Good Evening Everybody: Photos

Last week I saw the show Good Evening Everybody at Parksnäckan. The show is about the music and life of Louis Armstrong.




Good Evening Everybody is an entertaining and educating show. Beside hearing a lot of good jazz music you'll also find out a lot about Louis Armstrong and also about jazz history in general.

The band members take turns telling stories and band leader Peter Lind provides explanations of why Armstrong was called "Satch"; where the song "Muskrat ramble" got its name and how you really pronounce his name: is it "Louie" or "Louis"?



They talked about Louis Armstrongs tours to Sweden and how his music not always was understood by the music critics.

Nowadays most Swedes understand English, but in those days they wrote new lyrics to the song so that the general public could understand, often the lyrics became much more trivial.



But songs didn't just travel from America to Europe, some songs travelled in the opposite direction. Peter Lind and the Cabaret band gave examples of songs like that: Just a Gigolo (orginally a song from Austria) and Mack The Knife (from Germany). Take a look at Louis Armstrong sing Mack The Knife.

Peter Lind commented on the fact that there are too few movies on tv with Louis Armstrong in them: "When was the last time you saw Cabin In the Sky?".

If you have the opportunity I recomend you to see the show.

The photos are taken by me and may not be published elsewhere without my permission. Contact me if you want to license them.

Have you seen the show Good Evening Everybody? What do you think of it? Tell me.

Ella Fitzgerald: Lady Be Good & Mack the Knife

In this video clip from 1961 Ella Fitzgerald sings something you don't hear every day: a ballad version of Lady Be Good. In fact all versions I've heard up 'til now has been uptempo. Very nice and sweet, sometimes strings can be too sweet but once in a while it's ok.

Ella Fitzgerald continues with Mack the Knife and picks up the pace. Now it's really swinging! I dig the piano playing (does anyone know who plays?)



What do you think of Ella Fitzgerald singing Lady Be Good and Mack the Knife? Tell me.

Louis Armstrong sings Mack the Knife (1962)

Louis Armstrong sings Mack the Knife at a concert in Stockholm in 1962.



The music is written by Kurt Weill and the lyrics by Marc Blitzstein and Berthold Brecht.

What do think of this video clip where Louis Armstrong sings Mack the Knife? Tell me.