Paris Blues

Here's a video of Louis Armstrong from the film "Paris Blues". Armstrong did this scene in the middle of his 1960 trip to Africa for the State Department. For more about the trip, check out the fascinating new book Satchmo Blows Up the World.




I love the look Armstrong gives to Sidney Poitier about 1:40 into the video. The score for the film is by Duke Ellington. Armstrong and Ellington were also paired in "Cabin in the Sky" but Armstrong's scene from that film was cut and is apparently lost. I don't know who the saxophone and trombone players are who played for Poitier and Newman. Vanity said this about the film:

The film is notable for Duke Ellington's moody, stimulating jazz score. There are scenes when the drama itself actually takes a back seat to the music, with unsatisfactory results insofar as dialog is concerned. Along the way there are several full-fledged passages of superior Ellingtonia such as 'Mood Indigo' and 'Sophisticated Lady', and Louis Armstrong is on hand for one flamboyant interlude of hot jazz.

As a bonus, here's some of Ellington from "Cabin in the Sky"