“The Greatest Photo Taker”: Remembering Jack Bradley Part 52–“Louis ‘Country and Western’ Armstrong” Sessions August 1970

Our last few posts have revolved around the many celebrations of Louis Armstrong’s 70th birthday that took place in 1970, beginning with the recording sessions for Louis Armstrong and His Friends in May, the multiple TV appearances and magazine articles that appeared in June, and the climactic tribute concert held at the Newport Jazz Festival in July. After that whirlwind of activity–coming after nearly two full years of convalescing after winding up in intensive care in September 1968–Armstrong took the back half of July 1970 off, relaxing at home, making reel-to-reel tapes, and preparing for his next album: Louis “Country and Western” Armstrong.

This album was the brainchild of Armstrong’s longtime friend, music publisher Ivan Mogull. Correspondence exists that shows the idea was already in place in 1969–Armstrong even mentioned his excitement about the project in an interview from December of that year. Once Armstrong was on board, the famed Cowboy Jack Clement was brought along as producer. In 1970, Clement and Mogull sent Armstrong some reel-to-reel tapes filled with country and western recordings by the likes of Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Glen Campbell, more. We detailed those tapes and the backstory of the album in a series of posts that can be found here and here. Armstrong selected the songs he liked and signed a contract with Avco Embassay records on July 31, 1970; he would make $20,000 for the album.

With the contract signed, Clement and Mogull booked studio time in early August to record the tracks. A top-flight rhythm section was flown in from Nashville, comprised of Jack Eubanks on lead guitar, Stu Basore on steel guitar, Billy Grammer on rhythm guitar, Larry Butler on piano, Harry Strzelecki on bass, and Willie Ackerman on drums.

An earlier draft of this post speculated about exactly which studio was used to record the album–a few hours after publication, I finally consulted the original LP jacket and there it was, Regent Sound Studios, 24 W. 57th Street in New York, a legendary space run by engineer Bob Liftin, who worked on this album. One person wasn’t impressed, however; Willie Ackerman’s wife Jeanine, whose memories of the date can be found on Michael Minn’s indispensable Satchography website:

“The recording studio was a funky, funky building in New York. An old building like a warehouse. We had to take a freight elevator upstairs, I don’t know how many floors, to get to the studio. Some of the walls in the studio had that old paper egg-carton like treatment for sound-proofing. It wasn’t fancy at all. Not like RCA or some of the other studios in Nashville as I was expecting for someone like Louis Armstrong. Wish I could remember the name of the place.”

Now we know the recordings took place on W. 57th Street, but Bradley first connected with Armstrong on W. 46th Street, across from the Edison Hotel, where Louis ran into none other than Rahsaan Roland Kirk. Fortunately, Bradley was there and had his camera loaded to capture these glimpses of two geniuses in conversation:

The mind reels trying to think of what they must have discussed! But eventually Armstrong found his way to Regent Sound Studios; he is a little blurry in these next two photos, but they’re good ones of the space (dig Pops’s white shoes, too):

It appears Bradley was there for all four sessions, but judging by the outfits, he only took photos at two of them. First, though, here’s Bradley’s notes on which songs were recorded on which days:

I like Bradley’s enthusiasm, giving four stars to “Get Together” and predicting that “Crazy Arms” “could be a hit!” He also noted which songs had fade out endings; some of you may recall that way back in this post, we shared the unedited master takes, before the horn overdubs and fades, with Louis just going off for minutes at a time on take after take.

Bradley also kept another handwritten note he must have made at the August 4 session, listing two tunes recorded that day, the personnel, and an address in Nashville:

With all of that out of the way, let’s go to the photos, beginning with some nice shots of Louis and the Nashville musicians! The back row consists of, from left to right, Larry Butler, Cowboy Jack Clement, Louis, Willie Ackerman, Henry Strzelecki, and Stu Basore. Seated are guitarists Billy Grammer and Jack Eubanks:

Of course, Louis had to take photos with the people who made the session possible, from left to right, Cowboy Jack Clement, Avco Embassy Vice President Hugo Peretti, and Ivan Mogull:

I originally had these next two people as mystery, too, but it appears the man in glasses might very well be Bob Liftin (credited as “Lifton” on the LP jacket), who ran the studio and engineered the album:

But I don’t know, the more I look at these photos, it might be Liftin, who doesn’t wear glasses in any of the photos I found on the internet. If you have a better guess, let us know, but he was definitely important as he appears in several photos Bradley took when Armstrong finally began recording:

Speaking of mysteries, this woman is unidentified as well; in her remembrance, Jeannine Ackerman said she was the only band wife present, aside from Lucille, and this woman doesn’t look like her–but I have a guess. First the photo:

My guess is that it might be Associated Press writer Mary Campbell, who was invited to the August 6 session and wrote a very detailed report on it, which is worth sharing now as it provides great context for these photos:

And speaking of Lucille Armstrong, here’s a blurry photo of her and Louis, flanked by Willie Ackerman and Billy Grammer:

And a better photo of Lucille fixing Louis’s hair while talking to Grammer:

The finished result, with Louis hamming it up:

Louis must have really hit it off with Grammer, who appears in more Bradley photos than any of the other musicians:

While posing for photos, Louis decided to have a little fun with Stu Basore and his steel guitar!

Basore stepped aside and Louis took over–if you ever wanted to see photos of jazz’s greatest genius playing a steel guitar, look no further! (Alas, there’s no audio….)

After all the posed photos and clowning around, the musicians did find the time to rehearse and record 12 songs. Bradley took many photos of the rehearsal process, many of which feature Armstrong seated next to Larry Butler at the piano, while Billy Grammer played guitar. The man in the suit in the background is Ivan Mogull, who described the scene to another Associated Press writer, Bill Rawlins: “Satch was beautiful, as usual. He said, ‘Pops , anything you want me to do, I’ll do.’ We just pulled out a copy of the sheet music and the piano player, Nashville’s Larry Butler, with Louis beside him, ran the song down for him. Then, the musicians built the arrangements–just like it’s done in Nashville. We didn’t change Louis Armstrong; he just put his particular style to country songs.”

With that in mind, here’s the best of Bradley’s rehearsal photos:

Armstrong eventually took his place by the recording microphone, but still needed some last-minute guidance from Grammer’s guitar:

Finally, Armstrong put on his headphones, lit a cigarette, and got down to business–and as Bradley’s camera shows, he was all business once it came time to record:

And that concludes the best of Bradley’s session photos. Judging by how happy and healthy Armstrong looked, it’s surprising and sad to note that this would be the last time he would ever step into a recording studio. Again, you can hear the unedited masters just as they were recorded in August 1970 in this post. But “Cowboy” Jack Clement wasn’t done; once back in Nashville, he added a horn section and edited the fades onto each track. The album was rushed out for release in October, just in time for Armstrong’s appearance on The Johnny Cash Show. You can hear the finished album on Spotify at the link below:

It’s a bizarre little album; no one would ever say it’s among Armstrong’s finest works, but it’s also better than its reputation. Perhaps I’ve spent too much time with these photos and listening to the session tapes and reading the newspaper articles and remembrances because I now hear a lot of love that went into the album, making it grow on me a bit more with each passing year.

At the same time, it’s worth pointing out that Jack Clement thought it could be improved and apparently spent decades tinkering with it. In a 2006 interview, Clement was asked what he was working on it and responded, “I am finishing an album I produced for Louis Armstrong in 1970-71 and I am now systematically checking up his vocal track and getting a new band. I was not happy with it and needed more time. I have been working in Pro-Tools and that is a tricky project, but it is coming along. I have been working on this for months. I was trying to overdub on the original tracks and I have been doing the scratch vocals. I told the guys to put Louis where he hears my voice. I wasn’t trying to sing like him but phrase what I wanted his voice to be. I am an expert on Louis Armstrong now. That was one of the greatest experiences of my life. I am still working on that same album.”

Alas, Clement passed away in 2013 before completing this project, but who knows, maybe a “deluxe” reissue can be assembled one day with the original album, the unedited master takes with just the rhythm section, and Clement’s remixes!

But as soon as the session ended and the producers were (relatively) happy, the next step would be to take photos for the album jacket. Jack Bradley was already at the session and got the call to accompany Armstrong to Central Park that week to shoot photos of the jazz legend in both “county” and “western” garb. To see the results, come back for our next post!