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American people, they the most grandest people on Earth.

And I'm from America, well, quite naturally,

I don't have no fucking flag

other than a Black flag.

In New Orleans, we're, quite naturally, the first band on the radio down there…

And then she married Willie Armstrong.

I mean, I'm only going by what they tell me along that line.

'Cause as long as I can remember, they wasn't together.

Down in the district, the red-light district.

As you call them, "prostitutes,"

where they get five dollars for a job,

the whores where I'm talking about, up in my neighborhood,

they get 50 cents to a dollar.

We could, yes.

Because he organized quartets, singing,

then he introduced dancing out there, tap dancing.

The boys would clap and sing, and he'd sing and dance.

Then when I did get him to play "When the Saints Go Marching In,"

"Put On Your Old Grey Bonnet," there was a high note to be out on

because it was at the end of the strain.

None of the other boys couldn't make it.

And I couldn't make it myself.

But he would blow the high C above the staff

to let us know that's the end of the strain.

And I was taught to play that tune

with every spark I had in my soul.

On our lands we was taught.

And when we play it, that's the feeling I have.

And then they hoist that flag.

Do you have a happy feeling when you play that song?

I feel that I'm somebody.

When I finish playing "Star-Spangled Banner,"

I feel just as proud as anybody that ever picked up a gun,

shouldered a rifle, and said, "Forward march."

And I carried his cornet when he wasn't blowing and marching.

And the police would have been running me out the parade.

You know, I stayed with him on it.

But that's my man.

You play in that hot sun, you know, with that uniform on,

and he put a hanky on his neck to keep the sun off his neck.

And he was really blowing that horn.

Chicago was about

the second most popular section for Black people in the country.

It was a great migration point where people went off

from Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas.

You could walk to Chicago,

just keep walking if you had enough muscles in your legs.

I listened very carefully when Lil told me

to always play the lead.

He played 30 or 50 high notes, high C's,

on this one tune they were playing.

And the next day, everybody on the street was talking about it.

In 1932, first time I went to Europe.

We used to travel by boats.

Johnny Collins was my manager then.

Joe Glaser's a nigga.

Joe Glaser loves Negroes.

He was raised with niggas.

He went to school with them.

You know, I always felt there was a weird relationship

between Joe Glaser and Louis.

And I felt Louis was exploited.

Louis believes that he never would've made it without Joe Glaser.

-I think he wouldn't have. -You think that's possible?

-Quite possible.

You got to have good management. I don't care how great you are.

Good management goes hand in hand with success and talent.

He never wanted anything to do with business, right?

He never even hired the guys in his band.

He just wanted to concentrate on that horn.

At five o'clock in the morning,

Louis Armstrong had to be rushed to the hospital.

In Memphis, at the bus station,

they claimed that the bus needed some work done on it

and they were gonna take it back to have it overhauled.

At that particular time, all the guys in Louis's band were young

and just about as obstinate a bunch of people

as you ever met in your life if they thought they were right.

When nobody would give up the bus,

then they sent for the police and arrested us for inciting a riot.

With the intention of burning up all of our baggage and everything,

luggage and everything,

and putting us in the hoosegow, which they did.

They arrested us all.

Some guy asked me,

he said, "Man, you're gonna take Jack Teagarden?"

I said "Now, who am I to tell a white man he can't go down South?"

I didn't appreciate it. I'm just showing you what I go through for no reason.

You take the smallest fucking peckerwood,

hand you that shit, and the big bosses appreciate you.

First time you misplace words and do that shit,

they gonna say you Uncle Tomming. And goddamn it--

And every fucking nationality comedian stays right in this category.

Look at the Jew, doesn't he use his dialect?

I ain't supposed to be no comedian.

That's just everyday life, you know.

"Suppose" my ass. You are a natural comedian.

Yeah, well, that's all right.

Archie got his nose broke for fighting a nigga

'cause he didn't like the way he talked about me.

This smug motherfucker said, "Louis Armstrong,

Uncle Tom nigga."

When the fuck have I "Uncle Tommed" in my life?

I tell ya. All you have to do is

break up your face and mug, and a nigga say you're Uncle Tom.

-I'm there blowing this fucking horn… -A man got expressions, you know?

The simple emotional impact of jazz has cut through all kinds of barriers.

Louis Armstrong has become an extraordinary kind of

roaming ambassador of goodwill.

Well, you might say he's America's ambassador with a horn.

See, Jack, I think you're wrong about me being the ambassador.

I think jazz is the ambassador.

Well, I might be the courier that takes the message over there.

But it's jazz that does the talking.

My horn and me have traveled from Sweden to Spain,

and when I played Berlin,

a lot of them cats jumped the iron fence to hear old Satchmo.

Which proves that music is stronger than nations.

I don't know much about politics,

but I know these people in foreign countries

hear all kinds of things about America,

some good, some bad.

I'm pretty sure what comes out of this horn

makes them feel better about us.

One thing is sure, they know a trumpet ain't no cannon.

A man going into intensive care twice,

you know, he's looking right at Gabriel,

and he's calling me.

He wants to blow a duet with me.

But I said, "No, daddy, your union card ain't straight.

I better wait."