Satchmo: A Splice of Urban Art
A recent publication of a sampling of collage art from musician Louis Armstrong opens a new chapter on the artistic accomplishments of this cultural icon. Backstage to the public image of black american ambasador , an African American ragtime to showtime Horatio Alger was a visionary artist who experimented in other mediums.
The Armstrong art collages are in effect modern altered art, sophisticated cut and paste compositions of text and image into an expression of a man who would not fall back onto the dogma of black identity while crystallizing an enduring individuality and identity beyond the ghetto. Satchmo’s context was within the drama of a deep and violent prejudice very eloquently written about in ”Black Like Me”, the Griffin book in which he changed the pigment of his skin and integrated into the social context of Black American in an angry Confederacy. Armstrong musically innovated by melody and phrasing and the attached video demonstates his understanding of what we would term rap, by splicing disparate cliches of poetry, blues and jazz into a coherent art form similar to what groups like the beastie Boys would develop to perfection.
Much of this innovation was worked out in sophisticated home taping equipment which allowed Armstrong to putter with multi-layering sound tracks into more urban collages of music with an appeal to white middle class Americans.
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