"He instinctively can find the shining greatness of our American culture and does a good job of highlighting it (although he also does have those rare lapses when he writes about hockey, but that is something caused by impurities in the Eastern waters or something)." Erik Keilholtz
Under the patronage of St. Tammany
Mark C. N. Sullivan is an editor at a Massachusetts university. He is married and the father of three children. Email
July 4 was once commonly held to be the birth date of Louis Armstrong, though now it's believed he actually was born on Aug 4, so there's still time for a birthday remembrance of Satchmo. The public radio show Riverwalk Jazz, which this past week saluted the Fats Waller centennial (Real Audio), has several Armstrong shows in the archive, including a Three-Horn Salute to Louis Armstrong, a look at Armstrong's 1940s performances with Jack Teagarden, and a remembrance of Lil Hardin Armstrong.
UPDATE: Random Penseur alertly comments:Today, July 6, 1971, Louis Armstrong dies at age 70. A moment of silence might be in order.
Elsewhere, Will Friedwald at the NY Sun recalls George W. Johnson, black former slave (and exonerated murder defendant) who was among the first stars of the fledgling recording industry in the 1890s. A 1900 recording of Johnson's "The Laughing Song" is among the vintage sound files at the Ragtime Ephemeralist.
![[SMMMHDH]](http://www.mgilleland.com/music/smmmhdh.png){kind=small}
