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Especially if, as voodoo jazz and blues king Dr John says, it
was all Armstrong's idea, more than 40 years after he died.
"He came to me in a dream. He said do my music, but do it your
way," Dr John, a.k.a. Malcolm John "Mac" Rebennack or "The Nite
Tripper", told Reuters in an interview at the weekend.
The musician was in London for a concert of Armstrong music at
the Barbican Center, part of the EFG London Jazz Festival that
runs until next Sunday.
It was a funky affair, earning a standing ovation from the
audience, with Dr John's trademark honky tonk piano and grizzled
vocals chaperoned by a thumping brass section led by music
director and trombonist Sarah Morrow.
Nearly all the music came from Dr John's "Ske-Dat-De-Dat ...
Spirit Of Satch" album, an eclectic interpretation of songs
played by Armstrong rather than a tribute.
"What A Wonderful World" eschews Armstrong's heartfelt paean for
some typical Dr John boogie.
Listening to "Mac The Knife" on the CD, you can't help wondering
what Armstrong (and composer Kurt Weill and lyricist Bertholt
Brecht, for that matter) would have made of a sudden burst of
hip-hop.
Armstrong would probably have been easy going about it.
"I met him two or three times," Dr John said. "He was a very
funny guy. He always had a good sense of humor."
At the concert, the rap was replaced by some suitably
Satchmo-esque trumpet from Britain's Byron Wallen.
The band hit its stride about half way through the concert with
a powerfully bluesy rendition of the spiritual "Motherless
Child" and rounded it off toward the end with a voodoo rock
version of the New Orleans anthem "When The Saints Go Marching
In", a world away from its traditional rendition.
It was as Armstrong suggested -- his songs, Dr John's style.
Satchmo is not the first jazz legend to get the Dr John
treatment. He has also put out tribute albums to Washington DC's
Duke Ellington and Savannah, Georgia's Johnny Mercer.
But it is by no means clear either of them asked for it
personally.
(Editing by Andrew Heavens)
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