Customer Reviews

The Real Ambassadors

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4 star:		(2)
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Essentially, this is a 1961-62 jazz opera about the great Satchmo serving as a "Real Ambassador" to the USA, as opposed to the segregationists (Brubeck loosely based this on Armstrong's refusal to go abroad during the 1957 school integraton crisis). Some of this is quite dated to listeners who may not be familiar with the events of the era (or the jokes about Jacke Robinson and Jackie Kennedy). The bebop vocalisms of Hendricks, Lembert and Ross (particularly the latter's high pitch) may also annoy modern listeners. However, Carmen McCrae's smooth vocal stylings with the Brubeck group are almost alone worth the price of admission.
And of couse, there's Satch himself doing perhaps his most message-oriented work until his recording of "We Shhall Overcome" shortly before his death. "Summer Song" has Satch looking back wistfully at his childhood. But the tour-de-force here is "They Say I Look Like God." This is perhaps his most moving vocal performance and most searing public statement against racism and you can hear him crying at the end (this ain't "Hello Dolly," folks). The reprise of "Blow Satchmo" at the end may sound silly and annoying at first, but you'll find yourself trying (without much success) to stop humming it to yourself for days afterward.
Satch fans take note-if you go to your record store looking for this, it's listed under Dave Brubeck (who wrote and played on this) and not Louis Armstrong. Strongly recommended for hardcore Satch fans and pop-culture historians.

I had the privilege to hear this jazz opera performed at the 1962 Monterey Jazz Festival when I was 12 years old. It was one of the most memorable experiences of my childhood, and the album always brought back the excitement of seeing all those incredible performers together on stage. I've long since lost the LP, so I was thrilled to see it had be re-released in CD format. I found that I still knew all the words!

This is a wonderful CD. I was lucky to find it in a sale bin at HMV for 1.99 some years ago. I had no idea what it was but was intrigued by these artists -- all of whom I had enjoyed hearing at various moments. It was a revelation to listen to this period piece and very moving in some ways. What is remarkable is how it now -- to me -- seems timeless. I listened to "King for a Day" this week and was struck by its relevance to events in the world. What with references to the UN, ideological politics, diplomacy, chaos, conflict and American idealism. It blew my mind. I played it for a friend who was similarly taken aback. The deal is, it sounds almost naive if you listen to it "then" and yet, to listen now, is a whole other experience -- it now seems to be overlaid with irony. Applying the concerns of now, it is less straightforward. My friend suggested that King for a Day ought to be revived.

I love, also, the song Nomad which is sensual and delightful. This is a special and remarkable CD which makes you feel glad to be alive. I wish I could thank the artists in person for making it.

This is protest music. Louis Armstrong was not a kindly old airhead or afraid to stand up for civil rights, or anything else. He was a genius in music and a thinker about the real world. Here you see him leading a group of Jazz legends in a serious protest to the way the people running things in the USA, Republican, Democrat, and Dixiecrat were doing things in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

This record is part of the cultural stew that began brewing by folks who were beyond the witch hunt and inspired by the budding civil rights movement and revolutions in Cuba, Africa, and so many other places.

The title the Real Ambassadors has to do not with Louis as an ambassador of Jazz, but with Louis who had cancelled a Jazz Ambassador trip to the Soviet Union because he was so discussed with Eisenhower's refusal to give real support to Black people demanding civil rights. Louis had told the press he wasn't being anybody's ambassador unless Eisenhower had the guts to go to Little Rock himself and to the Black children into the schools holding their hands himself! Louis didn't play.

The great stars that joined together to do this, did this because they like many jazz people were willing to stand up for civil rights when it was a real fight, wanted real peace when Kennedy was threatening War in Cuba, War in Berlin, and successful launching a war in Vietnam that would go on for fifteen years.

Besides all that, the vocals here, the combinations of Lambert, Hendricks, and Ross with Louis and the incredible stylings of Carmen with Brubeck behind her are so wonderful, so strong. This is a great moment and a great sound.

I have been listening to the CD since the early 70's (on record) when I was about 5 or 6 years old. Not only was it a constant that was played by my mother, but it was always a welcome playmate. The mix of the various artists keeps it exciting. No two songs sound the same, even the songs that are sung twice! If you love Dave Brubeck,Louis Armstong and friends,you will feel like you are right there with them.They sing upbeat selections as wells as a few ballads. Good listening. (And singing, if you do that sort of thing!)

This CD may very well be my favorite jazz album of all time. The writing is ingenious and the performances are moving. "Since Love Had Its Way" captures the bright feeling and style that is so closely related to Satchmo's character. Carmen McRae's beautifully melodic voice is a perfect compliment to Armstrong's unique sound. AMAZON.COM RULES!

Amazing how no reviewer until now has revealed that this is a Dave Brubeck concept album, a jazz opera if you will, written by Dave and his wife of now 60 plus years Iola, for Louis Armstrong. Dave has continually done his bit for the civil rights of all, the world over, not just in the good old USA, and merely a year ago released "The Gates of Justice" to coincide with Black History month.

Dave who never succombed to a fit of cocaine snorting or heroin injection or glue sniffing or methylamphetamine overdose has been the real ambassador for jazz the world over.

Like an Atlas with a sphere of jazz hangers-on astride his shoulders Dave has bestrode mountains of public opinion and tidied up the unseemly underbelly of an often lugubrious milieu.

When Dave toured the KKK infested South he refused to play unless his buddy Eugene or whoever else of color was touring with him were given equal treatment.

Though the music here may not equal his quartet work, and mostly his concept albums do not, and may also seem dated, it WAS a LABOR of LOVE. If you support the Civil Rights of others (still desperately in need today) buy this album if only to say you have it and support what it stands for.

Buy it as a protest!

This is marvelous. Love the messages in the music as much as the music itself. So many of my favorite performers.

Hard to believe, but Dave Brubeck tried getting this on Broadway. (Columbia Records went along; it issued the LP on Masterworks, under the OS/OL cast-album designation.) We can be glad it wasn't; it would have been laughed off the stage to a witheringly short run. No, it only got as far as Monterey. What would have been unthinkable on Broadway nonetheless makes for a great jazz album. To be sure we can never quite get around some of the lyrics, especially the title tune's, an excuse to sound in-the-know while rhyming as many words as possible. We don't linger on them long though with all the fine tunes, and especially in the presence of the great jazz stars: Brubeck, Carmen McRae, the inimitable Lambert, Hendricks and Ross, and best of all, Satchmo.

And we can thank Brubeck and this album for a poignant moment. As he would relate it, the day Pops died WQXR played "Summer Song" as a tribute. It must have been something to think a prominent radio station would choose your song at such a time; but the song fit the singer so well. "Life to me is like a summer day", sang Satch, and indeed despite the awful beginnings and the bad health at the end he lived a summer day, and its sunlight and warmth still radiate in the hearts of those who love his music.

At first with the opener, "Everybody's Coming" I was shell-shocked. I was puzzled. I thought can they make the end of the album without making a revelation or pulling it off. I actually found this album thoroughly enjoyable. It is a remarkable sensational unique album.