know,

so

Vocal 2

J
yeah

I- IJ man
C7

I
man

29 Vocal 1

F/C

make me Vocal 2I
#0.1

pal - let

on

the floor.
..

-Jm

J m
mm

pI

. let

on
on

the fl
the floor.

pal - let

3. Example

continued

expressstrandsof the harmonicvoice leading,much like the impliedinner voices in "All of Me." The lead and obbligatovocals on "I'veGot a Feeling I'm Falling" overlapand interrelatein ways that would of course have been impossible without using separatetape tracks.At mm. 12-13, duringthe second AABA form, and again at the coreight-barsection of the thirty-two-bar final the eight measures(mm. 28-29), Armstrong respondingpoint during one bar after this lyric the word an echo of "falling" sings obbligato appearsin the lead voice (in m. 12). Precedingthe echo of"falling"(on Anatural)is a melodic line descending throughthe pitches D-flat-C-B-flat (scattedin mm. 12-13, andsungto the words"Ohyes I'm..." in mm. 28-29). The descendinghalf-stepD-flat-C articulatesa suspensionand resolution that replicatethe bass-linemotion D-flat-C between the second half of m. 11 and the downbeat of m. 12. Thus, both the text and the pitch content to the "call"of the lead of the superimposed obbligatoline "respond"

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Duetsfor One 205

0:52
A I

(J = 172)

Original Melody Bl7 Vocal 1

J rr' 11 IIb t Ti
El

D7

El

p
r
a

Gm7(bS)/Dl

A^<-bII

vr
Now

IIJ
I'm

lfT
fly-ing high

but I've got

~i r

r'Tr
J IO Oh

'

feel - ing

I'm

Vocal 2

11
IOh Oh
ooh

-J
C7

I Jh

J J Li h. Igh.h__h

Io
El Gbdim

y^"Jb-,
fall-ing yeah 8

1 . JiJ U-iJ
Fall-ing for no -bo-dy Yeah

F7

/
else

I1Bl7

rY
but

IJ
you.

.
Ba ba do do duh

-i'J ?
Fm7

Bl7 Ma-ma

IJ rfI
El

r IJ ~n"J
You

my

D7

El

r 1
Gm7(,5)/Dl

If
eye I've got a

r
feel-ing I'm

caught

i
zah 12

JEr*l. . v I
zu zay

b-._
ba do do duhduh

IpJ Idoh

I,J.
yeah

~ I

ib"lJ
C7

I
F7

4
3 -

J Io
Bb7 and I'll

J I
Eb

A{qJ
fall-ing oh -

~ I1-Jj
show me the ring mm fall - ing

bIJ1
jump

J IJ.
right through. Ba-bu-da-lum

~ I
dee

Example 4. Louis Armstrong:vocal chorus on " I've Got a Feeling I'm Falling"(1955). I'VE GOT A FEELING I'M FALLING. By HarryLink, Billy Rose, and Thomas Waller. ? 1929 (renewed) Chappell & Co. (Ascap). All rights reserved.Used by permission.Warner Bros. PublicationsU.S. Inc., Miami, Florida33014.

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206

The MusicalQuarterly

16

jILJ
t
^

Ii
Blm7

'\r
Eb7

r
r
sin- gle

I
Al

r
C7/G

J.
I

j
used

j
to

1.
trav -

L
el

-r
0

r
we chanced

? X-

to

U jX dee 20

i ?
Bop do zay

~I~1

irjj
Bop do

f
zay

' bIq 7J p?birZ

r Fm

Sr
J
Now

J
G7/D Dbdim

ir r i r-f1 r
Cm7 tin-gle ov -

Bb7

'Tr
er you

I'm

|A24

rf
r

Oh

if ti?
yes

1-

2RtrT
Ba boop

ba do

dee do - oo

iWLr

L;
Mis - ter

IJ mm ^ r zup Oh'-rBa haTdo'do uh"yay

libp ;ZZtrX
El, Gm7(l5)/Db
but I've got a feel-ing I'm

Yeah

par

son

stand

by

~ibal,zup
28

iJ

Oh

mm

? ;i,JS

Ba ba do do - uh

li.J
"
El

yay

I
-H

U17J J
C7

IJh.j,J.j
F7

If' I f
Bb7

I1
B67

fliJn
fall-ing
)

Fall- ing for no

a l inL If
-

11e
bo-dy else

T?
but you.
Tl _

'r-'r ,.--_ I
I

I r.i II;TLnIT]J

Oh

yes I'm

fall-ing

Ba ba do day doh doh dup do zay!

Example 4.

continued

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Duets forOne 207

voice'slyricandits underlying bassprogression, even thoughthe two vocalmotivesaremelodically dissimilar. the wasanomnipresent cul1950s, By technology sound-reproduction turalphenomenon thathadlongceasedto inspire the near-mystical awe thathadgreeted its invention of a century whenit earlier, three-quarters severed an apparently immutable bondbetween thehuman andits subject voice.53 Butoverdubbings couldpotentially createaltogether newillusions of the impossible, theirstatusas not merely expressing unequivocally reifications of transient sonicevents,butas contrived fixed,repeatable to a singlemusical artifacts withno one-to-one relationship performance. Thiseffectwasparticularly salientwithmultiple overdubs of a single human linkedto its producer's voice,sincethe voiceremained strongly individual persona. Forthisreason, of "I've I'm Got a Feeling Armstrong's recording manifests an entirely different set of artistic thanhad Falling" principles "Allof Me"twodecades earlier. As noted,"Allof Me"foregrounded andindividuality, established about countering assumptions spontaneity andmorebroadly, therelationship botha song's on the identity, balancing andon the otherthe perone handthe musical workandits composer, andthe work's realization. To the contrary, "I've Got a Feeling I'm former notionof jazzas a free,improvisathe prevalent Falling" problematizes A self-evidently tionalartform. the recording construction, technological of documenting a "real" liveevent,precluding the forecloses anypretense withimprovisation.54 senseof spontaneity associated ownstatements alsoindicate a diminished on Armstrong's emphasis In his later career. his first creativity during (ghostwritten) spontaneous the SwingErain 1936,he wrotethat during autobiography, published of swingmusicis freeimprovisation."55 "[t]heverysoulandspirit Thirty his priorities: in the he hadadjusted 1960s, evidently yearslater, thesame that's theway I dothatsong Hello way Dolly! every night'cause in theolddays it was likethat-wheneverylikeit.Andevenback people All Whoknows who's was to beimprovising. supposed improvising? body andtheycanplay thesame thetrumpet canhear what youplay players in allhisegothere That's sosillywhen Freddie notes. whyit was Keppard, to keep hisvalves sonobody inNewOrleans used a handkerchief over Andalways, solothat could seewhat he was onceyougota certain doing. it two or fit in thetune,andthat's three notes it, youkeepit.Only vary was hit. There's difif the record a time always every youplay it-specially to there and want be ferent entertained.56 every night, theyjust people an analhis de-emphasis on improvisation bydrawing Armstrong justified of when Era "New the with Orleans" 1920s, style pre-Swing ogy jazz's

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208 TheMusical Quarterly

included-honedfixedsolosthattheywould manyplayers-himself thisperspective, on occasions.57 From closely Armstrong's replicate separate on improvisational freedom the SwingErais castas a during emphasis abandoned.58 not coincidentemporary phasethathe ultimately (Perhaps this to have the reversion seems occurred around same time,or tally, to be to unpreceafter,spontaneous shortly began expression pursued dentedlengths of the newerbebopstyle.)He additionally byproponents characterized his laterstanceas a direct,conscious reaction to recording situation in as Attali which, Jacques writes, technology's ubiquity-a of the record: an audi[hasbecome]a simulacrum "public performance ence generally familiar withthe artist's attends to hear their recordings his live livereplication."59 decision to model Armstrong's performances wasconsistent withhis audience-oriented on his ownrecordings artistic
philosophy.60

Therearetangible devisedthe separate vocal signsthatArmstrong I'mFalling" tracks on "I've Got a Feeling witha degree of premeditation thatis at oddswiththe extemporaneity selfconveyed byeitherhis earlier "All of or like his collaborations with other Conduets, Me," performers. siderthe finalphrase of the melody line (labeled vocal1), whichconcludesin m. 31 not on the stabletonicnote,buton the dominant (B-flat). well have this while selected melodic may Armstrong pitch anticipating track(vocal2).61 the overdubbed The obbligato answers the obbligato witha scattedfigure finalmelodic endingwithan arpeggio phrase up to the resolution line hadevaded. the tonic,providing thatthe melody But themelody track(vocal1) is otherwise faithful to Waller's relatively original abovethe transcription), whencontrasted withthe sub(shown especially stantial melodic revisions seenin "Allof Me."Sincehe usesoverdubbing to createa superimposed secondvocalline,Armstrong no longer needsto andcontractions diminutions of the pitchambitus in rhythmic employ of an accompanimental order to facilitate the illusion voicethatfillsspace andechoesthe primary voiceat a loweroctave.Thus, between phrases is de-emphasized, the authority of the composer and justas spontaneity Thisdeference of the song's formareelevated. to the composer published "ATribute is alsoexpressed subtitle: to the Immortal bythe album's FatsWaller andHisAll-Stars." AndArmstrong's byLouis Armstrong evencontrasts withthe comparatively interpretation markedly respectful irreverent renditions favored Waller when he himself, by including sang
his own songs.62

AbbeNilesidentified melodic When,threedecades earlier, interpolationas jazz's structural he couldscarcely haveenvidefining principle, sionedthatthe effectmightone daybe created usingstudiotechnology. YetArmstrong's useof overdubbing to simulate musical diaone-person

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Duets forOne 209

electronic with sound-processing techniques loguesis justone of countless in traditional musical Other acoustic antecedents Afrodiasporic practices. F. musical as Szwed acoustic-electric John analogues, anthropologist humvocals... as delay; include"closely observes, growling, overlapped andflanging... effects [;]thewashandpanning ming,andbentnotesasfuzz of plungers andhats effectsof choirsandbigbands;[and]the wah-wah in evenposits"vocal African Szwed overhorns." interpolations early andjazzinstrumental as conceptual American 'quotations'" popballadry of electronic forerunners Armstrong's overdubbing represents, sampling.63 useof newtechnology to replicate a conservative at one level,a fairly rather thanto explore freshmusical possibilities. preexisting technique activecollaboration the Butat the sametime,Avakian's prefigured in influence of record the to come. years growing producers Recording enabled to widely disseminate their having initially technology, performers in the artistic craftandthereby now hierarchy, supplant composers allowed record to intervenein the creativeprocess.(Indeed, producers with the tapesrolling,and splicingtogethermaster by rehearsing andAvakiananticipated afterward, by several recordings Armstrong more the methods another famously by years pioneered trumpeter-producer a on the Columbia From label,MilesDavisandTeo Macero.) partnership historical sinceArmstrong's remained anomaoverdubbings standpoint, retained as a coreprinciple, louswithina genrethatlargely improvisation studioproduction the emergence of advanced mayalsohave techniques sincethe music's contributed to jazz's continued declining popularity, was on with the incompatible increasingly emphasis improvisation largely driven commercial musicindustry.64 technologically a styleprivileging HadArmstrong not initially forged individuality his use of andimprovisatory freedom, perhaps subsequent overdubbing wouldhavehada lesspotenteffect.65 of the innovations technology Many on his earlyrecordings, suchas "Allof Me,"arethe verysame captured features thatmakehis lateroverdubbed performances especially pointed of vocalists of spontaneity. withlesspersonalized, Overdubbings rejections moregeneric because stylesareliableto soundlessdisconcerting, theycan in whichsingers resemble ensembles theirindividual homogeneous suppress identities so as to blendtheirvoices.Armstrong, his havingenlivened withhis ownembodied the useof his natural singing through presence an aura of verisimilitude anduniqueness thatis voice,establishes speaking with far when his voice encounters its own finality greater disrupted thatonce enactedjazz's And the vocalinterpolations image. impulse the ironythatthe very nowcontravene toward it, exposing spontaneity ascendance one of thatfostered the music's negated technology popular elements. its principal

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210

The MusicalQuarterly

Notes
A version of this paperwas presentedat the 2002 annual meeting of the American Musicological Society in Columbus,Ohio. 1. Though spirituals were valorizedby earlyHarlemRenaissancecritics like W. E. B. Du Bois and Alain Locke, by the late 1920s youngerAfrican American writerslike Langston Hughes and ZoraNeale Hurstonbegan to focus their attention on the blues and jazz.See Paul Allen Anderson, DeepRiver:MusicandMemoryin HarlemRenaissance Thought of attitudestowardmusic (Durham:Duke University Press,2001). Fora concise summary duringthe earlyHarlemRenaissance,see Guthrie P. Ramsey,Jr.,RaceMusic:BlackCulturesfromBebopto Hip-Hop(Berkeley:University of CaliforniaPress,2003), 111-17. 2. Handy and Niles's collaborationis discussedin Eric Porter,WhatIs ThisThingCalled Musicians as Artists,Critics,andActivists(Berkeley:University of Jazz?:AfricanAmerican CaliforniaPress,2002), 20-26. 3. Abbe Niles, introductionto Blues:An Anthology, ed. W. C. Handy (New York: Albert and CharlesBoni, 1926), 15-16. 4. Jeannette Robinson Murphy,"The Survivalof African Music in America,"Popular Science 55 (Sep. 1899): 665, quotedin PeterVan Der Merwe,Origins Monthly of thePopular The Antecedents Music York: Oxford (New Style: of Twentieth-Century Popular University Press,1989), 134-36; in GaryGiddins, BingCrosby:A Pocketful of Dreams;The Early Years,1903-1940 (Boston:Little, Brown,2001), 229; and in Henry Martinand Keith Waters,Jazz:The First100 Years(New York:Schirmer,2002), 11. 5. Albert Murray, theBlues(New York:McGraw-Hill,1976), 94. Stomping 6. Oily Wilson, "BlackMusic as an Art Form," BlackMusicResearch Journal1 (1983): 3. as the "master 7. On call-and-response trope"of African American music, see Samuel A. Floyd,Jr., The Powerof BlackMusic:Interpreting Its History fromAfricato the United States(New York:OxfordUniversity Press, 1995), 95-96, 229-30, and passim. 8. IsaacGoldberg,"Popular Songs and Their Piano Accompaniments,"The American Mercury15, no. 57 (Sep. 1928): 58-59, quoted in Stanley Dance, liner notes to Dave John Hendricks,and Annie Ross,Singa Songof Basie(Impulse!A-83). (Dance's Lambert, notes appearonly on the Impulse!LP reissueof this album.They do not appearon the original 1958 ABC-Paramountrelease [ABC 223], nor on the currentCD reissue[Verve 314 543 827-2].) We know that GoldbergreadNiles's essaybecausehe cites it in the It (Girard, KS:Haldeman-Julius pamphletJazzMusic:WhatIt Is andHow to Understand into Publications, 1927), 29-32, which wassubsequently incorporated his bookTin PanAlley: A Chronicle Music(New York: Frederick Popular of American Ungar,1961 [1930]),277-79. 9. This performanceis discussedin JeffreyMagee, "IrvingBerlin's'Blue Skies':Ethnic Affiliations and MusicalTransformations," MusicalQuarterly 84 (2000): 558. 10. Sourcesdealing with Armstrong's trumpetplaying include Gunther Schuller, Early andMusical OxfordUniversityPress,1968), 89-133; Jazz:ItsRoots (New York: Development Era:TheDevelopment OxfordUniversity Schuller,TheSwing ofJazz, 1930-1945 (New York: Press,1989), 158-68; H. David Caffey,"TheMusicalStyle of LouisArmstrong," Journal of JazzStudies 3, no. 1 (Fall 1975): 72-96; JoshuaBerrett,"LouisArmstrongand Opera," MusicalQuarterly 76 (1992): 216-41; JeffreyTaylor, "LouisArmstrong,EarlHines, and 'WeatherBird,"' Musical 82 (1998): 1-40; Lawrence Gushee,"TheImprovisation Quarterly

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Duetsfor One 211

Studiesin the Worldof Musical of Louis Armstrong,"in In theCourseof Performance: ed. BrunoNettl with Melinda Russell (Chicago: University of Chicago Improvisation, Press,1998), 291-334; BrianHarker,"'Telling a Story':LouisArmstrongand Coherence in EarlyJazz," Current 63 (1999): 46-83; EdwardBrooks,Influence andAssimiMusicology lationin LouisArmstrong's Cornetand Trumpet Work(1923-1928) (Lewiston:Edwin Mellen Press,2000); GeoffreyL. Collier and JamesLincoln Collier, "A Study of Timing in Two LouisArmstrongSolos,"MusicPerception 19 (2002): 463-83; BrianHarker, "LouisArmstrongand the Clarinet,"American Music21 (2003): 137-58; and Gene Anderson, "The Origin of Armstrong'sHot Fives and Hot Sevens,"CollegeMusicSymposium43 (2003): 13-24. Among the few academicsourceswith in-depth coverageof to Sinatra:Swing and Sub-text,"in Armstrong'ssinging areJohn Potter, "Armstrong VocalAuthority: Singing StyleandIdeology (Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press, "LouisArmstrongand the Syntax of Scat," 1998), 87-112; and Brent Hayes Edwards, CriticalInquiry 28, no. 3 (Spring 2002): 618-49. 11. LeonardFeather,"Singing,"in The New GroveDictionary of Jazz,ed. BarryKemfeld (London:Macmillan,2002), 3:591. In 1936, RudyVallee, in his introductionto firstautobiography, wrote:"ThatArmstrong's Armstrong's delightful,delicious sense of distortionof lyricsand melody has made its influence felt upon popularsingersof our own day cannot be denied. Mr. Bing Crosby,the late RussColumbo, MildredBailey, and many others, have adopted,probablyunconsciously,the style of LouisArmstrong.Compare a recordby Crosby,in which he departsfrom the 'straight'formof the melody and lyric, and then listen to an Armstrongrecordand discoverwhence must have come some of his ideas of 'swinging.'Armstrongantedatedthem all, and I think that most of those artistswho attemptsomethingother than the straightmelodyand lyricas it is written,who in otherwordsattemptto 'swing,' wouldadmit,if they werehonest with themselvesandwith theirpublic,that they have been definitelyinfluencedby the style of this masterof swing ThatMusic[NewYork: Da Capo, 1993 (1936)], xvii). (LouisArmstrong, improvisation" Swing 12. Schuller,Early 73. Jazz,100, quotedin Caffey,"TheMusicalStyle of LouisArmstrong," 13. TravisA. Jackson, for instance,argues that Schuller's of a singular African "positioning musicalpractice as the main sourceof [jazz's] development... devalues the transformation of African musicalpractices in the United States and leads him to extreme positions" as MusicalPractice,"in The Cambridge toJazz,eds. MervynCooke and ("Jazz Companion David Horn [Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press,2002], 84-85). more than anyone, made vernacularspeech 14. John F. Szwedwritesthat "[Armstrong], a part of popularsong" (Jazz101: A Complete Guideto Learning andLoving Jazz [New York:Hyperion, 2000], 112). See also John Potter, "Armstrong to Sinatra,"96-102, and in The Cambridge to Singing, ed. his, "Jazz Singing:The FirstHundredYears," Companion Potter On the close relation54. John (Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press,2000), West Africancultures, see JohnMillerCheroff, shipbetweenspeechandsong in traditional andAfricanSensibility: Aesthetics andSocialActionin AfricanMusicalIdioms AfricanRhythm (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,1979), 80-82. And on the relationshipbetween African American instrumentalmusic and speech, see PortiaK. Maultsby,"Africanisms in African American Music,"in Africanisms in American Culture,ed. JosephE. Holloway (Bloomington:IndianaUniversity Press,1990), 192. 15. The tendency of vocal performances by African Americans (and, conversely,by whites) to be more explicitly raciallymarkedthan instrumentalplayingmay partially explain why, duringthe 1920s and 1930s, raciallyintegratedinstrumentalensembleswere

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far more likely to be recordedthan were integratedvocal groups.Earlyinterracialvocal recordingsinclude Armstrongand Bing Crosby'sduet on "PenniesFromHeaven" (1936) and Anita O'Day and Roy Eldridge's "LetMe Off Uptown" (1941). In the 1936 film The Kid,Al Jolson (sometimes in blackface)and Cab Callowayperformseveralvocal Singing in ArthurKnight,Disintegrating duets (discussed theMusical: Black andAmerican Performance MusicalFilm[Durham: Duke University Press,2002], 72-81). 16. A classic article addressing this issuefroma cross-cultural perspectiveis George List, "The Boundariesof Speech and Song,"Ethnomusicology 7 (1963): 1-16. in His Own Words: Selected ed. Thomas 17. LouisArmstrong,LouisArmstrong Writings, Brothers(New York:OxfordUniversity Press,1999), 64, quoted in RobertG. O'Meally, liner notes to LouisArmstrong: TheComplete Hot FiveandHot SevenRecordings (Columbia/ LegacyC4K 63527). Dan Morgenster reportsthat duringa conversationwith Armstrong in 1970, the artistrecalledthat "Fletcher wouldn'tlet him sing... becausehis gravelvoice the 'dicty,'high-tonedbandleader-though he did let Armstrong do a actuallyembarrassed Bert Williams imitation! It was clear that Armstronghad never forgiven Henderson" Portrait Man: 1923-1934 [Columbia/ (liner notes to LouisArmstrong: of theArtistas a Young LegacyC4K 85670], 50-51). 18. JamesLincoln Collier, LouisArmstrong: An American Genius(New York:Oxford Louis An Extravagant UniversityPress,1983), 133, quotedin Laurence Bergreen, Armstrong: Life (New York:Broadway Books, 1997), 249. 19. Armstrong's voice is heard on only one of two takes. 20. On the genesis of "HeebieJeebies"and earlierscat recordings,see Schuller,The "LouisArmstrongand the Syntax of Scat,"618-22. SwingEra, 166-67 n8, and Edwards, scat syllableson "Hotter BarryKemfeld gives a phonetic transcriptionof Armstrong's Than That" in Whatto Listenfor in Jazz (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995), 168. of these two scat solos appearin William R. Bauer,"Scat Partialmusicaltranscriptions 71-73 (2001-02): 308. Singing:A Timbraland Phonemic Analysis,"Current Musicology Of course,wordlessvocals have been common in other idioms for a long time. Examples include the HasidicNigun, certainNative American song traditions,and countless examples in Western art music. 21. Gushee, "The Improvisationof LouisArmstrong," 312. 22. Discussed in PaulLopes,TheRiseof aJazzArtWorld (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,2002), 19. 23. Assessing this recording's significanceas a symbolof culturalsynergy,Michael Denning writes:"When LouisArmstrongfirstrecordeda Tin Pan Alley song in 1928, 'I Must Have That Man,' he embodied the dialectic that was to dominate American music for a generation,a dialectic between the blues and the Tin Pan Alley 'standard,' between the neighboringurbancommunitiesof working-class African Americansand workingclassJews, Italians,and Poles, between the blues scales of African American music, the scales of Yiddishpopularmusic, and the pentatonic scales of EasternEuropeanfolk frigish The Cultural Front:The Laboring Culturein theTwentieth musics"; of American Century (London:Verso, 1996), 41. A synopsisof Fieldsand McHugh'sinvolvementwith Blackbirds Robinson-as of 1928-whose originalcast featuredAdelaide Hall and Bill "Bojangles" well as their earlierworkfor the Cotton Club in Harlem, is given in DeborahGrace Fields(New York: Winer, On theSunnySideof theStreet:The LifeandLyrics of Dorothy SchirmerBooks, 1997), 26-37.

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24. The attributionof "ICan't Give You Anything But Love"to Fieldsand McHugh has been contested by BarrySinger, who suggestsits authorsmay insteadbe FatsWaller and Andy Razaf(Blackand Blue:The LifeandLyricsof Andy Razaf[New York:Schirmer, 1992], 210-12). See also Paul S. Machlin, "FatsWaller Composes:The Sketches, Drafts, and Lead Sheets in the Institute of JazzStudies Collection," AnnualReviewof JazzStudies 7 (1994-95): 2. 25. Armstronginitiallysangfromthe orchestra pit between acts, but the audience fromthe stage (Morgenstem, responsewasso overwhelmingthat he soon beganperforming Portrait liner notes to LouisArmstrong: Man, 58-59; Bergreen,Louis of theArtistas a Young successof Waller and Razaf'sshow An Extravagant Life,316). The Broadway Armstrong: and Tin points to the oversimplificationinvolved in conflating the worldof Broadway Pan Alley with European(white) culturalforms;this is a very broadgeneralizationon my musical" part.Nonetheless, many studiesof "Americanpopularsong"and "the Broadway have largelyexcludedthe contributions duringthis periodof AfricanAmericancomposers, success.They includeWill MarionCook some of whom achievedsignificantcommercial of 1902 wasthe firstmusicalby an AfricanAmericanto be produced on (whose In Dahomey A P. and Duke book devoted to the Eubie Blake, James Johnson, Ellington. early Broadway), Musical Jazz:Black historyof AfricanAmericanmusicaltheateris ThomasL. Riis,JustBefore in New York,1890-1915 (Washington,DC: SmithsonianInstitutionPress,1989). Theater 590. Although this New GroveDictionary 26. Feather(with Kemfeld), "Singing," of Jazz article lists Featheras the primaryauthorof this passage,I attributeit to Kemfeld because rendition of "ICan't Give You the quotation refersto a transcriptionof Armstrong's is credited to Kemfeld. vocal on this recordingis But Love" that Armstrong's Anything andEssence,trans.David Noakes also discussedby Andre Hodeir in Jazz:Its Evolution (New York:Grove Press, 1956), 163-64. 27. Furtherdiscussionsof Waters'srecordingappearin Ann Douglas,Terrible Honesty: in the 1920s (New York:Noonday Press, 1995), 336, and RobertG. Manhattan Mongrel A Smithsonian Collection(RD 113-1 O'Meally, companion booklet to TheJazzSingers: A5-28978), 54-55. O'Meallycites Gary Giddins'sremarkson Waters:"[I]nmany respects,.. . the mother of modem popularsinging,... Waters adaptedwhite theatrical styles to a black image,... [and]opened the world of high-toned white entertainmentto blacks"(GaryGiddins, Visionsof Jazz:The FirstCentury[New York:Oxford University Press,1998], 52). In 1933 Watersbecame the firstfemale African American artistto star in a show-Irving Berlin'sAs Thousands on Broadway Cheer-featuring a predominantly white cast. In addition to her Armstrongimitation, she recordedparodiesof Bessie Smith in Temples and of Mae West; see RandallCherry,"EthelWaters:The Voice of an Era," for ed. Genevieve Fabreand Michel Feith Backat theHarlemRenaissance, Tomorrow: Looking (Bloomington:IndianaUniversity Press,2001), 116. 28. The notion that an influential artist'suniquenessbecomes obscuredwith the pasjazzfinds its very life in an sage of time is a famousinsight of Ralph Ellison's:"[B]ecause endless improvisationupon traditionalmaterials,the jazzmanmust lose his identity even as he finds it; how often do we see even the most famousof jazzartistsbeing devoured in the publicspotlight?" alive by their imitators,and, shamelessly, ("TheCharlieChristian andAct, reprintedin The Collected Ellison,ed. John F. Essaysof Ralph Story,"in Shadow Callahan [New York:Modem Library,1995], 267). Madeby trans.Samuel Beckett, in Negro:Anthology 29. RobertGoffin, "HotJazz," Universities Cunard York: ed. Press, (New Negro Nancy Nancy Cunard,1931-1933,

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1969 [1934]), 378-79, reprintedin The LouisArmstrong Companion: EightDecadesof ed. JoshuaBerrett(New York:SchirmerBooks, 1999), 58. Commentary, 30. Critics' increasedemphasison improvisationwas in largemeasurea responseto the in big-band"swing" music, which puristsconsidproliferationof notated arrangements ered a commodifiedderivativeof jazz'soriginal, ideal form.Discussedin Winthrop 3rd ed. (New York:Da Capo Press, 1975), 17-18. But Sargeant,Jazz:Hot andHybrid, discourseon swing;see David W. improvisationwas also often valorizedin contemporary Jazzin New Deal America(Cambridge,MA.: Harvard Stowe, SwingChanges: Big-Band University Press, 1994), 4. 31. Giddins notes that, despite the popularityof recordingsby concert artistswith comin singerswho specialized mandingpersonas, duringthe earlytwentiethcentury,"Blandness who thoughtof andpublishers in makingrecords...wasregarded as an assetby songpluggers them as little morethan shillsforsheet music,wherethe realmoneywas"(BingCrosby, 116). 32. Recorded27 Jan. 1931. OKeh 41522; matrix405133-A. Re-releasedon TheJazz A Smithsonian Collection. Singers: used in a jazzinstrumental 33. I discusssimilarsortsof interpolations, context, in "DisconCurrent 71-73 (2001-02): 232-75. tinuity in the Musicof DjangoReinhardt," Musicology 34. GaryGiddins, Satchmo (New York:Dolphin, 1988), 127. 35. See http://www.pbs.org/jazz/about/pdfs/giddens.pdf (sic), p. 63 (accessed 19 Jan. Jazz,by the filmmakerKen 2001). This interview appearsin the 2001 documentary Bums. RobertG. O'Meallycalls attention to the same aspectsof "All of Me":"Humming, riffingbetween the lines-as-written,dissolvinglyricsinto the scatlike phrasesof his own reshapedmelodies, Armstrongvampsand revampsthe song"(companion booklet to The writesof this and other such perA Smithsonian JazzSingers: Collection, 53). And Edwards formances,"scatoriginatesin the way Armstrongfills the breaksbetween the lines of the lyric, accompanyinghimself with horlike comments, and then allows the wordsof the song to bleed over into the commentary,mingling call and responsein a voice that is not one voice, in a voice that seems haunted by another voice or voices" ("LouisArmstrong and the Syntax of Scat,"630). 36. Armstrong,interviewwith RichardHadlock, quoted in Berrett,"LouisArmstrong and Opera,"218. MartinWilliams arguesthat although the melodic content of Armstrong's singing and trumpetplaying is often similar,"the emotional importof voice seems to me differentfrom that of his horn. Armstrong's trumpethas a Armstrong's melodic sweep and a sometimesstaggeringemotional comprehensionand depth;his voice often seems to carryonly a part of the powerof the majestyof his horn"(TheJazz 2nd ed. [New York:OxfordUniversity Press, 1993], 57). Whitney Balliett, Tradition, however,weighsthe comparison differently: "[Armstrong's] singingwasmoreof a distillation and the free of his trumpetwork.He usedthe samerhythmictricks,the improvisation, in his playing-the high notes and the by-rote emotion,but he eliminatedthe impurities A Journal Works: Press,2000], (Collected ofJazz1954-2000 [New York:St. Martin's figures" 817). Music(New York:The Citadel Press,1948), 118. 37. Sidney Finkelstein,Jazz:A People's A Social andMusical 38. Scott DeVeaux,TheBirth History(Berkeley: University of Bebop: of CaliforniaPress,1997), 83-84. A transcriptionand briefcommentaryon this performance appearin Schuller, The SwingEra, 168-69.

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39. Harker,"Tellinga Story,"52. Harkeralso hypothesizesthat Armstrong's frequent melodic embellishmentsmay reflect the influence of New Orleansjazz use of arpeggiated clarinet techniques;"LouisArmstrongand the Clarinet,"149. of Louis 40. Quoted in Harker,"Tellinga Story,"47. Gushee ("The Improvisation on this quotation(Louis Collier'scommentary 287). 320) discusses Armstrong, Armstrong," The quotationwas originallyreportedby Slim Evans,as quoted in RichardM. Sudhalter and PhilipEvans,Bix:Man andLegend (New Rochelle, NY: Arlington House, 1974), 192. 41. Giddins, Satchmo,159. 42. Recorded17 May 1947. Victor 40-4004; matrixD8-VC-74. Re-releasedon TheJazz studio verThe wordsfromArmstrongand Teagarden's Collection. A Smithsonian Singers: sion of "Rockin'Chair"-recorded less than a month afterthe Town Hall rendition, on in Potter, "Armstrong to Sinatra,"99. (The studio version 10 June 1947-are transcribed scatted "pre-emption" and replicatesArmstrong's is quite similarto the live performance, of the of Teagarden.)The 1958 film Jazzon a Summer's Day featuresa live performance same duet, with Armstrongscatting the same melodic figureduringspoken banter between the two performers (New YorkerVideo: DVD 16500). In Example2, starred noteheads representvocalizationswhose pitch is indistinct. In Example2a, these consist spokendeliveryis notated mainly of gutturalsonorities,while in Example2b, Teagarden's in the same way. drawsan "LouisArmstrongand the Syntax of Scat,"636. Edwards 43. See Edwards, which and his vocal between writingstyle, employedfretechnique Armstrong's analogy asides (639). quent parenthetical and the Sound of Migration," 44. Discussedin CharlesHiroshiGarrett,"Louis Armstrong American of the delivered at the annual MusicologicalSociety meeting paper unpublished in Columbus,Ohio, Nov. 2002, and in Finkelstein,Jazz:A People's Music, 118. 45. The most famouspioneer of overdubbingwas the guitaristand inventor Les Paul, who along with his wife, singerMaryFord,releasedmany commerciallysuccessfuloverdubbedrecordsbeginning in 1947; see MaryAlice Shaughnessy,Les Paul:An American commercial (New York:William Morrow,1993), 140-43,180-82, 228-32. Earlier Original of EnricoCaruso's uses of overdubbinginclude Victor's 1932 electrical "re-recordings" in acoustic discs (see William R. Moranand RichardKoprowski,"CarusoDiscography," andMy Family Enrico Caruso: EnricoCaruso [Portland: My Father Jr.andAndrewFarkas, Amadeus Press, 1990], 628-29); ElisabethSchumann's 1935 HMV recordingof a duet Music: Hanselund Gretel(see Timothy Day, A Centuryof Recorded from Humperdinck's clarinetist Haven: Yale to Musical Press, 2000], 29); jazz University History[New Listening and saxophonistSidney Bechet's "One Man Band"Victor recordingsof 1941 (Bechet, Hill andWang, 1960], 179-80); andviolinistJaschaHeifetz's TreatIt Gentle[New York: 1946 disc, also on Victor,of the Bach D-minorConcertoforTwo Violins. (Foran amusing, see Steven anecdoteconcerningthe genesisof Heifetz's recording, spurious, thoughprobably Herrmann C. Smith, A Heartat Fire'sCenter:TheLifeandMusicof Bernard [Berkeley: University of CaliforniaPress, 1991], 86-87). Collectors TheOffstage 46. MichaelCogswell,Louis (Portland: Armstrong: Story of Satchmo Press,2003), 66-68. On one such tape Armstrongbegins by announcing, "Youare now about to hear some of the finest [unintelligible]that'll take you way back. Way back as far as the yearof 1922, when I, LouisArmstrong,was playingsecond trumpetwith Joe Oliver at the Lincoln Gardensin Chicago, and also used to write a lot of tunes. Here'sone that's

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a beautifulthing called 'Tears.'And we made that one for the OKeh recordings.And as this recordplays along I think I'm gonna noodle a little with it, you know, for old time's sake, to show you how the trend of recordingsand everythinghas changed. But you'll get a good idea of this record-it's a prettything."Armstrongthen places the needle on the recordand proceedsto play along with it. The tape, which probablydates fromthe 1950s, can be heardon the Interet at http://www.satchmo.net/thearchives/audioclips.shtml (accessed 19 Mar. 2003). Armstrongamasseda collection of some 650 reels of home tape recordings,many of which he decoratedwith elaboratecollages (discussedin Cogswell, LouisArmstrong, 69-82, and JorgeDaniel Veneciano, "LouisArmstrong,Bricolage,and the Aesthetics of Swing,"in UptownConversation: The New JazzStudies, eds. RobertG. and Farah Griffin[NewYork: ColumbiaUniversity O'Meally,BrentHayesEdwards, Jasmine Press,2004], 256-77). CK 47. ColumbiaCL 591 (1954). Re-releasedon compact disc as Columbia/Legacy 64925 (1997). An Extravagant 48. Bergreen,LouisArmstrong: Life,458. 49. In his notes on the songs, Niles mentions that this theme's refrainis the familiar traditionalsong "MakeMe One Pallet on YourFloor,"and also gives the originallyric to the contrasting,opening strain:"Me 'n' my babygot six long months to do de grind" An Anthology, ("Notesto the Collection,"in Blues: 45). Handycandidlyacknowledged "my frequentcustomof usinga snatch or two of folk melodyin one out of two or three strainsof an otherwiseoriginalsong"(W. C. Handy,Father [New York: of theBlues:An Autobiography Collier Books, 1970 (1941)], 152). On a copy of the 1924 originalsheet music to "AtlantaBlues,"preservedin the papersof Carl Van Vechten in the Beinecke RareBook and ManuscriptLibrary at Yale University, Handy wrote the handwritteninscription, "ForCarlVan Vechten. The opening strainI heardin the red light districtof Birmingham Ala. in 1892. W. C. Handy."Some other copies of Handy'ssheet music in the Van Vechten collection contain similarannotations by the composer:"LongGone":"This firstedition is an arrangement of a piece of Kentuckyfolklore"; "The Gouge of Armour Avenue":"Thiswas a whore-housemelody duringthe firstWorld'sFairin Chicago"; "JohnHenry Blues":"A firstedition. Melody heard when I was a waterboyin Florence, Ala." All of these pieces simplycredit Handy as composer. 50. George Avakian, liner notes to LouisArmstrong PlaysW. C. Handy(Columbia/ under-recorded LegacyCK 64925), 15. Bigard's obbligato is faintly audibleon the final vocal chorus.Interestingly,during recordingduringthe first sixteen barsof Armstrong's the next sixteen barsTrummyYoung'strombone,ratherthan Bigard's clarinet, is heard beneath the overdubbedvocals. 51. The adjacentdyadsG-sharp-A, C-D, and E-flat-D are retained,but their ordering is changed. The motive's concluding C-F-A figureis duplicatedverbatim. 52. ColumbiaCL 708 (1955). Re-releasedon compact disc as Columbia/Legacy CK 64927 (2000). 53. Fora discussionof some early attitudestowardsound-reproduction technology, see CarolynAbbate, "OutsideRavel'sTomb,"Journal of theAmerican Musicological Society52, no. 3 (1999): 482-95, and Dave Laing,"A Voice without a Face:PopularMusic and the Music 10, no. 1 (1991): 4-5. Phonographin the 1890s,"Popular 54. Of course,even Armstrong's earlyrecordings,by their very essence, promotedmusic in its recordedform.See Evan Eisenberg,The Recording andCulture Angel:Music, Records

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to Zappa (London:Pan Books, 1988), 118-23, excerptedin Music,Culture, fromAristotle OxfordUniversityPress,2000), 197-201. A Reader, ed. DerekB. Scott (Oxford: andSociety: first overdubbings, critics were beginning to question Around the time of Armstrong's whether improvisationwas an essential element of a genre whose diverse sub-idioms and the experimentalistjazz/art-music included both scoredbig-bandarrangements hybridthat Schuller labeled "ThirdStream."See, for instance, Hodeir,Jazz:Its Evolution and Essence,236. 55. Armstrong,SwingThatMusic,73, quoted in Lopes,The Riseof a JazzArt World,147. and in particularthe roles playedby his ghostwriters On Armstrong's autobiographies, and editors,see William H. Kenney III, "Negotiatingthe Color Line:LouisArmstrong's in Jazzin Mind:Essayson theHistoryandMeanings of Jazz,ed. Reginald Autobiographies," T. Bucknerand Steven Weiland (Detroit:Wayne State University Press,1991), 38-59. LouisArmstrong-A Self-Portrait: The Interview 56. LouisArmstrong, byRichard Meryman in "TheImprovisation The EakinsPress,1966), 42-43, partially Gushee, (New York: quoted of LouisArmstrong," 313. 57. See, for instance, Harker,"Tellinga Story,"51. 58. On the evidence of alternate takes, duringthe 1930s Armstrong's playingdid involve greaterspontaneousimprovisationthan in later years.See Gushee, "The Impro320. visation of LouisArmstrong," 59. JacquesAttali, Noise: The Political of Music,trans.BrianMassumi Economy (Manchester,UK: ManchesterUniversity Press, 1985), 85. 60. Had entertaininghis audience been a lesserconsideration,he might just as readily have concluded that, once recorded,a piece's live recreationis essentiallya redundantact to be avoided by, for instance, playinga differentrepertoirein concerts-as did the Miles Davis Quintet of the mid-1960s-or even abandoningpublic performance altogether,the diminished by pianist Glenn Gould and the Beatles. Armstrong's option preferred emphasison spontaneousimprovisationduringhis later careerled some critics to lament that, as Gerald Earlywrites,"afterthe 1950s he ceased to be musicallyinventive or interesting"("'And I Will Sing of Joy and Pain for You':LouisArmstrongand the Great Culture[New York:Ecco Junction: Essayson American JazzTraditions,"in Tuxedo Press,1989], 291). 61. The 2000 compact disc reissueof SatchPlaysFats includes another take of "I'veGot a Feeling I'm Falling,"labeled an "editedalternateversion,"and recordeda day earlier than the originallyreleasedversion. It has no overdubbedobbligatovocal, and contains a differentrendition of the sung melody, which Armstrongalso concludes on scale-degree five. It is not clear whether this version, too, was taped with the expectation that a second vocal trackwould be subsequentlyadded. 62. On this aspect of Waller'ssinging, see MorroeBerger,"FatsWaller:The Outside Insider," Journal ofJazzStudies1 (1973): 3-20, and PaulS. Machlin, Thomas Wright"Fats" in Transcription, Waller:Performances 1927-1943 (Middleton, WI: A-R Editions, 2001), xxxi-xxxviii. For a broaderconsiderationof Waller'ssinging, see Machlin'sStride: The Musicof FatsWaller(Boston:Twayne Publishers,1985), 33-40. 63. John F. Szwed,"TheReal Old School,"in TheVibeHistory of HipHop, ed. Alan Light (New York:Three RiversPress,1999), 5-6; discussedin IvorL. Miller,Aerosol Kingdom: Painters 2002), 38-39. Subway of New York City (Jackson: UniversityPressof Mississippi,

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have become more common, though they 64. In recent yearsoverdubbed jazzrecordings are still not the norm. See Matthew W. Butterfield,"MusicAnalysis and the Social Life of JazzRecordings," CurrentMusicology 71-73 (2001-02): 331-32. Armstronghimself the revisited subsequently overdubbingprocess,includingon his well-known September The Biography Stardust Melodies: 1955 version of "Mackthe Knife."See Will Friedwald, of Most Popular Twelveof America's Songs(New York:Pantheon, 2002), 89-90. 65. Along the same lines, Ann Douglasobservesthat duringthe 1920s, "the earlymedia starshad a vivid culturalidentity that antedatedany identity the media could bestow; Honesty,72. they shapedthe media as much as they were shapedby them";Terrible

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