Wycliffe Gordon Bringing His Lifelong Love of Louis Armstrong to Somers Point

SOMERS POINT — Wycliffe Gordon was 12 years old when he started playing trombone. A year or two later, a record collection from a great-aunt introduced him to a musician who would alter the course of his life.

It was Louis Armstrong.

“Louis Armstrong is what brought me into jazz,” Gordon told Scott Cronick during an interview on Off The Press on News Talk 1400 and 92.3 WOND.

Now, decades after first hearing Armstrong play and sing, the internationally acclaimed trombonist, composer and educator is bringing that lifelong musical connection to South Jersey.

Gordon will headline the Jazz@ThePoint Festival at Gateway Playhouse in Somers Point at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 16, with a six-piece ensemble performing an entire concert devoted to the music and legacy of Armstrong.

The performance is part of the South Jersey Jazz Society's three-day “Red, White & Louis” festival, which runs Oct. 15-17 and celebrates Armstrong's influence on American music.

For Gordon, though, this isn't simply another tribute concert.

It's personal.

‘He got me first with the music’

Gordon told Cronick his introduction to Armstrong came through a record collection his family received from a great-aunt.

The collection included an anthology tracing different periods of jazz.

Then he reached the New Orleans music.

“I heard Louis Armstrong play and sing,” Gordon recalled. “And I was just like, really knocked out by that.”

“He got me first with the music,” Gordon said. “And then as I grew up inside of the music, then I began to love him, know him and love him as a humanitarian.”

That teenage discovery ultimately helped shape a career that has made Gordon one of the most decorated jazz trombonists of his generation.

Gordon was a member of the Wynton Marsalis Septet and an original member of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. His official biography lists six DownBeat critics' poll victories for trombone and 15 Jazz Journalists Association Trombonist of the Year awards. In 2018, the Louis Armstrong House Museum presented him with its Louie Award for his dedication to Armstrong's music.

But Gordon's explanation for Armstrong's enduring appeal has little to do with awards or technical virtuosity.

“He was of the music and he was of and for the people,” Gordon told Cronick.

Gordon said Armstrong rose from extraordinarily difficult circumstances yet retained an ability to connect with people.

“Louis Armstrong always understood the importance of just being, you know, human, just being a good person,” Gordon said. “And when that came out, it manifested itself in his music.”

Then Gordon described what he believes Armstrong could accomplish through music that words sometimes cannot.

“There's something about music, when words aren't used, that can reach a person's — you know, that can just reach their soul,” Gordon said.

“Louis Armstrong was great at doing that. And he brought out the best in people.”

A tribute — not an imitation

Gordon's Somers Point concert won't attempt to reproduce Armstrong note for note.

Instead, Gordon said, the musicians want to explore the breadth of what Armstrong contributed to jazz.

“We're going to give a tribute to Pops without trying to mimic who he is, but just pay tribute and homage to his contributions to the music in every way, shape and form,” Gordon said.

And when Cronick asked how much Armstrong material would be mixed into Friday's set, Gordon quickly clarified the plan.

“It's going to be all Louis Armstrong.”

“All Louis Armstrong?” Cronick responded.

“All Louis Armstrong.”

The planned set stretches across Armstrong's career and includes songs associated with the jazz legend such as “Black and Blue,” “Hello, Dolly!,” “On the Sunny Side of the Street” and “When It's Sleepy Time Down South.”

Gordon will also perform “Hello Pops,” an original composition he wrote as his own tribute to Armstrong.

“We'll just cover a wide array of his music that he played in great jazz standards,” Gordon said. “It will be a nice collection.”

He was still narrowing down the set list when he spoke with Cronick.

“There's so much,” Gordon said. “And I'm paring it down now.”

Six musicians coming to Somers Point

The South Jersey Jazz Society has now confirmed Gordon's complete lineup.

Gordon will perform trombone, trumpet and vocals alongside Alphonso Horne on trumpet and vocals, Alicia Rau on trumpet and vocals, Ehud Asherie on piano, Luca Soul Rosenfeld on bass and Alvin Atkinson Jr. on drums.

Gordon's own versatility extends considerably beyond the instruments he'll bring to Somers Point.

“I play 23 instruments,” he told Cronick.

He said his primary family of instruments is brass, and although he also plays tuba and even didgeridoo, he doesn't expect to haul all of them to Gateway Playhouse.

“I will be playing trumpet next week,” Gordon said. “And trombone, of course.”

Singing before playing

One of the more revealing parts of Gordon's conversation with Cronick involved how Armstrong continues to influence the way he approaches an instrument.

For Gordon, playing begins with singing.

“If you can sing something, then that means that you internalize it and that you can hear it,” he explained.

Gordon said he sings exercises and musical phrases before trying them on an instrument.

“My voice, I have with me all the time,” he said.

“If I want to learn how to play something like a phrase, I sing it. So by the time I get to my horn, whether that's trumpet, trombone, tuba or whatever, I've worked it out already.”

Gordon said Armstrong employed a similar relationship between voice and instrument, including his famous scat singing.

That philosophy also follows Gordon into the classroom.

Gordon told Cronick he directs jazz studies at Augusta University and said Armstrong appears early in his jazz-history teaching — and never really disappears.

“You won't take any class, you won't be in any band where in some way, shape or form, Louis Armstrong is not a part of the discussion, the repertoire,” Gordon said.

Three days celebrating ‘Pops’

Gordon's Friday performance is the centerpiece of the second night of Jazz@ThePoint, but the festival begins Thursday, Oct. 15.

Armstrong historian Ricky Riccardi, director of research collections at the Louis Armstrong House Museum, will open the festival at 7 p.m. Thursday at Gregory's Restaurant & Bar with a presentation on Armstrong's life, personality and influence, accompanied by music from the Bob Ferguson All-Stars.

Gordon performs at 7 p.m. Friday at Gateway Playhouse, followed at 9:30 p.m. by a free Ella Fitzgerald tribute featuring Paula Johns at Gregory's.

Trumpeter Jon Faddis headlines at 7 p.m. Saturday at Gateway Playhouse, followed by a free 9:30 p.m. musical tribute to Armstrong at Gregory's. The festival is also being presented in memory of longtime WRTI jazz personality Bob Perkins.

Gordon's concert runs from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Friday. Tickets are $40.

Jazz@ThePoint festival and tickets

For Gordon, all of that ultimately circles back to the teenager in Georgia hearing Armstrong for the first time.

“I love his music. I love the feeling of it,” Gordon said.

“And he did that his whole life.”

Wycliffe Gordon spoke with Scott Cronick on Off The Press on News Talk 1400 and 92.3 WOND. The show airs Monday through Friday from 4 to 6 p.m.