“The Greatest Photo Taker”: Remembering Jack Bradley Part 49–Corona Hang and “Louis Armstrong and His Friends” Sessions, Spring 1970

As referenced in our previous post, Jack Bradley and Louis Armstrong spent a few months apart in late 1969 and early 1970 as Armstrong continued convalescing at home after the health issues that plagued him the previous year and Bradley was spending more time in Massachusetts acting as a road manager for cornetist Bobby Hackett. Armstrong was looking ahead at celebrating his 70th birthday on July 4, 1970 and Down Beat magazine editor Dan Morgenstern wanted to make sure the occasion was marked in style with a full-blown tribute issue. When it was finally published in July 1970, the magazine featured this wonderful Bradley photo of Armstrong on the phone in his den, wearing a Mets cap, and was simply dated “Spring 1970”:

Bradley also took this photo of Armstrong most likely on the same joyous phone call, this time wearing his glasses:

Bradley was meticulous usually about saving the negatives of all the photos he took but for some reason, there are only a handful of negatives that survive for all of the images he took of Louis in 1969 and early 1970. Thus, though he most likely used a whole roll of film at Louis’s home, only those two images survived because Bradley turned them into prints–but wait, there’s now one more to add to the series!

Bradley was good friends with the Swedish oracle of all things Armstrong, Gösta Hägglöf, and often sent him prints of photos he had taken of Armstrong. Hägglöf passed away in 2008 and left his entire Armstrong collection to the Louis Armstrong House Museum, which arrived from Sweden in 2011. Flash forward 12 years and Gösta’s brother Janne, while in the process of selling Gösta’s home, discovered a major stash of Armstrong related materials that were missed the first time around! Janne reached out to Swedish trombonist Jens Lindgren, who was preparing to play a series of gigs across Scandinavia with friend of the Armstrong House, David Ostwald. Jens packed up the materials from Gösta’s home, passed them to David, and David safely brought them back to the United States last September. We might have more posts about this haul as there’s some incredible finds in it, but on a personal note, I was most thrilled to find one more photo from this Spring 1970 Mets cap den session–here ’tis, freshly scanned just last month!

We also have one more Bradley photo of Louis in his den with a Mets cap on, but in this one he’s exchanged his robe and pajamas for a standard button-down shirt and shorts outfit, plus Lucille is with him. I don’t have a date for it, but am assuming it could have been taken at the same time as the above three:

I can’t quite make out what Louis is holding but it looks like he has a stack of them on his desk–any ideas?

While engaging in conjecture, I’m also using this occasion to share another gem found in the Bradley Collection–a handwritten list compiled by Armstrong of “Books to Get” along with some other items he needed from the store. As usual, he wrote it on two sides of a diet chart–here it is, as saved by Bradley:

If you have trouble making it out, here are the lists of books Armstrong wanted Bradley to get for him, along with their publication dates:

High Priest by Timothy Leary – 1968
Burning Ice: The Moral and Emotional Effects of Reading by Sister Mary Corde Lorang – 1968
The Arms of Krupp by William Manchester – 1968
Coming of Age in Mississippi by Anne Moody – 1968
Eva Braun: Hitler’s Mistress by Nerin E. Gun – 1968
The Great Comedians Talk About Comedy by Larry Wilde – 1968
Ann Landers Says… Truth is Stranger by Ann Landers – 1968
The Longest Street by Louis Sobol – 1968
Joey Adams’ Encyclopedia of Humor by Joey Adams – 1968
In the Name of Wind Instrument Playing by Morris Grupp – 1950
The Brothers Schubert by Jerry Stagg – 1968
Always on Sunday by Ed Sullivan – 1968

For his part, Bradley did well–all of the above books are part of the Louis Armstrong Collection, except for the ones by Timothy Leary, Sister Mary Corde Lorang, and Joey Adams. But upon compiling that list and seeing the number of 1968 publication dates, it’s most likely Louis made it in late 1968 or early 1969, not 1970, perhaps a way of occupying his mind while in between stints in intensive care. The Morris Grupp book is most fascinating as Armstrong had studied a bit with Grupp decades earlier and Grupp even analyzed Armstrong’s style in print; it makes sense that being off the bandstand and in the hospital would have Armstrong worried about losing his chops so perhaps he used Grupp’s book to warm up on during his time home in 1969 and 1970.

I also like the other items Armstrong needed such as a golf cap, some Maalox, “afta shave,” “Eff-remin” tooth powder (the actual spelling–thanks to loyal reader Tony Guerrero for sending along a pic!)), and Upjohn’s oral pentacresol, a product developed for oral antisepsis, used by Louis for gargling purposes.

Okay, with that diversion out of the way, it was time for Louis to get back to work and record a brand new album, Louis Armstrong and His Friends. Back in the early days of this site, I devoted a four-part series to the entire backstory of that album, sharing arrangements, newspaper articles, the finished music, and more. For that full deep dive, click the links to Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.

But since we’re already here for Jack Bradley, it’s definitely worth sharing Bradley’s photos again, opening with the images he took during the first session, held on May 26, 1970, opening with one of Louis and the album’s producer, Bob Thiele:

First, a series of photos from the birthday party–what a gathering!

Bradley was also astute enough to shoot some of the other visitors at the session even when they weren’t in conversation with Louis.

Eventually, it was time for cake!

Finally, it was time to record some music. Oliver Nelson had prepared four arrangements for the date: “Mood Indigo,” “What a Wonderful World,” “My One and Only Love” and “Here is My Heart for Christmas.”

For this first session, Nelson eschewed horns and instead assembled a large string section and a killer rhythm section. For posterity, here are the names of all of the musicians on this date:

Louis Armstrong (voc), Arnold Black, Selwart Richard Clarke, Winston Collymore, Paul Gershman, Manny Green, Harry Lookofsky, Gene Orloff, Joe Malin, Max Pollikoff (vln), Julien Barber, Alfred Brown, David Schwartz, Emanuel Vardi (viola), Charles McCracken, Kermit Moore, George Ricci, Allan Schulman (cello), Richard Davis, George Duvivier (b), John Williams Jr. (elb), Sam Brown, Kenny Burrell (g), James Spaulding (fl), Frank Owens (p), Pretty Purdie (d),

George Wein watched Armstrong in action on “My One and Only Love” and, according to a press release, pointed “out to anybody who would listen that Louis phrased and worked his way through a lyric just like Billie Holiday.”

Before recording “Here is My Heart for Christmas,” Armstrong was surprised by one more special guest: Miles Davis! Now, there are some very famous photos of Miles together–in one, Louis looks sullen and Miles is smiling–but they were all taken by Jim Parslow, the other photographer on the session. Bradley only took one photo of Armstrong and Davis together and though it is not as well known as Parslow’s, it is still a gem:

Bradley was unable to attend the next session on May 27, but he was back for the final date on May 29 and prepared to live out his ultimate fantasy: performing on a Louis Armstrong recording! This was the date when all the studio guests were asked to sing along on “We Shall Overcome” and “Give Peace a Chance”; Bradley saved his copy of the lyrics, naturally:

Here are some more Bradley photos from this date:

Bradley managed to get a shot of of most of the guests as they awaited their big moment (Ornette is visible in the background in the center).

Here’s another Bradley shot of the choir that also shows Oliver Nelson at his perch, as well as some of the reeds, giving a good idea of the cavernous size of RCA’s Studio A:

Louis eventually took his place and Bradley snapped this photo, which gives a good view of Louis’s perspective and how even when recording in the cold confines of a gigantic studio, he could still be inspired by the presence of a live audience.

In one of the surviving photos, a curious figure appears in the upper left hand side of the studio audience, seventh from the left: Jack Bradley! It’s a mystery but since Thiele also had Jim Parslow there to take photos, I do wonder if Bradley had Parslow take some photos because the opportunity to document his singing on an actual Louis Armstrong recording was probably too great to pass up!

Of the 34 photos that survive from the May 29 session, Bradley only appears in three, the one above and two similar images taken seconds before or after. He even took a shot from the bleachers that captured a photographer, again, probably Jim Parslow, on the floor, behind the music stand to the left.

Regardless of who took it (Bradley is in it so it wasn’t him), this is a particularly triumphant photo as Armstrong looks particularly proud of the performance. Some in the studio that day recalled that he had tears in his eyes by the end of “We Shall Overcome.” It’s hard not to listen to it without tearing up, too.

With the choir tracks out of the way, Armstrong needed some time to familiarize himself with the routine of an autobiographical version of “When the Saints Go Marching In” titled “Boy From New Orleans.” Jack Bradley was able to leave the sidelines and capture some intimate shots of Louis studying the score with Nelson and Thiele looking over his shoulder.

With that, Armstrong’s first album in two years was in the can, due to be released in time for his July 4, 70th birthday. There would be a lot of celebrations, on television and in print, and Jack Bradley would be in the thick of it all–we’ll have photos and even some audio to share next time!