Sepia, so sultry! #Repost @louisarmstronghouse ・・・ Mourning the passing of Russian and Soviet poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko, who met Louis in London in 1962 and in Mexico City in 1968. Louis clipped this out from the Mexican press and added his own handwritten annotations ("Sepia" for him and "Russian" for Yevtushenko!). After Armstrong died, Yevtushenko wrote the following poem: Armstrong's Trumpet By Yevgeny Yevtushenko Great Satchmo plays all bathed in sweat, A salty Niagara pours from his brow, But when the trumpet rises to the clouds, It growls and roars. To the whole world he plays the way he loves, He is stolen from us by the grave, he was stolen first before his birth From his sweet Africa. In hidden reprise for the chains of his fathers His music enslaves us all like helpless babes. The whites of his great eyes flicker in sorrow As he howls and horns about the globe-- This kid from a children's home In the town of New Orleans. Great Satchmo plays all bathed in sweat, His nostrils smoke like two great muzzles. Thirty-two white projectors in his mouth, But the sweat is as natural As a beautiful mighty hippo Rising snorting from an African river. Stamping on fan notes with his heel, And wiping the downpour from his brow, he throws handkerchief after handkerchief Into the piano's open womb. Again back to the microphone pressing down on the stage till it cracks, Each wet handkerchief is as heavy As the crown of art. And art is very far from pose, When it labors it's not ashamed of sweat. It's not the charm of prattlers But full of movement of heavy things, The tragic labor of a trumpet player Whose music is tatters of lung. Though art is bartered and sold, That's not what it's all about. The poet and the great jazzmen equally Like brothers cut their gifts to others from soul. Great Satchmo, will you make it to heaven"? Who knows! But if it happens--Play! let the good times roll once more! Shake up that boring state of little angels. But so there'll be no remorse in hell, So death will cheer us sinners up, Archangel Gabriel, Pass your horn to the better player To Louis! #louisarmstrong #yevgenyyevtushenko #poetry #jazz #LAHMDigitization #DailyPops #wonderfulwo
