Music: Welcome

Hot and clear across the runways of Rome’s Ciampino airport last week came the brassy Dixieland chatter of Muskrat Ramble, swung by “The Roman New Orleans Band.” Teen-age Italian hepcats, backed by placards of “Welcome Louie,” were beating out a solid welcome for American Jazz Potentate Louis (“Satchmo”) Armstrong and his All-Stars.* On the last lap of his first grand European tour since 1935, Satchmo had found solid welcomes and solid houses wherever he landed. In Stockholm, 40,000 fans welcomed him at the airport; thousands waited in line all night to get tickets for his concert. Stockholm’s Aftonbladet printed a special eight-page jazz extra complete with highbrow criticism, including one article comparing Armstrong’s art with that of Ernest Hemingway.

Kneeling Worshipers. In Helsinki, 7,500 devotees crowded a hall built for 3,600, cheered the old New Orleans standbys that Louis played for them. In Copenhagen, the director of the State Symphony Orchestra dismissed afternoon rehearsal so that his musicians could go and hear Satchmo’s golden trumpetings of High Society and Royal Garden Blues. In Turin, Armstrong worshipers squatted or knelt in the theater aisles when all seats were filled. Rome’s welcome was the biggest yet. Armstrong played three sellout concerts, got embraced by Italian Cinema Queen Anna Magnani (Open City). Sightseeing in the Coliseum, he raised his gold-plated trumpet, gave out with a honey-toned Sleepy Time Down South. Seated on a Coliseum ledge, he dashed off music and words for a 32-bar improvisation, then lifted his burlap voice and sang it on the spot:

Sittin’ on the stones of Rome Make me wanna say I’m home People everywhere Stop and sit and stare Make my trumpet want to blare . . .

A Special Audience. Satchmo was enthusiastic about the spaghetti and about some Italian mineral water he had found. “I was skoaling with everybody up there in Scandanavia,” he explained, “and that schnapps tore my stomach up.” He also expressed interest in Roman history: “They tell me that Nero had a chick with him when this joint burnt down.” But by all odds the high spot came after Satchmo (who has Baptist leanings and wears a Star of David medallion around his neck) said that he had always wanted to meet the Pope. It was arranged; Satchmo and his wife Lucille were granted a special audience. Said Armstrong, before leaving for northern Italy, France and the U.S.: “The people everywhere has been wonderful.” How did his reception in Europe this year compare with 14 years ago? “I didn’t have my thermometer,” beamed Satchmo, “but they was both a bitch.”

* Trombonist Jack Teagarden, Pianist Earl (“Father”) Hines, Drummer Cozy Cole, Clarinetist Barney Bigard and Bass Fiddler Arvell Shaw, plus Vocalist Velma Middleton.