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Tony Award-winning actor James Monroe Iglehart shares some amazing facts about the life of Louis Armstrong. He is the star and co-director of the new Broadway musical, A Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical.
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Amazing Facts About Louis Armstrong feat. James Monroe Iglehart | Mental Floss
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0:00
Hi, my name is James Monroe Aglehard, and I play Louis Armstrong in a Wonderful World
0:04
the Louis Armstrong Musical. And today, we are going to give you some awesome Louis Armstrong facts
0:10
So, let's get started. Card number one
0:28
As a kid, Armstrong sang on the street corners to make money and worked odd jobs for a Jewish immigrant family named the Karnaskis
0:35
They gave him some money to buy his first instrument, a cornet. This is so true
0:39
To go through life with so much racism and things like that, he always kept in the back of his mind
0:43
I know everybody's not bad because this one family showed me love and showed me so much care
0:48
It's this moment from Into the Woods. I always go, children will listen. All depends on how you treat them
0:53
If you treat a child with respect, that's what they will learn. If you show them diversity, that's what they will know
0:58
How did you get involved in A Wonderful World, the Louis Armstrong musical? Ken Burns Jazz, in the first couple of episodes, happened to be about Louis Armstrong
1:06
and I just thought, that makes so much sense. Louis Armstrong, music, musical, Broadway, I'm on Broadway, we should do this
1:12
I called my people, my people told me somebody already had the musical, I said, contact those people and tell them that I want to be involved in some kind of way
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and the rest is history. Here we are on Broadway, and bam, that's how I got involved with the show
1:24
Armstrong preferred to be called Louis with an S. As he explained in an interview, my mother always called me Louis, not Louie
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But everybody pretty much goes with Louie. When I was in college, there was this wonderful white professor who says, can I call you Jim
1:36
And I said no, and he was very upset about it. Not every name needs to be shortened
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It Louis minus James You understand You get me You get me What do you think set Louis apart from other musicians of his day Busta Rhymes once said that he had no other avenue It was just this If it wasn rap he didn know what he was going to be doing
1:54
There was nothing for Lewis to fall back on. This was it
1:58
The horn was it. So he either had to be the best or not play at all
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Lewis just went forward. Always. Just forward. Put the horn in front of him. Go forward
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But Lewis' first and foremost, always thought, was the music. How's the music sound
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He said, I never want to sound bad, so if I don't want to sound bad, that's what I've
2:20
got to focus on. Armstrong loved a colorful sign-off using phrases like, I am musically yours, I am trumpetly
2:26
yours, I am ricely and chickenly yours, and Swiss chrissly yours in his personal letters
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The one that kills me the most is the Swiss chrissly. I am not going to explain what Swiss Chris is
2:39
but I am going to say, look up Louis Armstrong, look up Swiss Chris
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It will be a very interesting read for you. Which Louis Armstrong catchphrase
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do you want to co-opt for yourself? Red Beans and Rice Leors
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because I happen to be an incredible fan of Red Beans and Rice
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so that is definitely something that Louis and I have in common. And since I was a child, I've loved it
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Find a person who really knows what they're doing, It'll change your life, trust me. Armstrong was arrested at the age of 11 for firing a revolver
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and was sent to the Colored Wave's home where he took formal music lessons for the first time
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He would later say that that place, me and music got married. If it hadn't been for that one bad decision of shooting blanks
3:21
and people thinking it's a real gun and going to the Colored Wave's home, we might not have the legend that is Louis Armstrong
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So our show talks about the choices you make Some of the choices you make may seem terrible may seem bad but it all depends on what you do after that moment And if you are able to take that moment and make a different decision
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there's no telling what could happen. Which part of Armstrong's story is your favorite to perform
3:45
on stage every night? There are so many favorite parts of the show that I love performing every
3:49
night. I love performing the song Dinah. And when he does Dinah, to me, that's one of my favorite
3:54
moments. In May 1964, Louis Armstrong and the all-stars song Hello Dolly dethroned the Beatles
4:00
to top the U.S. charts. At the time, Armstrong, then 62, was the oldest musician in U.S. history
4:06
to have a number one song. He himself was dethroned when 78-year-old
4:10
Brenda Lee's Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree hit number one in 2023. Now
4:16
that is hysterical. I remember an interviewer asked Louis, how do you feel about
4:20
rock and roll? Because I don't like it. And Lewis said, look, man, you know, good music is good music
4:24
It doesn't matter whether it's, you know, the gut bucket blues or have you listened to Hard Day's Night
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Hard Day's Night is good. That's a good hook. It got a good song. And so even he understood that good music is good music
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Here are the Beatles, the biggest thing in the world. And Lewis knocked them out with a Broadway tune
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What knocks Lewis off? A Christmas song. Gotta love music, man. Gotta love music
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What's the most challenging part of playing Lewis Armstrong? The emotional ride of going through someone's real life
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And there are so many times where I'm on stage where I wish I could make a different decision
4:59
but I can't, because that's not the decision he made. There's a spot in our show in the first act
5:06
with the second wife where every night I wish I could make a different decision
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but Lewis didn't make that decision, so. That's the hardest part, is living through the choices that Lewis made The playing hymn was not intimidating The trumpet part was So I got a trumpet teacher and I studied how to hold it
5:25
how to blow it, how to know what the notes are, to make sure that when I'm up there, although I'm lip syncing
5:30
I wanted to make sure that if I was going to play, I was breathing in the right places, doing the right things. So when trumpet players look at me, they have to even question
5:36
is that him, even though they know it's not. That was the biggest thing. That was the most intimidating thing
5:40
Armstrong lied about his birthday and claimed to be born on July 4th, 1900
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but his actual birthday was probably August 4th, 1901. Lewis didn't know
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And Lewis thought he was born on July 4th. And also, once he realized it was July 4th
5:55
it was American, he was black. It was one of those moments to show how truly American
5:59
he was. And when he was asked about it, you know, he made a joke. I think it was Dick Cavett
6:03
said, well, how do you know what time you were born? He said, oh, I didn't get into all that. That's my mama's
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business. I don't get into her business. She don't get into mine. What's one underrated
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Louis Armstrong song everyone should listen to after watching this video. That's hard. I'm going
6:17
to mention a few. Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans? Because he's having so much fun
6:23
playing it. West End Blues. It's instrumental. West End Blues to this day is one of the hardest
6:29
trumpet licks to play for any horn player. And trust me, we have horn players in our show
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that have to play it live every night. It is hard to play
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Zat You Santa Claus is a funny, funny tune. He is just scatting and riffing and screaming all over
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Zat You Santa Claus! And it's such a fun tune. Like, you put it on, you can't help but bop to it
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You're like, what am I listening to? But thank you. I'm James Moragher. Come to New York
6:59
Come to Studio 54 and see A Wonderful World, the Louis Armstrong musical. you're going to have a wonderful time
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Pun intended
education