“The Greatest Photo Taker”: Remembering Jack Bradley Part 53–“Louis ‘Country and Western’ Armstrong” Central Park Photo Shoot August 1970

Last time out, we covered the sessions for what turned out to be Louis Armstrong’s final studio album, Louis “Country and Western” Armstrong, produced by Cowboy Jack Clement and Ivan Mogull. Here’s a Jack Bradley photo of Armstrong, Clement, and Mogull, taken at one of the sessions, that we missed last time:

We also covered the presence of Associated Press writer Mary Campbell in that last post, as Campbell wrote a great fly-on-the-wall article about the final session, which took place on August 6, 1970. On this next handwritten sheet of paper, Bradley has jotted down Campbell’s address, room number, and phone number, and added one more detail he must have picked up from the sessions: “Relaxed Nashville guys cause of success of ‘Nashville’ sound partially.”

But the main reason for sharing that page is the note on the top right of the page: “1:00 Thursday LOUIS Central Park Zoo 65th + 5th + 6th Ave.” This refers to the time and place of the photo shoot for the jacket of the Country and Western album, which took place in Central Park also on the afternoon of August 6. Bradley was already there for the session so it was only natural that he would get to do the photo shoot.

With the theme of the album, there would be a gimmick, of course; Armstrong would take several photos in “country” getup of overalls and a straw hat, then switch to the “western” garb of a cowboy! Yes, 54 years before Beyonce’s Cowboy Carter, there was Cowboy Armstrong….

Bradley was proud of these photos, taking many that day in both color and black-and-white. We have the negatives, snapshots, 8 x 10 prints, and even some oversized reproductions and will share a little bit from all formats below. This is really the rare post in this series without much backstory, as the photos really do speak for themselves.

We beginwith Louis arriving to Central Park in his “country” outfit, joined by wife Lucille and producer Ivan Mogull:

And here’s just Armstrong and Mogull; Mogull is most likely holding on to Armstrong in these photos because of the increasing unsteadiness of his gait:

Even just walking with Mogull, Armstrong spotted his friend Jack and couldn’t resist hamming it up for the camera!

Bradley then got a few photos of Armstrong, smoking, checking out the greenery:

Finally, it was time for Armstrong to start posing, while Bradley shot away–here’s a bunch of previously unpublished negatives!

At some point, Bradley switched to color film–here’s some more negative scans:

Bradley next took some close-up photos in black-and-white:

Bradley again switched to color film at this point; we no longer have the negatives of these shots, but fortunately, Bradley turned them into prints–keep scrolling!

And finally, the one that must have been Jack’s favorite as he made multiple prints of it:

And even one very oversized, cropped print (which will appear to be the same size on the internet but trust me, it’s at least an 11 x 17):

With the “country” photos finished, it was time for Armstrong to change into his “western” garb. Bradley couldn’t help himself and took a photo of Armstrong mid-change; Armstrong caught his friend’s camera and responded with a hilariously lewd pose he probably wouldn’t have done for any other photographer not named Jack Bradley!

As Armstrong finished getting changed, trouble struck: a mounted police officer made his way over to the photo shoot. Bradley later talked about how nervous he was because they didn’t have any permits or anything to be doing such a shoot in Central Park…but he was quickly relieved when it turned out the officer only wanted an autograph! Naturally, Bradley documented the moment with his camera:

Bradley then asked if they could use the officer’s horse for a few photos–and he obliged! By this point, Armstrong had adorned his 15-gallon hat and chaps–here are the results:

Bradley quickly switched over to color film for two photos:

With the officer and the horse out of the way, Armstrong parked himself onto a nearby tree and Bradley began shooting away–here are the results:

And a color photo for good measure:

Bradley then moved a few steps closer to take a series of photos from a new angle:

Again, a couple of color variations:

Finally, Bradley moved even closer and had Armstrong look straight into his camera for this charming series of images:

And with that, Armstrong’s August 6 photo shoot with Bradley concluded. Avco-Embassy eventually had Mixed Media Machine Inc. design the album’s jacket, with an extreme close-up of “western” Armstrong on the cover and an extreme close-up of “country” Armstrong on the back (and no credit to Jack Bradley for the photos). Here’s an early “Promotional Copy” that was sent to Louis:

In addition to the Central Park photo shoot, Armstrong also concluded the recording sessions for Louis “Country and Western” Armstrong at some point on August 6. After four straight days of recording, Armstrong’s busy week continued on August 7 when he recorded a Chrysler commercial, as reported by Bradley (we don’t have the audio of the commercial and I don’t believe Bradley took any photos at the session, but Louis did have demos for the jingle, titled “Comin’ Through,” on the same reel that included demos of the songs he had to learn for the Country and Western album).

But while Bradley was still in town, he had one more epic hang with Armstrong that same week. That first sheet of paper we shared way up at the top of the post also had turn-by-turn directions to the Mountain View Lodge in Nyack, New York. That would be scene of the annual picnic of the “Friendly Fifty Club,” an organization made up over jazz musicians over the age of 50–and that weekend, Bradley would bring Armstrong as his special guest to the picnic. Many photos would be taken and we’ll have those in our next installment!