Louis Armstrong
For a lot of people, Louis Armstrong feels like comfort.
The grin.
The trumpet.
That voice that sounds like it’s lived a hundred years and decided to stay kind anyway.
By the 1950s, he was one of the most recognizable musicians in the world, an ambassador for American jazz, touring constantly, playing to packed rooms from New Orleans to Europe.
Which made what he did next harder to ignore.
During the Little Rock school integration crisis, Armstrong publicly criticized President Eisenhower for failing to protect Black students. He canceled a planned State Department tour in protest and called out the federal government in plain language.
Not backstage. Not quietly.
Out loud.
It wasn’t the image people expected from him.
But it was who he was.
Tonight leans into that warmth first, then lets the history sit underneath it. Familiar songs, steady rhythms, a reminder that even the gentlest voices sometimes carried steel.
(What Did I Do to Be So) Black and Blue:
West End Blues:
What a Wonderful World:
La Vie En Rose:
When the Saints Go Marching In:
This is an open thread
