And so it begins…

As I listen to Louis Armstrong singing La Vie En Rose, I can visualise my father putting the song on a record player. In German a record is “Eine platte’ , literally translated platte is plate. He would play it on his old stereo system, 60’s style, wrapped in timber, which he still has and it still works (made to last and well looked after).

He will tell you he met Louis Armstrong, in Dar es Salaam. And knowing my dad, it’s true. It’s one of the stories we plan to uncover in the memory project, to uncover the tales of his life. Many I know, and can tell you myself, and many are accompanied by photos, or slides, so many slides.

One of the most interesting is his Che Guevera style motorcycle journey from Hamburg to Dar Es Salaam. His travel partner, a guy who was supposed to die of cancer after the trip (but lived to old age), sent him a box of photos of the trip a few years ago, so there is a nice collection to dig through.

If that trip were not taken— I would not exist…. So it’s significant.

Stay tuned and together with my parents, I will tell you all about it.

Travelling in the Sudan.

Edit: Louis Armstrong (Satchmo) toured Africa through 1960-61 . The entire 27 city tour was apparently sponsored by the US State Department and Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It is said that this tour had a lasting impact on African music, not least of which influencing the great Hugh Masekela to take up the trumpet. What gets more interesting is that Louis’s tour was apparently a ’trojan horse’ for the state department to send a CIA spy to Africa, enabling conversations crucial to the Cold War. Here is another interesting article about Satchmo in Africa.

Images below sourced from internet - of Satchmo’s Tour