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So my mama says, Now I'm a man, and what's the voice thing
you do when you're a man, Well, you save your money and it's
floge. And when you love music the way I love music, it's floge
on music. What I don't look like an oppera fan to you? Let's
listen. Listen to the passion Crusoe has it. I didn't just enjoy this
oppera music. I didn't just listen. I was studying it. Nobody has
ever wor this kind of opera style in the jazz. Maybe I'll be the
voice. This is part three of Pops. Reno Wilson is Pops The Remarkable
story of jazz legend Lewis Armstrong, a six part audio experience from Drop Biscuit
Studios. Okay, so what's the second thing that you do when you become
a man? Well, get with a woman. Right now, I have
my eye on one. So happens. Her name was Irene. Now,
Irene was five years older than me. See she was my girl, but
not only mine. See she was wrapped up with a hustler name of cheeky,
black but cheeky. He took all her money. She had nothing.
She was raggedy as a bowl of slaw. Angel. You can guess what
happened next. What I made I gave Irene. Irene wanted to get hitched,
but I knew I wouldn't be a good husband. I was too wrapped
up in my horn. You need somebody older, Irene, And off she
went. Let's see I missed us something terrible. Irene. I hear you're
back with Cheeky, but you're not. Oh well, I don't know if
I could go back with either of your place tonight. I mean, you
know my mama. Well, okay, let's go just this one time.
Oh, she was working her wiles on me. I can tell you that.
And I was game after that minute. I didn't have no game,
but that was game, you know what I'm saying. Tugging, kissing,
We was both making and doing what folks do in that situation. That's the
knock of someone who means business. Who is it? Irene asks, I
got company, Cheeky. Now, when a girl sweet man or pimp come
to a door and it was locked, and she says she had company,
he would go away. That's because the guy's making money, see, and
he's sure to get some of it. But this weren't like that. This
weren't no professional engagement. Me and Irene. We had stars and eyes and
Cheekye. He ain't liked them stars, not one bit. Did I lock
the door, Yes, sir, I'll keep them out rashing. Of all
the situations you don't want to be in, this has to be in the
top five. Irene starts screaming and screaming. She runs into the street,
Cheeky chasing up with a razor. Me. I'm hopping around Irene's room naked,
trying to getting my drawers on before Cheeky springs that raising my way.
What's the fastest thing in the world a lightning boat? Hell no, that's
me all the way home. I was home, barely alive, most definitely
scared. You can bet on it. So I tell my mama what happened.
And now you might expect some sympathy from the woman who raised you and
fed you and put clothes on your back. That's not what I got.
It weren't that funny, Mama, She said, you'll know better next time.
Never go into a man's house and bet his woman next time. No,
no, no, no, this was the last time. I don't
need to tell you I never saw an irene again. Please stop laughing my
mind. There wasn't much money to make, but what came my way came
because of coal and a cart and a rickety old mule. Ten hours a
day, every day I'd shoveled the cold, delivered the cold, shovel it
again, fashprints, repeat every day all day. Then I cleaned up,
go to the honky talk and blow my horn all night long for the pimps
and horns and hustles a Storyville. Yes, I was fifteen years old,
and I loved it. Kept that job for four years with an eyeful of
a mules backside. I'd see it when I sleep. And then one day
I was delivering another load of cold. Hey, what's going on? It
was nineteen eighteen. The armistice had been signed. The Great War was over.
Wait, no more war means more folks at the nightclub, man,
and that means more horn players like Lewis Armstrong. Well, Bessie, you
and me after part ways, good luck to you. And that was the
last time I ever shoveled coal. Boy. Things were changing in New Orleans.
Joe Oliver, King Oliver, he was going north. He was the
best of the lot in town, but he still couldn't rub two sticks together,
and lots of cats who made music were following him. I felt like
the old gang was breaking up. But every dark cloud has a silver lining,
right And who do you suppose they hired to fill Joe Oliver's hornblower seat?
And want of New orleans finest bands? That's right yours, Julia.
I was playing all over town that or Saturdays. I played a brick house.
They should have called it rough house. I finished blowing and leave to
go home. And that's when things got dicey. Everyone was tight, white
and black, and everyone tight wanted to fight. I just didn't want to
be stuck in the middle. You get stuck in the middle, it's a
good chance you'll be shot or lynched. See that's the cost of being in
the wrong place at the wrong time. While I put up with it,
like all risky things in life, and had to do with a girl.
This girl put a powerful spell on me. Her name was Daisy. Daisy
she looked at me with stuff in her eyes. I gave it right back
and return let's get this out of the way right off, Daisy was a
who okay, but I ain't judging the way I looked at it. She
was just complicated, and sometimes you had to pay for them complications. So
she wanted me as a regular, and I was only too happy to obliged.
Right. She had what's called a common law husband, but we didn't
talk about him. You can bet on that. All I know is she
had the sweetest smile for miles and miles Daisy and everything else was as might
as we do. I was gonna see her at her house for the very
first time. I fancied up in my very best suit, which was also
my only suit bought him as Daisy, she took my hat, place it
on the sewing machine table, and then she was in my arms. No
charge, neither one thing was leading to another wind. Oh lord, wait
a minute, I've been here before. So Daisy jumps off my lap and
out into the street, and her old man chases right after. Now I
don't believe any fellow she treated his woman that way, but it's want none
of my business, even if it was some of my fault. I mean,
I'll tell you what. I ran home as fast as my legs could
carry me. I've been getting good at that. Never again, once again,
never again, It's time I really mean it. See now it's a
problem with never again. Sometimes you're hearted, it says again, please Bee.
I was ready to swear off days and even if I missed her fiercely.
And then that day comes the day you don't see coming to day that
begins like any other day, you open the door and go out into the
world. But on this day there was someone new standing there at the corner
of my street, someone I hadn't seen in a while, someone with the
sweetest smile and the most powerful spell. She was full of wards that day
too. Now I miss you. I'm sorry, I need you, my
friend. They were all getting off work at the coal yard. All of
them saw this scene and stood without saying a ward. It was Daisy and
me in the whole world watching. Then dipper, they shot it go on.
Yes, she was a whore, she couldn't read, she was jealous
and spoiled, and she carried a razor just in case. All the same,
she did move me greatly, and so the next day we went to
city Hall and got married. Now, I'd like to tell you, Me
and Daisy. We lived happily ever after. But I think you already figured
out that ain't likely Daisy could be mean and jealous. Man. Maybe this
was a big mistake I thought, I mean, I was no stranger to
other women, and sometimes Dacy found out. Wake up, wake up,
you black bastard. That's when she was screaming at me one morning with a
big bread knife at my throat, you black son of a bitch, how
to cut your throat? Well else you didn't, not then, not ever.
I mean, that's why I'm talking to you right now. But the
knives, the razors, the fights, the tears, the brick throwing.
You ever dodged bricks, ain't out your head? I have. It was
more than I could bear, and it's one reason why I was with other
women. If I can expect they won't be faithful, I'll never be disappointed
and I'll never be alone. Maybe you remember Clarence. That's my cousin's boy,
the boy I adopted. He lived with being Daisy in our apartment.
He was just a boy, three years old, playing on the porch second
floor. I wasn't watching him, I mean, I couldn't watch him all
the time, right, I didn't know how slippery it was out there.
How could I know. I didn't hear him fall, but I didn't know
he fell on his head. It was a long way down on his head.
I didn't hear it. I didn't hear a thing. What's wrong,
clients? Oh my lord? Is that is that blood on you? Oh?
Sweet Jesus. The doctor said he would be all right, but not
the same alright he was before his head was knocked up. Pretty hard,
feeble minded, is what they said. My boy was feeble money and he
would stay that way all his life and all his life. I take care
of him too, I promised, clients, Bapa will take care of you
always. So pitching the scene, You're at the corner of Rampart in Caddo
Streets in New Orleans. That's the exact spot where I was rested and sent
to the Colored Waist Home five years before. The air is crisp, the
sky is clear. You can hear the music from Bils. Our band was
on the back of that truck right a, pushing our Monday night show at
Economy Hall. You'd call it advertising today, we called it playing hot and
boy. We were making to sing until you got another truck, another band,
another show. But this is our corners and this was our time.
These castings, they can outshine our band. They got another thing coming,
I'll tell you that. Never did I pay so loud and so strong,
boy, I almost blew my brains to my trumpet. What I didn't know
was that someone was watching. My name is Fate Marrable. But you already
knew that, because everybody in New Orleans knows me. The Mississippi river boats
of big business in these parts, and there is only one band and one
band leader that matters on those boats, my band and me. I had
my eye on Lewis since he came out of the Waefs home and here I
was watching him play like nobody has ever played that horn. It was a
part of him. He had something, not great skill, but great joy.
He was a natural entertainer, and I had to have him say,
what what's that, mister marrabelt? You want to sign me for the Dixie
Bell? You want me to play with you on the riverboat? Yes?
Uh, count me in. I think I said yes before Fate got the
question out, And when he reached into his pocket, pull out a roll
and squeezed some cash into my Handboy, I thought I died in going to
heaven now. My mama gave me her blessing. But Daisy, not so
much. Listen, Daisy, if I turn this down, it may never
come my way again. I'll be stuck in the same circumstances forever. Well.
That convinced her. Of course, leaving for the riverboat meant that I
wouldn't be stuck with Daisy forever either. But the Lord knows I didn't use
those words. She got that blade on us. My name's Jack t Garden.
I played trombone. I'll never forget the first time I heard Louis Armstrong
play. Me and a friend were in the French Quarter and drunk, like
we should be in the French Quarter. In the distance, I hear this
horn. There was a riverboat gliding by. That's where the sound was coming
from. Who was this playing? As it got closer, I could see
a man on the bow, standing in the wind, holding the trumpet high
and sending out the most beautiful notes I'd ever heard. It was jazz.
It was what I was hoping to hear all through the night. It was
Lewis arm Strong and his sound was descending from the sky like a god.
I couldn't move. I just listened to every note. I had to meet
this man, Mister Marabel, can you introduce me to that remarkable horn player.
Along comes a young man with a round face and a giant smile.
I am very pleased to meet you, mister Armstrong. Damn, mamma,
I'm up the river and thinking of your sweet home cooking right now. Pretty
soon we'll be in Saint Louis. What's it like to play in a rigaboat?
Well, it's a far bit from the hockey tops back home. Mister
Marabel, you don't like too many surprises in his music. That's what the
white folks prefer, he says. We play every day, seven days a
week. Six of those days the audiences are white only. Monday nights those
are for the colored folks. They don't know it yet, but gonna keep
up that way until nineteen sixty nine. We're usually playing for white folks,
but mister Mirabel says we are not allowed to mingle with the white guests under
any circumstances. I don't know what mingle means, but I know we can't
do it. We are there to play good music for them, and that's
all. And as long as the white folks love my music and me,
I'll swing my horns mom every night. Oh, I almost forgot to tell
you about St. Louis, Mama. That town is bigger than a great
big fish sawich. All those tall buildings, I don't they were colleges.
We go and listen to the name bands up there, and I'll tell you
these cats ain't as grand as I expected. We were itching to strut our
stuff, and we finally got our chance. Ladies and gentlemen, we are
all that happen with us tonight, several of New Orleans most distinctuished musicians.
Please jazz for breakfast, Please welcome to the stage. Face well, I
said, we were itching, and man, o, man did we scratched
that itch. We let loose one of our hotter songs. Boy, we
almost split that room open, man did? We played? The room was
so hot it was on fire. They stood up and yelled out for more.
Everyone was on their feet. Band leader he shook her hands. We
played one encore, then another. We were dog tired at the end.
But I swear I'll never forget that name. It was the first time I
had an ovation like that in a really big city away from New Orleans.
That's it for now, Mama. You know I missed and you're get home
cooking red beans and rice lely yours Lewis deah, Mama. Every new time
we visit, we filled the room with white folks. Many of them look
at us colored cats and ties and collars, and they didn't know what to
make of us. Where are the Negro roustabouts? But once we started playing,
it's like one big happy family. Listen to this one, Mama.
We were playing on the boat in Illinois, and one young white man bet
his friends that he could jump from the deck of the river boat and live
to tell abody. Well, naturally, his friends took him up on that
bat. The crew started running to see what happened, and then eight hundred
people in our audience didn't likewise. Now this boy went off one side of
the boat, so they have eight hundred people jammed into the railings on one
side too. You know what happened. Now we're playing away and the boat
starts to shift to the side so far that it was about to take on
the water. Well, we're playing and playing, don't stop playing. The
captain said, don't stop playing meantime. The stage is almost on the side,
and me and the boys don't know up from down. But we played.
And you know what, that boy lived to tell the tale, but
maybe he wished he hadn't. That crew was steaming missing you madly, Mama.
Red beans are rice lee yours Lewis. Everything starts someplace, but not
everything has a plan. You know, back in this day, there was
no such thing as hip or cool, right, but here I was calling
my boys cats and the pops and be talking about drive or other cats are
driving. And sometimes when I sing out scat, it would sound like this
the babad'dn't didn't bubble did except nobody ever heard of scotchee. All of this
is it would become hip and cool much like but you know wh it started,
right, You know, it started right here with pops. Yes,
even a term jazz that didn't exist. We had to invent it, and
some folks didn't care for it at all, Like the New Orleans Times pick
a yune, why jazz music? We may as well ask why the dime
novel or the grease dripping doughnut. All the manifestations of a low streak in
man's taste that has not yet come out in civilizations. Wash on certain natures,
loud sound and meaningless noise has an exciting effect, like a strong perfume
or the sight of flesh. When it comes to jazz, its musical value
is nil, and its possibilities of harm are great. Well, bad taste
is good music, and good music is popular music, and popular music is
good business. Ain't nothing wrong with having a good time, vibs. It
was time to get back home, or while anyway. I walked off,
both all the cats and all the families reuniting beautiful. I've been in this
spot before, and Daisy if he was there to meet me. But this
time I looked there, I looked far. No, Daisy, she wasn't
there. I was all alone. Part of me was relieved, part of
me was not. It's a tangle emotions, much harder than playing a horn.
The strump's wrong. Yes, you have a telegram. Well, let
me tell you something. Sometimes you can break a life of the two parts
before and after. For me, my life is apart before that telegram and
apart after. Get us from Joe Oliver, Papa Joe King Oliver. He
was playing with a band up in Chicago, and he wanted me to join
him, and for fifty two dollars a week, that's more than I could.
I'm making New Orleans. Louis Armstrong is going to Chicago. They all
came to say goodbye as I pointed that train in Chicago. I watched them
all disappeared too as the train rolled out of the station, and I waved
goodbye. Goodbye to fake Barabelle, Goodbye to Mama and my sister and Clarence.
Goodbye to my marriage to Daisy, Thank you Jesus. Goodbye to the
Colored Waves home and all the friends I have known all my life. Goodbye
to the honky tonkster, the pimps, and the horse. I was a
lucky some bitch and I knew it. Joe Oliver is my idol. I've
loved him all my life. He sent for me. Whatever he's doing,
I want to do it with him. I will not rest until I see
his smiling face. I have the great big fish sandwich Mama made for me
too. I got my horn, and I got one good suit. Everything
else is out there, unknown and unpredictable. The next part of my life,
and it all begins in Chicago. That's next time on Pops. This
has been part three of Pops. Rino Wilson is Pops. Pops is distributed
by Drop Biscuit Studios Executive producer Mike Agavino. Pops is written by Mark Ramsey,
with sound design and production by Jeff Schmidt. Please subscribe to Pops on
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